Black Lives Matter and the Implausible Weaponisation of Activism
WHAT DOES BLACK LIVES MATTER ACTUAL STAND FOR?
Activism is a generally plausible experience in our lives. It is important for people to have a good cause that they rally behind and educate themselves on in order to be effective advocates of it to others. In Christianity, we see this even in the Scriptures with the Lord Jesus’ teachings, with the Prophets and Apostles of old, and with the Apostle Paul, who defined himself as an advocate for Christ, despite being at times subjected to apologetic circumstances, like we see in the book of Acts).
We see this also with the progressive shift from Christian Apologetics to Christian Activism today. In fact, I’d like to encourage you to visit the Pastor Chris Digital Library, and listen to the message titled “Apologetics vs Activism” to appreciate this subject from a Christian perspective further. But, all of this is to say that activism is not at all inherently bad; in fact it has a plausible role in society.
However, what we see is that a number of activist causes are progressively hijacked by people who have an often misguided perception of what society ought to look like, or people who are able to garner enough of a following by capitalising on a contentious event – which is exemplified by the origin story of the BLM movement. In essence, BLM was co-founded in 2013 as an online movement (using the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media) by three Black community organisers—namely: Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi.
They formed BLM after George Zimmerman was acquitted on charges stemming from his fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin. But, while on the surface this might appear as though BLM formed as a response to discontent with jury verdicts in criminal cases where African Americans died, that is far from the message that the group has promulgated and condomed throughout the years.
In fact, a lot comes to the surface when we look at some of the beliefs of the co-founders, and the proposed ideal society that is envisioned by BLM; and of course their works. On some of the beliefs of the founders, in a recently surfaced 2015 interview, one of the three Black Lives Matter co-founders declared that she and another co-founder “are trained Marxists.” And while these are individual beliefs, it certainly has broad implications because this ideology has been co-opted into the founding beliefs of BLM.
In particular, included on its list of beliefs is one that is seen as being consistent with Marxism: BLM stated that (and I quote directly here) “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.”
So, while some have tried to say that BLM founders being trained Marxists is not a problem, it certainly does show that they support ideas of centralised control or governance, where even the nuclear family is not regarded, and children can be regarded as belonging to a broader village”, which is euphemistic language that is exemplified by laws in california where teachers can hide information about the gender transition status of their children; while parents are harassed for protesting the teaching of sexual education to minors in public schools. In fact, in 2020 during his RNC speech, Jack Brewer exposed this consequential threat from BLM’s ideology, emphasising that, families need each other; and that there is a need for fathers in the homes with their wives and children.”
And so, it is quite notable that the founders of BLM are self-proclaimed trained Marxists, and that they promulgate these ideas without adequate scrutiny. In fact, people who supported the movement paid the price for these ideas. Because the self-proclaimed Marxists had their ideas on how the funds generated by BLM would be spent, and they were spent on luxury homes that are not clearly serving any African American.
BLACK LIVES MATTER AND THE GEORGE FLOYD RIOTS
With this context established, we need to zoom in on the works that BLM has committed itself to, which became especially notable with the George Floyd riots. There were a lot of critical facts that were omitted in the narrative that BLM promulgated to justify and sensationalise the George Floyd riots. For some context: George Floyd was being apprehended for using counterfeit bills, and at the time this was happening, he had 4 times the lethal amount of fentanyl in his system – this is why he could not breathe (hypoxia). The police weren’t apprehending him in a “violent and fatal manner” (in fact, he asked to be put on the ground) – instead, they were dealing with an erratic person (while they did not know what he was on).
This is not to say that people who overdose on fentanyl must be treated poorly or even die without much probe or consequences – emphatically no. Rather this is to bring to attention the fact that the George Floyd case largely became about out-of court social justice that was engineered by BLM and not about genuine justice. The facts on that case were distorted and less considered in many discussions; in fact, what many people know is simply that a white police officer put his knee on a black man’s neck and suffocated him to death while another officer restrained the black man (which is obviously not accurate).
Now, the portrayal of George Floyd as a victim of being the wrong race, in the wrong place at the wrong time has created a harmful narrative of assuming that every African American who dies in an encounter with police must be a martyr or victim – and if not careful, this narrative will come back to harm the African American community. People need to learn that it does not take away from genuine instances of racism to acknowledge when an incident is not racist. In this case, George Floyd was a previous violent offender, who was being apprehended at the time for another crime. He also had 4 times the lethal amount of fentanyl in his body, while behaving erratically. It’s acceptable to admit this, while advocating for a less racist society.
It is also acceptable to say that George Floyd was not and never was killed by racist police officers; instead George Floyd was killed by a drug overdose. But, most importantly, it is important to recognise that George Floyd is also not a symbol of resistance to systematised racism. His unfortunate death was weaponised by BLM to manipulate African Americans into thinking that there was justice in destroying their neighbourhoods and local businesses as an expression of frustration.
THE SYDNEY WILSON CASE: ANOTHER BLACK LIVES MATTER RIOT PREVENTED
This brings us to the recent case with Sydney Wilson. Sydney Wilson was fatally shot by police officer Peter Liu during a welfare check on September 16. Body camera footage shows Wilson attacking officer Liu with a knife after he knocked on his apartment door. Liu, a 14-year veteran trained in crisis intervention, retreated down a hallway before firing 3 shots at Wilson.
There are three things I’d like to highlight from this case. First, the value of life is absolute; we know this because God, in His love for the world of men, sent His only begotten Son for the salvation of all; and so this discussion is certainly not aimed at diluting this fact. This said, the second point I would like to highlight is that this case importantly shows what happens when people are given adequate access to the events that transpired and are allowed to make an informed judgement. More specifically, in the case of Sydney Wilson, BLM has not been very vocal about this case, in so far as using it to justify calls for riots.
The reason is that people saw him wielding a knife and injuring a police officer before he shot him to defend himself. In the absence of this information, like how people were not told that George Floyd had three times the lethal amount of fentanyl in his system, or that he had a history of violent crimes, people can be misled and used by organisations like BLM.
The final point I’d like to highlight is that this case exposes an often less discussed ramification of the trans agenda, which is how it intersects with policing. Sydney Wilson is a biological 6’6 male, who identifies as a trangender woman. There is not enough discussion about what this encounter could have been like if the responding officer was a biological woman, seeing that officer Liu himself was injured in the process, despite having a gun and being a biological male himself. Society needs to consider not only the subjective feelings of transgender people and realise that the trans agenda has far reaching ramifications. In fact, we see this concern when judges send offenders guilty of sexual-abuse crimes to female prisons because they identify as women.
BLACK LIVES ACTUALLY DO NOT MATTER TO KAMALA HARRIS
But, beyond the movement itself, black lives actually do not matter to a number of political figures who’ve pretentiously stood behind BLM and the statement itself. Not only does Kamala Harris have a history of incarceration with African Americans that contradicts her and Tim Walz’s BLM support, but Kamala Harris hurt a lot of African American families in the guise of protecting children who were not being sent to school.
Well, by the works we know them; and the works of BLM and Democrats like Kamala Harris and Tim Waz do not show people who care about the best interests of African Americans. Their works are revealing of people who weaponise painful experiences to manipulate others as a means to an end.
