You had to be living under a rock this week if you didn't hear the sad story of Cecil, the lion in Zimbabwe who was lured out of his natural habitat, shot with an arrow and tracked for two days while he slowly died.
Cecil was finally shot with a rifle, skinned and decapitated—a hunt reportedly orchestrated by an American dentist named Walter Palmer, who hired a local hunter to help him. People have been protesting online, widely condemning Palmer for the killing. Folks became even more enraged and saddened when they heard reports about the ripple effect the death would likely have on Cecil's pride: Experts say that another lion will kill all of Cecil's cubs in order to establish his dominance and make way for his own bloodline.
But the widespread outcry made black Twitter wonder where this level of outrage and sympathy was regarding the killings of black people like Eric Garner and Walter Scott, since they, too, left behind children who are now at a disadvantage.
That's how the #AllLionsMatter hashtag was birthed. A takeoff of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, it sheds light on the irony that a lion's death has sparked all of this activism, and yet some of the same people calling for Palmer's head have tweeted nary a post, or marched nary a mile, for the lost lives of Trayvon Martin and Renisha McBride.
Take a look at some of the memes. Black Twitter created it, so you know it's funny and insightful stuff.
Just another demonstration of the brilliance of black Twitter.
https://twitter.com/aamer_rahman/status/626551258250227712https://twitter.com/Bhattousai/status/626782940526182400https://twitter.com/Metasota/status/626863752575586309https://twitter.com/MatthewACherry/status/626885746457079808https://twitter.com/Cuz_ImBlack/status/626829093774970880https://twitter.com/DAMMIT_WESLEY/status/626803289053655041https://twitter.com/TheJRRobinson/status/626735749132644352https://twitter.com/XLNB/status/626444074984144900
For more of black Twitter, check out The Chatterati on The Root and follow The Chatterati on Twitter.
Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele is a staff writer at The Root and the founder and executive producer of Lectures to Beats, a Web series that features expert advice with scarily insightful people. Follow Lectures to Beats on Facebook and Twitter.
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