“Black Lives Matter” is Not a Political Statement

It might be heavily politicized, but that’s your problem, not ours.

Author’s note: while I was putting the final touches on this piece Friday morning, Starbucks either reversed or clarified its position on baristas wearing #blacklivesmatter attire. While I’m glad about this, the underlying point still remains, so I’m publishing it anyway.

So let’s get the standard necessary disclaimers out of the way.

I know Starbucks is a private corporation and can set their own rules about conduct and attire accordingly. I’m not gonna go run around claiming that it’s a First Amendment issue that Starbucks has prohibited its employees from wearing any attire expressing the sentiment “black lives matter.”

Frankly, there’s a part of me that gets the skittish corporate response. The average consumer doesn’t know to differentiate between the slogan itself and Black Lives Matter, the nonprofit foundation behind BlackLivesMatter.com. The ubiquitous phrase “black lives matter” has since become synonymous since 2013 for the quest for justice for Trayvon Martin, all of the young black men and women unjustly slain before him, and all of the various names that would follow. Because of this, the slogan has connotations of radical activism, and there are certain white people who agree with the sentiment but…