Hillary Clinton’s ‘All Lives Matter’ Remark Stirs BACKLASH [View all]

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Hillary Rodham Clinton is facing backlash for saying that “all lives matter” in an African-American church in Missouri on Tuesday, offending some who feel that she is missing the point of the “black lives matter” mantra. Mrs. Clinton’s remarks at Christ the King United Church of Christ in Florissant, Mo. — only a few miles north of Ferguson, where a black teenager was shot by a white police officer last August — came during a broader discussion of civil rights in America. She was talking about how a disproportionate number of young people of color are out of school and out of work and, explaining that everyone needs a “chance and a champion,” she recalled how her mother was abandoned as a teenager and went on to work as a maid. “What kept you going?” Mrs. Clinton remembered asking her mother. “Her answer was very simple. Kindness along the way from someone who believed she mattered. All lives matter.” The remark caused a stir on social media, with some African-Americans on Twitter suggesting that Mrs. Clinton had lost their votes.

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Hillary Clinton, in a Black church, just said "All lives matter." Fam...
3:56 PM - 23 Jun 2015

The Rev. Renita Lamkin, who was in the audience at the event, told NPR that Mrs. Clinton’s comment did not go unnoticed. “That blew a lot of support that she may have been able to engender here,” she said. The phrase “black lives matter” has become a rallying cry in the last year for demonstrators amid a spate of episodes around the country, including the 18-year-old Michael Brown’s death in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, where white police officers have been accused of using excessive force against black suspects. Judith Butler, a professor at University of California, Berkley, summed up the frustration with the use of “all lives matter” in The Times in January.

“When some people rejoin with ‘All Lives Matter’ they misunderstand the problem, but not because their message is untrue,” she wrote. “It is true that all lives matter, but it is equally true that not all lives are understood to matter which is precisely why it is most important to name the lives that have not mattered, and are struggling to matter in the way they deserve.”

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http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/06/24/hillary-clintons-all-lives-matter-remark-stirs-backlash/