“Black
Lives Matter leader states, ‘If U.S. doesn’t give us what we
want, then we will burn down this system and replace it’. This is
Treason, Sedition, Insurrection!”
– President
Donald Trump (June 25, 2020)
The Black Lives Matter
Global Network is debunking a tweet posted by President Donald Trump
wrongly associating the statements of an unaffiliated activist to the
group. The New York City activist Hawk Newsome, who is a former
president of Black Lives Matter Greater New York, said in an TV
interview this week that those protesting the death of George Floyd
would “burn down this system and replace it” if activists’
demands weren’t met.
A managing director for
the BLM network founded by Black women who coined the slogan issued a
statement saying Newsome does not represent the network or any of its
affiliate chapters. In a response to The Associated Press, Newsome
said no one can claim ownership of the movement.
A BLM spokesperson said ..
“As BLM has told Mr.
Newsome in the past, and as is still true today, Mr. Newsome’s
group is not a chapter of BLM and has not entered into any agreement
with BLM agreeing to adhere to BLM’s core principles.”
(Christina Wilkie. “Trump cranks up attacks on the Black Lives Matter movement
for racial justice.”
CNBC. June 25, 2020.)
In truth, there exists
a history of attacks by nationalist groups on the Black Lives
Matter movement. Many of these attacks are politically based and
falsely accuse BLM of being akin to a hate group.
Back in 2015, the
Editorial Board of The New York Times stated …
“The Republican Party
and its acolytes in the news media are trying to demonize the protest
movement that has sprung up in response to the all-too-common police
killings of unarmed African-Americans across the country. The intent
of the campaign – evident in comments by politicians like Gov.
Nikki Haley of South Carolina, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and
Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky – is to cast the phrase “Black
Lives Matter” as an inflammatory or even hateful anti-white
expression that has no legitimate place in a civil rights campaign.”
The New York Times.
September 3, 2015.)
In the week before Trump's
June 25 tweet, Trump had deployed a racist nickname for the
deadly coronavirus, demanded that a toppled Confederate statue
in Washington be restored, tweeted context-free videos of black
people attacking white people, tweeted a doctored video purportedly
showing a “racist baby,” and accused former President Barack
Obama of “treason.”
Christie Wilkie of CNBC
says …
“By cranking up the
same culture wars that helped Trump to win the White House in 2016,
the president hopes to galvanize his core supporters, and to drive a
wedge between suburban middle-class White voters and the activists
protesting in cities across the nation.”
(Christina Wilkie.
“Trump cranks up attacks on the Black Lives Matter movement
for racial
justice.” CNBC. June 25, 2020.)
Black Lives Matter was
intended to make Congress and Americans confront the fact that
African-Americans were being killed with impunity for offenses like
trying to vote, and had the right to life and to equal protection
under the law. The movement sought a cross-racial appeal, but at
every step of the way used expressly racial terms to describe the
destruction that was visited upon black people because they were
black.
The
Editorial Board says …
“Along the way, there was
never a doubt as to what the struggle was about: securing citizenship
rights for black people. The “Black Lives Matter” movement
focuses on the fact that black citizens have long been far more
likely than whites to die at the hands of the police, and is of a
piece with this history. Demonstrators who chant the phrase are
making the same declaration that voting rights and civil rights
activists made a half-century ago. They are not asserting that black
lives are more precious than white lives. They are underlining an
indisputable fact — that the lives of black citizens in this
country historically have been discounted and devalued.”
The
New York Times. September 3, 2015.)
The Black Lives Matter
Global Network started out as a chapter-based, member-led
organization whose mission was to build local power and to intervene
when violence was inflicted on Black communities by the state and
vigilantes. In the years since, the network is committed to
struggling together and to imagining and creating a world free of
anti-Blackness, where every Black person has the social, economic,
and political power to thrive.
BLM’s #WhatMatters2020
is a campaign aimed to maximize the impact of the BLM movement by
galvanizing BLM supporters and allies to the polls in the 2020 U.S
Presidential Election to build collective power and ensure candidates
are held accountable for the issues that systematically and
disproportionately impact Black and under-served communities across
the nation.
“The Black Lives
Matter Movement has to be understood in the context of the historical
legacy of the ill treatment of blacks by the police and the criminal
justice system and American political and social institutions more
generally. That legacy is a fact.”
– Professor Daniel
Nagin, Teresa And H. John Heinz III University Professor Of Public
Policy And Statistics at Carnegie Mellon
Asia A. Carter-Lamb of
Roger Williams University tells about the biggest misconceptions
associated with Black Lives Matter.
Carter-Lamb says the most
dangerous misconception is that by declaring that black lives matter,
the group is actually claiming that other lives do not matter,
thereby elevating black lives to a superior status. Carter-Lamb
exposes the extent of the false belief …
“This fallacy is even
believed by former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani, who claimed that the
movement was 'inherently racist.' However, this belief directly
contrasts one of the BLM guiding principles, which states that the
movement is 'committed to acknowledging, respecting and celebrating
differences and commonalities.' This is why many protests by BLM have
drawn notably diverse participants.”
(Asia A
Carter-Lamb. "Black Life Mater: Debunked!"
New and
Dangerous Ideas: Vol 1, Article 8. 2018.)
Another misconception
cited by Carter-Lamb is that BLM encourages needless violence against
police officers. In the article “More Hypocrisy from Black Lives
Matter,” Ian Tuttle details the story of Micah Johnson who opened
fire during a march in Dallas, which resulted in the death of five
police officers. Although Johnson attended the protest, it was later
discovered that his alignment with violent black nationalists is what
spurred his violence. Though his extreme actions do not represent the
values of the movement, they are now intertwined with its reputation.
Violent acts committed in
the name of the movement have led the movement to creating Campaign
Zero in association with social activist DeRay Mckesson, explicitly
outlining the changes they wish to see in modern policing. Their
initiative shows the true intentions of BLM, which is not to attack
police officers, but to collaborate with them in order to make all
citizens feel safe.
Carter-Lamb concludes …
“Out of these gross
misconceptions, the Blue Lives Matter counter-movement has sprung.
Though their mission statement does not contradict the BLM movement,
it directly attacks the movement, even claiming that the purpose of
Black Lives Matter is the “vilification of the law.” … By
contradicting us, bigots only create more division, more intolerance,
and more hatred between us. This leaves society stagnant.”
(Asia A
Carter-Lamb. "Black Life Mater: Debunked!"
New and
Dangerous Ideas: Vol 1, Article 8. 2018.)
The Brooklyn Society for
Ethical Culture affirms that the Black Lives Matter movement has been
and remains explicitly and strongly anti-violence. The Black Lives
Matter movement seeks restorative, not retributive, justice. The
society says, “There are a few in any crowd who are angry and hurt
and who don’t respect what the movement would prefer they do. The
actions or words of that few do not speak for the many.”
Demonstrators clash with police near the Seattle Police Departments East Precinct shortly after midnight on June 8, 2020 in Seattle, Washington.
At
what risk to themselves do Black Lives Matter protesters hit the
streets?
“Out of
the blue, they started breezing pepper spray into the crowd. There
was one officer on the median who was spraying as well. Then they
started with tear gas. Someone who was right in the front – who had
a tear gas canister hit his head – started running back. And we
were trying to help him, flushing his eyes and then he just fainted
and started having a seizure.”
– Lizzie Horne, a
rabbinical student who was tear-gassed in Philadelphia on June 1,
2020
Amnesty
International has documented 125 separate examples of police violence
against protesters in 40 states and the District of Columbia between
May 26 and June 5 2020, a period when hundreds of thousands of
people in the USA and other countries protested against racism and
police violence and to demand that Black lives matter.
To evaluate these
incidents, Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab gathered
almost 500 videos and photographs of protests from social media
platforms. This digital content was then verified, geolocated, and
analyzed by investigators with expertise in weapons, police tactics,
and international and US laws governing the use of force. In some
cases, researchers were also able to interview victims and confirm
police conduct with local police departments.
The
analysis shows that law enforcement officers violated human rights
daily out on the streets instead of fulfilling their obligations to
respect and facilitate the right of people to peacefully protest.
Brian Griffey, USA
Researcher/Advisor at Amnesty International, reports …
“This unlawful use of force included beatings, misuse of tear gas and pepper spray, and the inappropriate firing of less-lethal projectiles, such as sponge rounds and rubber bullets. Those abuses were committed by a range of security forces from state and local police departments, federal agencies, and the National Guard.”
“This unlawful use of force included beatings, misuse of tear gas and pepper spray, and the inappropriate firing of less-lethal projectiles, such as sponge rounds and rubber bullets. Those abuses were committed by a range of security forces from state and local police departments, federal agencies, and the National Guard.”
Brian Castner, Senior
Crisis Advisor on Arms and Military Operations at Amnesty
International, says …
“The analysis is clear: when activists and supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement took to the streets in cities and towns across the USA to peacefully demand an end to systemic racism and police violence, they were overwhelmingly met with a militarized response and more police violence.”
“The analysis is clear: when activists and supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement took to the streets in cities and towns across the USA to peacefully demand an end to systemic racism and police violence, they were overwhelmingly met with a militarized response and more police violence.”
(Brian
Griffey. “USA: End unlawful police violence against Black Lives
Matter protests.” Amnesty International. June 23, 2020.)
Freelance writer Austa
Somvichian-Clausen says many have compared the current Black Lives
Matter movement to the events of the Stonewall Riots in 1969, when
history was made after the first brick was thrown to protest the
injustice being faced by the LGBTQ+ community. Somvichian-Clausen
reports, “Just as the Stonewall Riots catalyzed a movement and
changed the course of the narrative for LGBTQ+ rights in the U.S.,
these past two weeks have already made changes that certainly should
go down in the history books.”
(Austa
Somvichian-Clausen. “What the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests have
achieved so far.” thehill.com. June 10, 2020.)
In conclusion, Trump on
June 25, seizing on a quote by a man who runs a fringe Black Lives
Matter knock-off group, and a chant that is not popular with
protesters, suggested in tweets that the loosely organized racial
justice movement poses a threat. Donald Trump has a history of
opposing Black Lives Matter.
In September 2015, Trump,
the Republican presidential candidate, said during a Fox News
interview with Bill O'Reilly:
"I think they're
(Black Lives Matter) trouble. I think they're looking for trouble …
“I looked at a couple
of the people that were interviewed from the group. I saw them with
hate coming down the street last week talking about cops and police,
and what should be done to them. And that was not good. And I think
it's a disgrace that they're getting away with it …
"I think it's
disgraceful the way they're being catered to by the Democrats. And
it's going to end up kicking them you-know-where. I don't think it's
going to end up good. The fact is all lives matter. That includes
black and it includes white and it includes everybody else …
"He's wrong.
(Trump was speaking about former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a
prominent African-American Republican leader and former military
general, who defended Black Lives Matter.)
“He's totally wrong.
It's 'All Lives Matter,' and that should be the theme of this
country, frankly, or one of the themes. So he's obviously catering to
somebody. I don't know who he's catering to."
(Colin Campbell.
“Donald Trump trashes Black Lives Matter: 'I think they're
trouble.'”
Business Insider.
September 9, 2015.)
Then,
in 2016, Trump addressed the fallout from deadly police shootings of
black men in Louisiana and Minnesota, and the killing of five police
officers in Dallas, during both an interview with Fox News and a
rally in Westfield, Indiana.
Even as he expressed
concerns over the police killings of Alton Sterling and Philando
Castile, describing videos of the encounters as “tough to watch”,
Trump blamed Barack Obama and Black Lives Matter as primarily
responsible for divisions over race.
In 2016, Trump told
Fox News host Bill O’Reilly that he opposes the phrase “black
lives matter” …
“I think it’s
certainly, it’s very divisive and I think they’re hurting
themselves. (in reference to the phrase 'black lives matter' and the
movement leading national demonstrations for criminal justice reform)
…
“The first time I
heard it I said ‘You have to be kidding. I think it’s a very,
very, very divisive term. There’s no question about it.”
(Sabrina Siddiqui.
“Donald Trump strikes muddled note on 'divisive' Black Lives
Matter.”
The Guardian.
July 21, 2016.)
In this blog entry, I am
presenting the statements and the facts as they pertain to Black
Lives Matter and Donald Trump. It is up to you to decide the truth of
the matter as it pertains to Trump's emotional evaluation of their
actions as “Treason, Sedition, and Insurrection!”
There is no doubt Trump's
displeasure with the movement has much deeper roots than the words of
Hawk Newsome in 2020. You can question Trump's claims “he has done
more for black community than any president since Lincoln.”
In fact, you may want to
evaluate his boisterous claim in the light that he took out ads for
the execution of the teens who comprised the so-called “Central
Park Five,” whose convictions were later vacated after they spent
seven to 13 years in prison, and the city paid $41 million in a
settlement to the teens. Remember, Trump in October 2016 said he
still believes they’re guilty, despite the DNA evidence to the
contrary.
And, if that's not enough,
remember the 1991 book by John O’Donnell, former president of Trump
Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, who quoted Trump’s
criticism of a Black accountant: “Black guys counting my money! I
hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short
guys that wear yarmulkes every day. … I think that the guy is lazy.
And it’s probably not his fault, because laziness is a trait in
blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not anything they can
control.”
(German
Lopez. “Donald Trump’s long history of racism, from the 1970s to
2020.”
Vox. June
24, 2020.)
And
who could forget this timely statement? in August 2017, Trump
repeatedly said that “many sides” and “both sides” were to
blame for the violence and chaos that ensued – suggesting that the
white supremacist protesters were morally equivalent to
counterprotesters who stood against racism. He also said that there
were “some very fine people” among the white supremacists.
I
rest my case. The jury of American citizens must now decide.
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