Apparently, Philonase Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, uttered a three-word phrase that has now become a big no-no in the black community. It was done right after the sentencing of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who killed his brother during an arrest.
Floyd addressed the media after Chauvin was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison, and he listed many of the other victims that the “Black Lives Matter” movement had touted before he moved on to his brother, and then he capped it off by saying that “all lives matter.”
“I just want to reiterate: not just black lives matter, but all lives matter!” he exclaimed. “We will need to stand up and fight! We can’t get comfortable, because when you get comfortable, people forget about you!” he added.
The video of this comment went viral on social media not soon after that.
“We should not let our skin color define who we are. It should never be used as a weapon,” Floyd said later in his speech.
That simple phrase, “all lives matter”, has been distinguished by a media as a phrase that is totally forbidden because it is seen as a rebuke to the BLM movement. That is one of the main why even some very far-left individuals have been rebuked for using this phrase. In April 2019, then-presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg apologized when he was caught using the phrase and he vowed never to use it again. In January of that same year, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was rebuked online when for used the forbidden phrase herself.
There was a jury in April that found Chauvin guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. The death of George Floyd had caused protests and rioting across the country after the video of Chauvin placing his knee on Floyd’s back had become a viral video.
George Floyd’s brother Philonase had previous uttered this phrase when he had testified before members of the House Judiciary Committee last June.
“Anyone that has a heart, they know that this is wrong. You don’t do that to a human being. You don’t do that to an animal even,” Floyd said at that time.
“All lives matter,” Floyd’s brother said to the House Judiciary Committee. “Black lives matter.”
Apparently, it’s A-OK for a person of color to say that, but let’s call in the cavalry when a white person does it.
By all means, share your thoughts on this.