Black Lives Matter (BLM) has a huge presence in the news and social media of late. Whether the reporter or post-sharer is for or against the organization, BLM references show up on feeds with great regularity.
An examination of BLM’s public statements reveals a set of noble-sounding tenets based on a mixture of historical facts, i.e. racism has been present in our society, as well as ones that are more viewpoint-based, like rates of black crime and incarceration being manifestations of “state violence.”
But BLM suffers an identity crisis. Like any movement attached to victimhood, it seeks to attach itself to the most pitiable segments of black society, but never rule out any group in case pity can be spread in that direction as well. Even the introduction on the organization’s “About Us” page takes a whiny turn: “(BLM) goes beyond the narrow nationalism that can be prevalent within Black communities, which merely call on Black people to love Black, live Black and buy Black, keeping straight cis Black men in the front of the movement while our sisters, queer and trans and disabled folk take up roles in the background or not at all.” The organization seems to forget to focus on these subgroups when there’s an opportunity to protest the death of a straight black male.
The organization claims empathy as a priority, but advocates shunning efforts by police to engage with neighborhoods on a friendly basis…one essay is titled “We don’t’ want ice cream, BBQ’s, or hugs. We want to live,” accompanied by the word “HUGS” under the universal no sign.
The organization gives lip service to non-violence against law enforcement, saying police are human but serve agencies that are inherently racist. They have failed to decry the presence of signs and chants calling for the murder of police at protests they organize.
BLM empathy is only for non-police–unless a constable is running on a platform that he’ll serve unarmed. BLM is for disarming police, but doesn’t mention disarming criminals. BLM supports feminism–but only for blacks, and preferably those identifying with something other than their birth-assigned gender. BLM is for blacks–unless Native Americans are protesting something, in which case they’re named honorary blacks and joined, ready or not. BLM is currently in North Dakota, having joined the tribal efforts there to prevent the installation of an oil pipeline.
Perhaps, as anti-BLM activist TJ Sotomayor has ventured to say, BLM proper is made of educated, peaceful types who fear retaliation by the element of black society he calls “niggas.”
That’s the one form of victimization the organization doesn’t claim.
A 2014 editorial by Wendy McElory, Beware of Kafkatrapping, offers a brilliant explanation of the BLM mindset. This set of tactics takes its name from a novel in which the character is accused of the very things he attempts to say, and demonstrate, that he’s against. The fact that a person can give personal examples of empathy with a victim-oriented cause is taken not as intended, but as evidence to the contrary. BLM’s own writings offer a plethora of examples of conflicting alliances and ideologies. If a person or event fits the organization’s attempts to win the game of appearing the victim, it’s used to those ends.
Professional victimhood knows no genuine friendship and leaves no room for gratitude or happiness. It is a natural and mostly healthy trait of the human condition to be drawn to our own–gender, age peers, race–name the group. The solutions to difficult societal problems lie in knowing when to take care of business at home, and when to join forces on shared turf. This is something healthy humans know innately. It’s something mature adults accept as a difficult responsibility.
There is no cause that’s entirely free of bits of hypocrisy, if one looks for them. The world is too complicated a place. Hypocrisy is only a way station on the way to seeing that BLM’s shunning of anything good in our society as proof that chaos is their goal. As McElroy explains, clinging to victimhood is a winning strategy in the short term, but one that ultimately fails its proponents.
The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the position of Guns.com.
