THE PROBLEM WITH SAYING WHITE LIVES MATTER

So TAPT will be doing BLACK LIVES at the end of November at House of Independents in Asbury Park.  Doing this play will raise some eyebrows and elicit all kinds of responses, which is a good thing.  Immediately I want to respond to white friends and others who have their hearts in the right place but nonetheless say white lives also matter.  The problem with this kind of response is that it is like saying there is air.  By this I mean, the idea that white lives matter is such a truism that it does not warrant repeating. WE ALL KNOW WHITE LIVES MATTER!  Has anyone ever really doubted it?  Do we live in a nation where the value of white lives has EVER been in question since day one??? No, we do not.   The value of lives that are not white is the issue.  American history has made this very clear.  So- white folks out there, even the sympathetic ones, please do not respond to "black lives matter" with "white lives matter."  By doing so you are setting up an equation which simply has not been and continues to not be true in America.