Sounds like a pretty typical criticism of Black Lives Matter doesn't it. Just another good American citizen concerned about the division that seems to be rampant these days. And to think that people who express these views are treated as if they are the equivalent of some racist sheriff from the segregated South of the 1950's.
Of course, that's exactly who said this. The quote above is by Sheriff Willis McCall, the Lake County, FL sheriff at the time that four young black men (well, three men and one fifteen year old boy) were falsely accused of raping a white woman. The year was 1949. McCall was incensed at the negative press he was receiving due to reporting about the vicious abuse the accused men suffered at the hands of McCall and his deputies as well as the attempts by McCall and the KKK to chase down and "punish" the black NAACP lawyers that defended the Groveland Four. One of the four was gunned down by law enforcement under McCall's leadership before ever being arrested McCall would later go on to attempt to murder two more of the defendants after the Supreme Court ordered a retrial, successfully slaughtering one and seriously injuring the other. He absurdly claimed that they tried to escape while he was transporting them. It stunned me how familiar his line about civil rights activism causing "division" was. Truly there is nothing new under the sun. (Next time you're inclined to wax eloquent with these kinds of sentiments you might want to think about who would have agreed fervently with you 70 years ago).
I want to address two concerns in this post. First I want to address sincere supporters of Black Lives Matter that are genuinely concerned about the agenda of the Black Lives Matter organization (which is distinct from both the slogan and the movement). Secondly, I'd like to tackle those that have an issue with all of it--the slogan, the movement, the organization--those that feel that there is something hostile and racist in the very idea that black lives matter.
First the organization. There's been an uptick in criticism of the Black Lives Matter organization lately. They have a Marxist agenda. They've been hijacked by leftist extremists that want to dismantle the nuclear family and promote the gay lifestyle. Someone on Facebook did a masterful job of dismantling these major critiques of Black Lives Matter. Her breakdown is now lost amidst weeks of additional chatter and because she's someone I don't know personally who happens to belong to the same Facebook group I do, I don't know how to track down her commentary. I'm going to try to do my own version here.
- Why shouldn't gay and trans black lives matter? They are victimized and suffer vicious physical assaults at a far higher rate than other black people. Are we really arguing that their lives don't matter because we disagree with their "lifestyle." While some might have moral objections to these individuals I think most wouldn't take it so far as saying that their lives are of little consequence and if they get murdered, who cares. So the fact that the BLM organization highlights those black people who are most at risk for violent death at the hands of hate-filled individuals should not be a stumbling block.
- The fact that the founders are "trained Marxists" and that leftists support the idea that Black Lives Matter is irrelevant. Frankly, Communists, leftists, radical socialists, liberals, progressives--all of the above have always been supporters of civil rights. These same types of people supported the civil rights movement--the types of protests we now laud as acceptable and necessary. The Pulitzer-Prize winning book Devil in the Grove; Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King where I learned about Sheriff Willis McCall, talks frankly about the Communist element that supported civil rights during that era,. King details the NAACP's efforts to sideline the Communist influence so as to not lose the support of the wider American public. The United States fought shoulder to shoulder with the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany. The fact that they had a common enemy didn't tarnish the U.S. in any way. Neither should the leftist element in the Black Lives Matter organization tarnish the larger cause of fighting racism.
- The Black Lives Matter organization wants to dismantle nuclear family. Reading this "goal" in context it clearly refers to the desire acknowledge that other family units are acceptable as well. Their goal is not to dismantle the nuclear family per se, but to dismantle it's power position as the only acceptable family grouping, which makes it difficult for women to participate in activism since in this traditional model they are expected to be the sole family caregiver. Many non-Western families rely on a broader family model that includes grandparents, grown children, and other family members living in the same household who can help with the caregiving role, freeing up women who so desire to be more involved in activism. I've included the full text of this segment of their goals below (emphasis is mine):
"We make our spaces family-friendly and enable parents to fully participate with their children. We dismantle the patriarchal practice that requires mothers to work “double shifts” so that they can mother in private even as they participate in public justice work.
We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable."
I honestly don't see this stance as a game changer. But here's the thing. If it really bothers you, don't send them any money. You can still believe that black lives matter and support the Black Lives Matter movement without lending a dime of support to this specific organization. Think of it this way. If you had some "issue" with the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) organization, that would not preclude you from supporting veterans in general or supporting a movement to meet the needs of Veterans of Foreign Wars. It's the same with BLM.
Now to the critics of BLM in general--the movement, the slogan, the very idea. The All Lives Matter crowd; I'm talking to you. Because, let's be honest. The same people lobbing these critiques of Black Lives Matter haven't come to this opposition of late with the "revelations"of a left-wing or gay friendly agenda. It's not because of the violence accompanying the protests. It's not like these folk had Black Lives Matter signs in their yards and BLM t-shirts on their chests, but due to the "hijacking" they've had to regretfully pull up those signs and toss the t-shirt. These people opposed Black Lives Matter from the beginning, when it was first a rallying cry. The sentiment itself was offensive and upsetting; it had to be countered with "All Lives Matter." The issues that motivated BLM were dismissed as non-issues and unnecessary agitating that, well you know "tear down racial relations and try to separate the races rather than bringing them together. If we're being honest it's not about Marxism, or leftist politics or homosexuality or violence. It's the idea itself that gets under your skin. These latest criticisms are desperate attempt to draw back fellow white people who no longer see the phrase "Black Lives Matter" as a radical, hateful slogan. It's the positive response from so many in the white community that has so many others worried.
For these folks, I think there is a deep misunderstanding (a willful misunderstanding, in my opinion) about what Black Lives Matter means. From the jump, they have understood that Black Lives Matter means Black Lives Matter and Other Lives Don't. Or Black Lives Matter More Than Other Lives. That has never been the case, but it doesn't matter how often this is explained, there are those who refuse to accept any other definition of the phrase than what they have decided it means. With the impassioned questions about why people aren't taking to the streets on behalf of Cannon Hinnant the five year old boy who was brutally murdered by a black man, I'm realizing that these people don't understand the movement any better than the slogan. They think that the movement is about protesting that George Floyd or Breonna Taylor was killed--and perhaps it is to a degree--but primarily it is about the fact that they were killed and justice was not served. Evil people will do evil things. We get that. We even understand that racist evil people will do racist evil things. But as long as those evil people are forced to account for their actions, there won't be any protests. It's the fact that these people are killed and society acts--by it's refusal to hold the killers accountable whether through bad laws, or a legal safe haven for them--as if it doesn't matter that they died. Tupac said it well: "Cop give a damn about a negro, pull the trigger kill a n**** he's a hero, give the crack to the kids who the hell cares, one less hungry mouth on the welfare." In essence, our society says in countless ways that black lives don't matter. We're simply saying, black lives matter too, just like everyone else's. That's what we are protesting.
There's nothing wrong with saying Cannon's name. What happened to him was more than tragic; it was hideous. What kind of sick monster shoots a five year old child? It hurts my heart every time I think about it. But all that can be done is being done to bring his killer to justice. Nothing will bring this little boy back, nothing can take away the unimaginable pain his parents are going through. The same is true of the people who loved Emmett Till and Tamir Rice. This is the shared agony that we all experience in this sinful world, regardless of race, where evil people murder innocents for no reason at all. The difference is Rice's killers still walk the streets, free men. And after all these years Till's killers were never brought to justice and the woman who accused him still lives, with the evil she did unaccounted for. That is why we #saytheirnames. And we will keep saying them until we see a a more just system in this country. We will keep saying Black Lives Matter until they actually do. Only then will we stop saying it.
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