Sep 26th, 2015, 03:43 PM

The Power Struggle of #AllLivesMatter

By Shelby Lee
Viola Davis (Photo: International Business Times)
Viola Davis' "historic" victory at the Emmys has sparked a hashtag debate about race and opportunity

It's 2015 and yet there are still headlines proclaiming that Viola Davis made history.

The Emmys, an institution spanning sixty-seven years, have given out an incredible amount of awards. This year was the first year a black actress won lead actress in a drama series, as well as the first year that two black actresses were even nominated for the role. For sixty-six years this award was clutched only by white hands. And so we come to this historic event in 2015.

Make no mistake, Viola Davis deserved this award and I hope she will win many more. What is pathetic is that it has taken until now for it to be won, but we can (hopefully) only keep moving forward from here. 

In her acceptance speech, Davis quoted Harriet Tubman and subsequently noted that "the only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity". 

Emmys 2015 | Viola Davis Wins Outstanding Lead Actress In Drama Series

And instead of supporting Davis for her award, her speech, and her assertions, as seems to be happening with more and more frequency these days a white person pushed. Nancy Lee Grahn, a white actress known for a twenty-year stint on General Hospital, took issue with Davis' speech. Specifically the part where Davis didn't reference any struggles a white actress might have to go through.

 

 

One would hope this sort of response would be shocking, but sadly it -- and others like it -- are all too familiar. In the past few years a movement called Black Lives Matter has come to the forefront in response to violence black people experience at the hands of the police. Begun after a trial in 2013, the movement shows up anywhere -- from simple hashtags to protesters shutting down a Bernie Sander's rally. 

In response to this movement, white people pushed back. They pushed back with hashtags like #AllLivesMatter and then got even more specific in their responses with #PoliceLivesMatter. It has become a knee-jerk response to those who feel uncomfortable when confronted with #BlackLivesMatter. Those who hear a speech quoting Harriet Tubman feel that they have in some way been slighted or left behind.

Why do people react this way? Life has become one long holiday dinner with a slightly racist great-uncle or mostly conservative family members -- people who would cringe if Pride was ever brought up and complain about the fact that there's no parade for straight people. These are the people who say the same thing every February: "Why is there no white history month?"

They appear when you're flipping through channels and stop on BET. "You know we'd be called racist if there was a White Entertainment Network!" They are the comments on the Facebook post. They are the face of people afraid to lose power.

If someone else is getting attention and you aren't, it can feel like you don't have a voice. It can feel like no one is listening. And if no one is listening, you might get left behind.What people fail to realize (and it isn't only white people, of course, and many white people are allies and supporters) is that when the imbalance of power is already so great -- such as in the instance of Viola Davis' historic win -- that slight shift in the scales is really only the tiniest nudge.

It's a strange feeling, sure, when the ground which felt so sturdy suddenly moves and you see that the ones you used to look down on seem so much closer.

[Photos: AP and The Village Square]