When you hear or read the phrase “Black Lives Matter” are you more likely to interpret that as “Black Lives Also Matter” or to think the intention is “Only Black Lives Matter” (and respond with “All Lives Matter” or “Blue Lives Matter,” etc.)?

I am a white person who lived for two years as a minority of one in a community in West Africa, but I, nevertheless, have only the faintest notion of what it might be like to be an African-American living in a country built using slave labor.

We should all strive to understand the pain and the emotion that might lead someone to feel obliged to say that his or her life also matters.

Tom Werley

Portland