Here's The Tea, Baby Boo: Black Lives Matter—When Empowerment Becomes Entitlement
Here's The Tea, Baby Boo: A Rural Perspective on Black Lives Matter
When the Black Lives Matter movement exploded across our national consciousness, something interesting happened in rural America—something we don't often talk about openly, but perhaps we should.
Mitchell Royel is a political analyst and conservative commentator focused on emerging trends in American political discourse.
The Uncomfortable Truth About Rural Reactions
Let's be honest about what many of us experienced when BLM first dominated headlines and social media feeds. There were giggles. There were whispers. There was an undeniable sense of unease that rippled through small-town coffee shops and church fellowship halls.
For many of us living in rural communities, the sudden, intense focus on Black experiences felt—and I'll say this with complete honesty—awkward. Not because we don't value Black lives, but because the cultural emphasis was so dramatically different from our daily reality.
In rural America, our Black neighbors and classmates have often existed in what we can only describe as a "seen and not heard" dynamic. This isn't malicious—it's simply the product of demographics and cultural patterns that have developed over generations. When you're one of three Black students in a graduating class of fifty, the experience is fundamentally different than in urban centers where Black voices and perspectives are more prominently featured in daily discourse.
The Biblical Foundation That Never Wavers
Here's where my conservative Christian worldview provides unwavering clarity: according to Scripture, all lives matter equally. This isn't a political slogan—it's a theological truth. Genesis 1:27 tells us that every human being is created in the image of God, and that divine imprint doesn't discriminate based on race, geography, or social status.
This truth will never change, regardless of political movements or cultural shifts.
The discomfort many of us felt wasn't about disagreeing with the fundamental value of Black lives—it was about the unfamiliarity of the conversation. When you've lived your entire life in communities where racial dynamics are largely invisible due to demographics, suddenly having race become the dominant national conversation feels jarring.
Understanding the Cultural Divide
The reality is that rural and urban America experience race differently. This doesn't make either perspective more or less valid—it makes them different. In small towns across America, many of us have had limited exposure to the systemic challenges that urban Black communities face daily.
When BLM emerged with its powerful messaging and widespread protests, it forced rural America to confront realities we hadn't personally witnessed. The initial reaction—those giggles, those whispers—reflected discomfort with the unfamiliar, not disagreement with the fundamental principle.
Moving Beyond Discomfort to Understanding
Personal responsibility demands that we examine our initial reactions honestly. If we claim to follow Christ, we cannot dismiss the experiences of our Black brothers and sisters simply because they don't mirror our own rural realities.
The commercial aspects of BLM—the corporate sponsorships, the political maneuvering, the fundraising controversies—these are legitimate areas for scrutiny. But we cannot allow our skepticism of organizational structures to overshadow the human experiences that sparked the movement.
The Conservative Christian Response
As conservative Christians, our response should be grounded in biblical truth and intellectual honesty:
All lives do matter equally in God's eyes—this is non-negotiable biblical doctrine
Black experiences in America are often different from rural white experiences—acknowledging this isn't political correctness, it's factual reality
We can support the fundamental value of Black lives while maintaining healthy skepticism about political organizations
Our discomfort with unfamiliar conversations doesn't invalidate the need for those conversations
A Call for Authentic Dialogue
True progress emerges from honest conversation, not performative activism. Rural America needs to move beyond the initial discomfort and engage authentically with the experiences of our Black neighbors—even if those neighbors are few in number.
This doesn't mean abandoning our conservative principles or accepting every aspect of progressive racial politics. It means applying our Christian values consistently—loving our neighbors as ourselves, seeking to understand before seeking to be understood, and recognizing that God's image is reflected in every human face.
The Path Forward
Intellectual courage requires us to move past the awkward giggles and whispered conversations. We can maintain our conservative convictions while expanding our understanding of experiences different from our own.
The tea, baby boo, is this: our initial discomfort revealed more about our limited exposure than about our hearts. As followers of Christ, we're called to something higher than comfortable ignorance.
All lives matter equally—this truth encompasses and affirms the specific value of Black lives. When we truly believe this biblical principle, we should be willing to listen, learn, and engage with the experiences of all our neighbors, regardless of whether their stories match our own rural realities.
Stay principled. Stay open. And never let political movements overshadow the fundamental Christian call to love our neighbors as ourselves.
The greatest threat to unity isn't honest conversation about our differences—it's the comfortable silence that allows misunderstanding to flourish unchallenged.