In the town of Northampton, Mass., Smith College is known for its beautiful campus and its hostility toward those who refuse to toe the progressive line.
Smith President Kathleen McCartney wasn’t refusing to toe the line, she thought she was saying the right things when she wrote “All lives matter” in the subject line of a campus-wide email expressing solidarity with protesters upset over the grand jury decisions in New York and Ferguson. But intentions did not matter, McCartney was soon educated that, in fact, all lives do not matter, at least to the protesters.
The acceptable vernacular is “Black lives matter,” not all lives. McCartney sent a second email apologizing for her wrongheaded assumption.
One student replied to the first email by writing, “It minimizes the anti-blackness of this the current situation; yes, all lives matter, but not all lives are being targeted for police brutality.” Another, Smith sophomore Cecelia Lim was so upset by the subject line of McCartney’s original email, she said, “It felt like she was invalidating the experience of black lives.”
McCartney then led a vigil of only 130 of Smith’s 2,500 students to complete her penance. After students spoke, “McCartney then suggested that the group remain holding hands ‘for about 10 minutes.’”
After leading the vigil, sophomore Maria Lopez seemed to absolve President McCartney. “She acknowledged her mistake,” Lopez said.