Fate has a miraculous sense of humor …

What’s in a word?

#BlackLivesMatter is fighting: For acknowledgement, for peace, for justice — and for people to stop fucking saying “All Lives Matter” for the umpteenth time …

With one word, things could have been different.

At this point, there are enough analogies posted online that everyone should be able to figure it out. The difference between saying “Only Black Lives Matter” and “We’re Talking About Black People Right Now” is abundantly clear. But for whatever reason, some people still choose to ignore problematic realities in lieu of making an empty point to their Facebook friends.

All people, whether big or small, significant to the majority or not, matter to something, to someone. No shit.

But for whatever reason, an adjective neighboring a hashtag is where we’re at right now — more so, arguably, than what the nation should be talking about: Police brutality, our prison crisis, non-distribution of wealth, the failure of higher educational services, potholes, Game of Thrones season 7; hell, anything other than something that’s literally in front of everyone to understand.

Here’s what we know: An oppressed minority group has chosen to unite under a significant phrase to be seen through the power of numbers. That choice, which is protected by the constitution, should be respected regardless of the color of anyone’s skin. It’s their right.

Trying to dismantle that freedom of speech is considered a crime. Yet, here millions of Americans stand echoing in unison, attempting to discredit the message through counter-attacks and brand diminishing memes.

And for what? If you’re not black, does it really matter so much that a fellow American asks for equality? If they get it, does it affect your life in any meaningful way? And what if the group really does mean that only black lives matter (as some strangely suggest)? That’s a shitty thing to say; very few are going to join a group like that. Decent people, of any color, would extinguish it before it even scrolled across the nightly news.

So what’s in a word?

Disheartening as it may be, I can only wonder what would be different right now if #BlackLivesMatter had added something extra at the end, something that showcases the need for equality without inadvertently making white people feel like they don’t count …

… an irony proving fate has a miraculous sense of humor.

Black Lives Matter Also would reach an entirely different social paradigm. It says, “We’re here, and want to be where you are.” Black Lives Matter Too would be just the same. Each proclaims the need for perspective, each warrants the necessity for change. It would have been easier for those less fortunate in the wit department to understand.

But it isn’t that. Through all the fighting for justice, through all the pleas for equality and through the desire to stop being treated as less than, the #BlackLivesMatter movement is unfortunately fighting over implications of a brand. It’s trying to explain that which should have been assumed.

It’s exhausting what limited energy it has in all the wrong places.

Right now, the nation needs to be acknowledging a group of someones instead of the group of everyone. If you really feel like "All" lives matter, then prove it. Prove it by forgoing the spotlight for just a few months while we figure all this shit out. Prove it by standing with someone in a worse position than you are instead of against them because of a word, strengthening the whole by rallying up the destitute — or simply just get out of the way and shut the fuck up about it. 

So what’s in a word?

Apparently, everything …