To the editor:

At the intersection of Highway 305 and High School Road the other day, I noticed a sign reading “Green Lives Matter.”

Since the sign was crafted to resemble the silhouette of trees, I assume it was a reference to the trees that have recently been cut down in the area.

Clearly, the sign was a play on “Black Lives Matter.” Whether it was an earnest protest against the felling of trees, a flippant joke, or outright mockery of the Black Lives Matter movement, the makers of the sign (and members of our community) would do well to reflect on what this statement actually means.

To say that “black lives matter” is to assert that black people have dignity and value equal to that of other groups, that they are deserving of safety and equal protection under the law, that they have a legitimate interest in living without the ever-present threat of violence. In a supposedly pluralistic, color-blind society, this idea should be uncontroversial. Instead, it provokes reactions ranging from ridicule to rage. A common rejoinder is that “all lives matter.” Do they?

Black people were enslaved in America for longer than they have been free (by a century and a half). Despite similar rates of drug use, black Americans are incarcerated for drug possession at 10 times the rate of white Americans. Police who kill unarmed black people (including children, as in the case of 12-year-old Tamir Rice) rarely face charges. On Saturday night, Jordan Edwards, a 15-year-old shot in the head as he sat in the passenger’s seat of his brother’s car, was the 105th black person to be killed by police this year. The president of the United States was endorsed by the official newspaper of the Ku Klux Klan, and his attorney general was once deemed too racist to serve as a federal judge.

To affirm that “black lives matter” is to acknowledge our country’s imperfect track record of applying the idea that “all lives matter.” Indeed, if all lives DID matter, in practice as well as in principle, there would be no need for a movement focusing on black lives specifically.

To equate the pain of those who still struggle against the brutal legacy of slavery and segregation (the latter of which was still in effect during many readers’ lifetimes) with the felling of trees is disgraceful — and a perfect illustration of the need for a movement to address racial inequality.

EMILY ABBY KLEIN

Bainbridge Island