The #BlackLivesMatter movement has gone viral and stemmed from the shooting death of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin which resulted in the acquittal of his shooter, George Zimmerman in 2013. The movement has garnered the attention of many celebrities, both in support of and against it, and has birthed similar hashtags like, #AllLivesMatter that declare it's not just about black lives. Nia Long is one celebrity who stands firmly behind the all lives matter campaign and is anti-black lives matter. She chose to post about her stance on Instagram which led angry followers to respond and some of their responses are not so pleasant.
Hiphollywood reported that the Instagram photo was posted in the beginning of September but the backlash against Long continues.
A photo posted by Nia Long (@iamnialong) on Sep 2, 2015 at 10:27am PDT
According to the people against the revamped hashtag, #AllLivesMatter was developed to distract people from the real issues that black men and women face with police brutality and being killed by police officers. #BlackLivesMatter was organized to highlight the disregard of black lives.
As the first and reoccurring host for the BET special Black Girls Rock, fans and followers were shocked to see her in support of something that is against what people believe she "should" be supporting.
EUR reports that as of now Long has not responded to the backlash, though some of the comments have been harsh.
"If all lives matter, we wouldn't need to exclaim black lives matter," one Instagram follower wrote. "The purpose of the phrase [is] to emphasize that black lives are just as valuable and important as everyone else's and therefore should be treated equally ... smh this truly disappointing Nia!!!!" From there the comments continued to flood her account.
"Looks like someone is looking for employment & white checks," "Girl, you done f*cked up NOW. Black people are the only ones in your corner supporting you," and others like "Wow....I used to like her....I have no respect for c**ns and sell outs."
Not all of her followers were against the Love Jones actress. Some defended her with comments like,"Nia IS right. No matter what color you are, everyone matters. Therefore, ALL lives matter."
