What a Dumb Question

 

 

It is said that there is no such thing as a dumb question, but that's just not true. There are plenty of stupid questions out there. Maybe as a teacher in my classes and as a mother and grandmother, I believe there is no such thing as a dumb question, but all non-judgement is tossed out the window when it comes to the online world.

From The 30 Dumbest Questions Ever Asked Online, here are a few examples:

• Should I tell my parents I’m adopted?
• Does it take 18 months for twins to be born? Or 9?
• Why are the holes in cats fur always in the right places for their eyes?
• Is it possible for tattoos to get passed on genetically from parent to child?
• Where do lost socks go when they go missing? (I thought everyone knew that they they go feral, running the street with other lost socks)

So yeah, there are dumb questions out there. And I don't have a problem with those type, you know, dumb people kind of thing. Like people who wear weird things when shopping at Walmart. Those are just every day things :)  It is the current badgering ones, instigating opposition ones that put me in a quandary.

Question: Don't all lives matter?

Answer: Of course all lives matter. What a dumb question. I find it a dumb question because anyone/everyone who asks this question already knows that the BLM movement is all about.  They already know that it is focusing on (to borrow the words of a colleague) equal justice, safety, quality education, healthcare, decent paying jobs, etc. Some groups need attention because this hasn't been happening like it has been for the whites.  

Also said by another friend in explanation: "I, as a mother, grandmother, and a great grandmother of three, have to teach them about kindness. I have to teach them their history because it's not taught in schools...which means no one gets the information needed to become informed on issues plaguing the country. And, in addition, I, and their parents have to explain procedures for hopefully not being killed when pulled over for driving, walking, running, sitting, sleeping while Black, and explaining what the "n" word means and why kids make monkey noises at them, why the little girl they played with in the lower grades is no longer allowed to hang out anymore, why it's best not to wear a hat while driving, why they have to walk in twos through some neighborhoods...but maybe not in threes or fours. Ad infinitum... It's complicated and exhausting. Especially for those of us who have to live it." 

The reality is that all lives can't matter if black lives don't matter. 

The thing that bothers me, the crux of my, perhaps for lack of another better word, disgust with the question "Don't all lives matter?" or "Does one life matter more than others?" is that these questions are not asked to clarify anything. The person asking doesn't want to know anything more or deeper nor to engage in a conversation. It is asked to generate frustration and provoke dissension.

I'm no longer going to explain to those same people who continue to ask the same "don't all lives matter" type of question. After they have repeatedly been explained to regarding the question, the issue, the answer, they are simply itching for a fight. I don't need to engage. Instead I'm going to show them the love that Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Representative John Lewis have said is an important element in any protest. 

There will still be dumb questions, like "why should I apologize? I did nothing wrong! My family never owned slaves!" and "What are you talking about? I didn't grow up with any privileges! I had it just as hard." Questions that beg to be answered but knowing the question is rhetorical rather than a desire to understand how systemic racism works. But we can deal with those at another time.

And so it goes
peace~~~