Democratic Presidential candidate Martin O’Malley’s forced apology for saying “all lives matter” is a truly ridiculous statement.

The progressives of Netroots Nation demanded that the former Maryland governor give vocal support to the slogan “Black Lives Matter.”

“Black lives matter,” said O’Malley, who then made the critical mistake of adding, “White lives matter. All lives matter.”

He was resoundingly booed. He soon thereafter made forced apology for saying simply “all lives matter.”

Vermont Senator and self-avowed socialist Bernie Sanders suffered the same treatment. Sanders followed O’Malley on stage. He was booed for trying to talk about economic inequality in regards to black lives. Sanders also touted his record of fighting for civil rights in the 1960s. This apparently is worthy of derision in the Black Lives Matter movement, as #berniesoblack began trending on Twitter to mock Sanders’ record on civil rights.

Just to be clear, the socialist was not far enough left on this particular issue for these activists.

Of course black lives matter. All black lives matter. All lives matter. Lives do not have higher value ascribed to them because of the situation they were ended in. A billionaire’s life is not more valuable than a pauper’s. Nor is the life of an African American killed by a white police officer any more valuable than that of an African American killed by another African American in a gang war in Chicago or Los Angeles. Nor is the life of a child any less valuable than that of an adult.

These thoughts are echoed amongst prominent African Americans in media and politics as well. Stephen A. Smith of ESPN put it very well on his radio show, in relation to O’Malley’s situation.

“So a presidential candidate, who isn’t black, happens to stand up and says, ‘all lives matter,’” said Smith, “So we mandate that they say, ‘black lives matter,’ but we’ve got black folks dying at the hands of black folks in this country, and we’re not hearing that. At least, we hadn’t been hearing that. Don’t get me started on the murders in Chicago.”

Lest we forget, Dr. Ben Carson is running for the Republican nomination, and in light of recent videos detailing some horrors going on at Planned Parenthood, has reminded everyone of the organization’s roots as a racist eugenics movement, but they are not a target of the Black Lives Matter movement now are they?

So when someone says all lives matter, maybe they are not a racist. Maybe there is nothing to apologize for. Maybe they actually mean it.