On the afternoon of Aug. 21 in Houston, dozens of White men and women lined up outside the NAACP office to protest. While holding Confederate flags and wearing shirts with the Confederate emblem, they also held a sign that read, “White Lives Matter.” The protesters’ theory was that “Europeans are worth preserving.”
The White Lives Matter movement is a basic wordplay on Black Lives Matter, but their objectives are totally different, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Black Lives Matter was created following the murder of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman’s acquittal. The social media hashtag picked up steam following the police killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York. The Black Lives Matter movement made an effort to bring attention to the killings of unarmed Black people by law enforcement and, individuals who took it upon themselves to enforce the law.
However, the White Lives Matter group was basically created to promulgate racism and hate. The SPLC has noted that its messages of White Lives Matter has been embraced by White supremacists groups such as Aryan Strikeforce and the National Social Movement, a neo-Nazi group.
Although a few conservative politicians attacked the Black Lives Matter movement following the Dallas police shootings that occurred after the police killing of Alton Sterling, it was never proved that the Dallas shooter was an official member of Black Lives Matter. In fact, the shooting was denounced by several key members of the organization.
The leaders of White Lives Matter maintain the notion that White people are headed to genocide and are being threatened by minorities. It’s an irrational claim to be presented in a country that is dominated and controlled by Whites. The group’s goal is to create division and enforce the notion of White superiority. It’s a message of hate and rooted in a racist ideology that has crippled America since the founding of this country.
