McCartney was trying to show support for the protesters when she wrote to the student body that “We are united in our insistence that all lives matter” and criticized the grand jury decisions as causing “a shared fury . . . . We gather in vigil, we raise our voices in protest.”
The backlash was quick and . . . furious for not limiting the expression of concern to “black lives.” On Smith sophomore, Cecelia Lim, complained to the school newspaper that McCartner’s deviation form “black lives matter” was taken as “invalidating the experience of black lives.” Another wrote “It minimizes the anti-blackness of this the current situation; yes, all lives matter, but not all lives are being targeted for police brutality. The black students at this school deserve to have their specific struggles and pain recognized, not dissolved into the larger student body.”
This view is shared by commentators who have insisted that the failure to speak exclusively of Black lives makes people part of the problem. On HuffPost in a column entitled Please Stop Telling Me That All Lives Matter, Julia Craven insisted that “Saying “all lives matter” is nothing more than you centering and inserting yourself within a very emotional and personal situation without any empathy or respect.”
McCartney apologized profusely and said that “I regret that I was unaware the phrase/hashtag “all lives matter” has been used by some to draw attention away from the focus on institutional violence against Black people.”
While “all lives matters” may not convey the specific message of “institutional violence against Black people” it did strive (as college presidents and academics are want to do) to be inclusive in the valuation of all lives. It conveyed that all lives — regardless of color — must be valued and protected equally. There will be an ongoing debate over the alleged “institutional violence against Black people” and it is a debate that may be long overdue. While I understand the point being made, McCartney’s original statement valuing all lives equally is hardly a matter for public apology in my view. Indeed, the remainder of her statement makes clear that she shared the “fury” of those who disagree with the grand jury decisions in Missouri and New York.
Here are the messages to the campus.
Source: Higher Education
” Julia Craven insisted that “Saying “all lives matter” is nothing more than you centering and inserting yourself within a very emotional and personal situation without any empathy or respect.””
Someone took all the wrong lessons from their sociology class.
There was no apology necessary, because she was 100% absolutely correct; ALL lives matter, no matter what color, race, creed, ethnicity, or age. Life from conception to dying matters and should be treated with love and compassion.
The students who made this a totally black issue are more biased than and are contributing to dividing this nation.
Generally speaking, in the last 5-10 years, it seems ironic to me that black lives seem to be more concerning to whites, than they matter from one black to another. For we see more mass murders between blacks then we see white on black, or police on black. We never hear about these mass amounts of murders taking place on a daily basis, but the activist are out to take down a policeman’s reputation and job immediately. Perhaps, we should all put less faith in all media and more into praying and helping ALL people in ALL communities in need.
Smith College “Where Your Life Only Matters If You Are Black.” That will recruit’em
Ed – All Lives Matter!!! Sorry
It kind of fits in line with UNCF’s long time motto “A mind is a terrible thing to waste”.
God I’m so happy I don’t have a liberal mind.
“Smith College – Where Your Life Might Not Matter”
Heck of a header on a recruitment brochure.
I keep hoping that this story was from The Onion. Talk about absurd PC BS… and she plays right along with it and “apologizes profusely.” omg.
Ed – what she needed to say was “As I said before All lives are important!” And then walk away.
Are there words once spoken by one race now not allowed to be spoken by another!
Political Correctness has gone way too far, it’s destroying free speech in America.
Shameful she apologized. And sad.
“All lives matter.” My sentiments exactly. Are those who objected saying that all lives don’t matter? Isn’t that the problem; not the solution? She should not have apologized.
How not to cave in to PC pressure. Take it away Chris.
And for Pete’s sake, what good was all that psychology training for McCartney?
Worthless piffle.
The Democrats have nurtured balkanization and tribal grievance for more than 100 years.
How stupid is Smith president Kathleen McCartney, that she was so blithely unaware of this?
She graduated summa cum laude from Tufts in 1977 with a degree in psychology.
She went to Yale for her master’s and doctoral degrees in psychology.
She joined the faculty at Harvard and the University of New Hampshire.
In 2006 she became dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Despite a lifetime in a sea of leftist twaddle, she never picked up on the hierarchy of victims?
Criminey.
How does she put her shoes on in the morning?
Can she drive?
Can she walk and chew gum?
Pogo – us older folks are not good Twitter. I think that was the poor woman’s problem. All the degrees in the world won’t help there.
Potato, Potatoe
If anything denigrates the issue it is this sort of squabbling over semantics. All lives matter, Black lives matter, whoops can’t use Black must use African American, all Chinese lives matter, whoops must say Asian Chinese or is that Chinese Asian, whoops, whoops, whoops.
Black lives don’t seem to matter to other blacks.
93 percent of black homicide victims from 1980 through 2008 were killed by black offenders.
To say “black lives matter”, is to ignore the millions of bombed, tortured, displaced, and oppressed non-black victims in the US and the Middle East. Blacks are certainly not the only group that suffers from police and military terrorism.
Who the hell is running the campuses?
McCartney’s response to criticism illustrates how we have no true leaders today. Where are the statesmen who use to govern affairs? Her comment required only elaboration upon her viewpoint, not an apology. She leads from behind rather than from in front.
PC run amok. While I can’t completely buy into the letter, I thought it a well crafted expression, and certainly didn’t seem to devalue anyone in particular.
Free speech is dying on American campuses.