Should Lauryn Hill’s Daughter be Criticized for Supporting White Lives Matter?

The Black Lives Matter movement is corrupt. Embroiled in scandals, misappropriation of funds, and sending a tribalist message throughout the world, the organization has sharply receded from the limelight.

So when Ye decided to use “White Lives Matter” tee-shirts, the uproar seemed ironic. He had not mishandled money, he is a staunch narcissist, and a stellar businessman and artist.

With the advent of this phenomenon that has set the Internet ablaze, Lauryn Hill’s daughter, Selah Marley, decided to support Ye and his endeavors.

But there are still problems. Black lives don’t matter as a floating abstraction. Neither do white lives or any other color. Individualistic lives matter. That means that people who belong on death row, their lives don’t matter if they were purple or green. Anyone on the row who is innocent, however, their life matters desperately. The injustice of being put to death and being not guilty demonstrated the profundity of any notions of lives mattering.

Selah has taken a stance on something that should not be championed. The collectivism involved in engaging in the sphere of ideas regarding a certain section of people reduces the importance of individualism.

For this young woman to support Ye and his destructive course towards being provocative for its own sake shows a young woman still in need of maturity. And the same goes for Ye. He apparently is trolling or insincerely floating this WLM movement for clout.

It is respectable to gather attention to promote a product or service, but this is not the way to go. Selah expressed even more irony as she addressed detractors online.

She stated that those who decried Ye and her had a “hive mentality.” She continued by saying that these critics are of a “group” thinking set.

With all the ways that she could have defended egoism, she chose a wholly tribal idealism such as WLM. The twenty-three-year-old still has a lot of learning to do. And so does forty-five-year-old Kanye West who has less of an excuse.

Whatever wisdom he has gained over the years ought to have stuck to him like fly paper. Instead, he has revealed himself to be an overgrown adolescent teetering on perpetual childishness. This is not to be confused with selfishness. This ethical stance means that he should be using his mind to promote his rational values. This is not the same as stamping around as a little boy who wants to ruffle feathers just to do it.

Selfishness means that he should be concerned with protecting his brand, his clothing line, his life. It means that he should safeguard his family and know the difference between arrogance and confidence.

These WLM shirts are simply a deterrent for displaying his weak emotional core. He has yet to realize the truth behind his own makings. As a creative force in art and business, he should be a beacon amidst a wasteland. Selah should be taking notes on how to become a businesswoman in her own right.

Not all lives matter, again. White Lives Matter is only a method to stir up trouble which Ye has succeeded at doing. With the Web set afire across news agencies and social networking platforms alike, Ye has accomplished what he apparently set out to do.

He’s got people talking, eyeballs watching, and engines gearing up for people to consume his Yeezy Season 9. As a chief mercantilist (not a capitalist) Ye now grins at all of the attention that his brand has received as of late.

What Ye and Selah can learn from this whole kerfuffle is that attracting attention without substance leaves everyone bereft. They might be able to drop the slogan and embrace reason and individualism.