Why, in 2020, 401 years after what is labeled America's 'Original Sin,' when the first of 36,000 ships carrying African men, women and children destined to be made slaves landed in Virginia, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why, in 2020, 244 years after the Declaration of Independence, which said all men are created equal, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why, in 2020, 157 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why, in 2020, 155 years after the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why, in 2020, 154 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1866, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why, in 2020, 152 years after the 14th Amendment guaranteed citizenship to all native-born Americans, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why, in 2020, 150 years after the 15th Amendment guaranteed the right to vote to all (male) citizens, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Maybe because in those 150 years, thanks to the creation and rise of the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow Laws, voter suppression, including Poll Taxes, Literacy Tests and gerrymandering, , the sham of Separate But Equal, myriad lynchings, the rise of symbols of the Confederacy such as the Stars and Bars, statues of Confederate heroes, including Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Vice President Alexander Stephens in the U.S. Capitol, the naming of U.S. Military facilities with Confederate military leaders may explain why in 2020 we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter.
Why, in 2020, 99 years after the Tulsa race massacre, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter.
Why, in 2020, 79 years after President Franklin Roosevelt's Executive Order 8802 forbidding discrimination in defense industries and government jobs, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why, in 2020, 72 years after President Harry Truman's Executive Order 9981abolishing segregation in the U.S. Armed Forces, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why, in 2020, 66 years after Brown vs. Board of Education, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why, in 2020, 65 years after Emmett Till was brutally murdered in Mississippi and Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why, in 2020, between 63 and 52 years after the Civil Rights Acts of 1957.1960, 1964, 1965 and 1968, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why, in 2020, 60 years after the first nonviolent sit-in at lunch counters began, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why ,in 2020, 59 years after the first freedom rides, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why, in 2020, 57 years after Medgar Evers was assassinated, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why, in 2020, 57 years after the March on Washington, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why, in 2020, 57 years after the 16th St. Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, which came 18 days after the March on Washington, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why, in 2020, 55 years after Malcolm X was assassinated, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why, in 2020, 55 years after Bloody Sunday at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why, in 2020, 52 years after the Kerner Commission Report (which sold more copies than the Warren Commission Report) following 1967 riots in Detroit and Newark and placed “chief blame on white racism,” do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why, in 2020, 52 years after Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why ,in 2020, seven years after the creation of the Black Lives Matter Movement following George Zimmerman's acquittal in the murder of Trayvon Martin, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why, in 2020, six years after the murders of Eric Garner, who died from a police chokehold, and 18-year-old Michael Brown and 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who were shot and killed by police, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why, in 2020, five years after Walter Scott was shot and killed by a South Carolina policeman after being stopped for having a non-functioning brake light, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Maybe because two months later also in South Carolina, after white supremacist Dyllan Roof murdered nine Black parishioners following a church prayer meeting where he was welcomed in, Roof was not shot but simply arrested which may explain why in 2020, we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter.
Why, in 2020, in five years since Minneapolis-St. Paul police shot to death a handcuffed Jamar Clark, Philando Castile in his car in front of his girlfriend who was holding her infant daughter and Thurman Blevins who was pleading, “Please don't shoot. Leave me alone,” do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why, in 2020, less than four months after would-be vigilantes shot jogger Ahmaud Arbery, less than three months after the police shooting of Breonna Taylor in her bed and now less than a month after the death of George Floyd, who died from a police chokehold, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Why, in 2020, just three days after George Floyd was buried, and Rayshard Brooks was shot to death by police who were called because he had fallen asleep in his car in a drive-through lane, do we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter?
Maybe the fact that too many don't listen or fully understand despite protests may explain why in 2020, we still have to say specifically Black Lives Matter.
Is selling loose cigarettes really a capital offense with one office rchoking and multiple others restraining? Is allegedly shoplifting cigarillos really a capital offense and does an unarmed (even though he was big, 6-foot-4, 292-pound) teenager standing 40 feet from an officer holding a gun really make an officer fear for his life and thus a capital offense? Is being a 12-year-old with a toy gun really a capital offense? Is driving with a non-functioning brake light really a capital offense? Is allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill for a purchase really a capital offense with one officer choking and multiple officers restraining? Is asking to be allowed to walk to a sister's home after parking and locking your car as ordered by police really a capital offense?
Why does a trained police officer accompanied by fellow officers continue to choke a suspect to death? Why does a trained police office have to fatally shoot a suspect whose name and address are known? Would Rayshard Brooks have been allowed to walk or maybe even been given a ride to his sister's home if he were white?
That's why we specifically have to say Black Lives Matter.
In1853, Unitarian Minister and Abolitionist Theodore Parker talked about the arc of the moral universe. In 1958, Dr. Martin Luther King, as had other theologians in the intervening years, paraphrased the idea in a magazine article and later used the phrase in in concluding his Baccalaureate sermon at commencement exercises at Wesleyan University.
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
We can only hope in 2020 with Black Lives Matter as a cornerstone that the arc will somehow begin bending sharper than it ever has before.