Why I think "Black Heroes Matter" means well, but is ill conceived and counterproductive to the goals of “Black Lives Matter” and should delete itself.

d-pi:

A while back I was on a panel called Black Art Matters. I passively offered my criticism of the choice to reference Black Lives Matter with the name of the panel, but I also saw it as a great opportunity to discuss why I thought the reference was a bad idea. This weekend I’ve seen several images of the slogan “Black Heroes Matter” so I am taking this opportunity to express why this doesn’t sit right with me. Hear me out…

So TLDR/make it plain version: 

While I’m sure it comes from relatively innocuous place, “Black Heroes Matters” appropriates the cultural capital of “Black Lives Matter” to commercial ends. 

While black heroes do matter, packaging that argument in the memetic language of Black Lives Matter is, at best, distasteful, and at worst subversive, and appropriates the social currency of Black Lives Matter to sell shirts and a brand. That said, I don’t believe it’s deliberate, just ill conceived.

So, the long version is:

“Black Lives Matter” at its core represents a movement to call attention to and to end the destruction of black lives by institutions and the agents of those institutions. It is a reaction to the systemic destruction of black lives. It argues the existence and value of (in particular but not exclusive to) black life on an ontological level within our social structure. This is important work. Many people put their lives on the line, rallying behind “Black Lives Matter” to further this cause. The slogan “Black Lives Matter” carries the weight of those lives; it aggregates that currency as a meme that spreads the values of the movement from person to person all over the world. That currency is spent on changing and liberating all people from oppression and violent death at the hands of the state.

Any meme that uses the structure of Black Lives Matter is swagger-jacking the cultural currency of BLM at best, swagger-hacking and subverting the core idea at worst. All Lives Matter was a meme hack or virus that used the memetic currency of Black Lives Matter to subvert the values connected to Black Lives Matter. Black Heroes Matter, like All Lives Matter is a response or reaction to Black Lives Matter. Why is it appropriating that format/language and to what end? 

If “Black Lives Matter” fights for space of black lives on an ontological level within our society and calls us to protect black bodies from institutional violence, “Black Heroes Matter” asks us to do what exactly? What does it call for? Are black heroes in peril? If so, what poses an existential threat to “Black Heroes” and if there is an existential threat to “Black Heroes” is that threat an existential threat to Black Lives? 

Does Black Heroes Matter increase the memetic value of Black Lives Matter? If not, is the memetic currency that Black Heroes Matter hijacks from Black Lives Matter worth detracting from Black Lives Matter and what Black Lives Matter stands for? 

-Ronald