Last August, the hashtag “#BlackLivesMatter” was created to start a dialogue about the value of Black lives in America during the height of the Mike Brown incident that occurred in Ferguson, Missouri. The main objective of the trend was to express how the lives of Black men and women in this country are treated significantly different than the lives of white people. The use of the hashtag was to raise awareness about the oppression and racial prejudice that Black people experience in this country every single day. #BlackLivesMatter was not a statement to negate the lives of other races, it was to express that the lives of Black people matter just as much as the lives of white people, who experience a level of privilege that other races cannot participate in.

Recently, the hashtag “#MuslimLivesMatter” was fashioned to highlight the unfortunate incident of the Chapel Hill Shooting as well as the lives of Muslims who are subjugated to prejudice based off of the negative connotations associated with their faith. Again, this is not a hashtag to put the lives of the Islamic faith above anyone else, it is to merely show how they continually experience a level of oppression that is disproportionally different to the lives of other faiths. Now, there has been a concern as to whether the trend of “#_____LivesMatter” will become oversaturated as time goes on. As more people develop new changes to the hashtag, some believe that it will end up taking away from the original version, which was the trend #BlackLivesMatter.

However, there is a way for both the hashtags “#BlackLivesMatter” and “#MuslimLivesMatter”, as well as any other adaptation, to co-exist amongst each other. One is not more important than the other. Especially, when there are people who have lives that intersect both experiences, for example, a person who is Black and Muslim. Recognizing and respecting the differences between the two hashtags will allow people to understand the oppression of both groups. Without comparing the experiences of each trend, people will not feel the need to feel competitive about who is more oppressed than the other. By doing so, it will negate the original causes of both movements and negatively affect the members of those communities.