All Lives Matter: On The Jewish Question By Karl Marx

Recently, media attention has been focused on the brutality black people face from police officers in their own communities. The unequal freedom black people live with has been brought to mainstream attention. The slogan “Black Lives Matter” has been created in response to this discrimination. In consequence, many people unhappy with the slogan countered with “All Lives Matter.” However, saying that “All Lives Matter” deflects from intersectionality in society and the fact that black people do not have the same amount of freedom as other races. Similarly, Karl Marx addresses the importance of acknowledging differences in civil society in his essay, “On the Jewish Question”. Marx would support the need for the slogan “Black Lives Matter”
The state declares that all American citizens are created equal and have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness . However, historically and currently, black people have not been included in the practice of these rights and freedoms. Frederick Douglass fought for the abolishment of slavery. About 100 years after that, Martin Luther King Jr. led the civil rights movement. And today, people around the country are still fighting for equal treatment of black people. The state, in recognizing that everyone is equal, frees itself from racial prejudice by reducing the problem to only an issue of civil society, which is separate from the state (Marx, Jewish Question 35). But just because the state frees itself, it does not mean that man is freed from the same racial prejudice (Marx, Jewish Question, 32). The equality of all lives is recognized in the laws of each state and country, yet black people continue to face discrimination to their own communities . Marx considers this duality possible because man has a double existence; he can live in the political sphere and in the sphere of civil society (Marx, Jewish Question, 34). However, the political sphere is not reality. “All Lives Matter” only has basis at the political level because people can say that “All Lives Matter,” but in reality black lives have not been recognized to matter. “All Lives Matter” is an abstract idea that does not currently represent how civil society really is. The slogan only declares that we are the same and ignores the important distinctions that separate humans from each other in society. Political emancipation cannot get rid of the prejudice people have about black people in their minds and “does not even strive it abolish” discrimination (Marx, Jewish Question, 35). It diverts the attention away from the racism black people face rather than acknowledging