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The Black Lives Matter Movement
November 16th, 2016 Updated 8-26-2018
Is the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement justified? Is it insulting? Is it racist? I think there may be be a little too much pride on all sides as far as the namesake goes. The issue gets a little muddled in the controversy about the name. All Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter shouldn’t turn away from the point BLM is trying to make and BLM shouldn’t get so caught up in name haggling that it stops conveying that African Americans are killed 2.5 times more often than Caucasians per capita. The name only ever bothered me a little because I heard “Black Lives Matter As Well” not that white or any other lives don’t matter. 
The problem I have with the name is “black”. I so much prefer African American and Caucasian to black and white. The tags are just psychologically unfair. In the American language black is associated with all things evil and dark while white is associated with all things pure and light. Black and white are also false labels. There are a few people who are close to black or white but I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t brown, blueish, purplish or just light skinned pink.
BLM started when George Zimmerman wasn’t indicted for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in 2013. Alicia Garza wrote a Facebook post titled “A Love Letter (Note) to Black People”. Patrisse Cullors responded “#BlackLivesMatter” and with the enlistment of Opal Tometi a movement was born. Darnell L. Moore and Robbie Clark are a couple of folks who helped. LGBTQ is an important movement to the group as Alicia Garza and Patrisse Cullors are queer. Garza’s husband is transgender.
BLM didn’t receive National recognition until the Michael Brown case in 2014 in Ferguson Missouri and the Eric Garner (video 1:35) case in New York City. This blog left me doing a lot of research about individual cases to try to answer for myself is the movement justified? I’ll provide Wikipedia links and Youtube videos for many of them. Other protests include but are not limited to Jonathan Ferrell (video 10:00), John Crawford III (video 16:45), Ezell Ford, Laquan McDonald (video 5:11), Akai Gurley, Tamir Rice (video 8:30), Eric Harris, Walter Scott (video 0:18), Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, Samuel DuBose (video 3:10) Jeremy McDole (video 0:47), Alton Sterling (video 0:42) and Philando Castile (video 0:00). None of these shootings needed deadly force. Jerermy McDole would have taken a little bravery but I would have approached him and disarmed him without killing him. It is stupid or mentally irregular not to comply with law enforcement when carrying a weapon but most of these people weren’t carrying.
About 13 percent of all African Americans who have been fatally shot by police since January 2015 were unarmed, compared with 7 percent of all Caucasian people shot. There’s the argument that African Americans are more violent therefore get shot more. The chart to the (right) shows that there’s no correlation between violence and police shootings. Some of the most violent areas have some of fewest police shootings and some of the least violent areas have some the most police shootings. For what ever reason, genetic subconscious, prejudice, or social lag, the numbers show that in America, African American lives are not as valuable as Caucasian lives; not in the courts, not on the streets and therefore no where else. Law enforcement, including the courts, deal unfairly with the African American community . To Kill Or Not To Kill, Capital Punishment briefly takes a look at racial bias and the death penalty. It’s really difficult to swallow this but it is what it is. Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. of Milwaukee County has been critical of Black Lives Matter, stating that there is no police brutality problem in America and that “there is no racism in the hearts of police officers”. I am American through and through and I love my Country. I would die for it and that’s because it allows for change. This is something that’s got to change and if BLM can bring a focus to that need, it’s a start.
Crime is significantly higher among African Americans. African Americans were charged with 62 percent of robberies, 57 percent of murders and 45 percent of assaults in the country’s 75 biggest counties. This is despite the fact that African Americans made up just 15 percent of the population in those places. I think it’s safe to say that American slavery for 246 years created a totally dependent African American population. Then slavery ended without provision, “OK your free and we will hold resentment.” African Americans didn’t have land or cattle nor did the have the skills to live off the land like Native Americans. African Americans had to steal and kill just to live after the dependency that came with slavery and Caucasian resentment. Having facts such as these for a peoples beginnings will have ill effects on any community. Until we start dealing with the situation from that perspective ain’t shit gonna change.
I have an online friend, Patti Smith, who says Black Lives Matter has said some atrocious things. I can not be a party to “white” or “police” hating but I think that has to do with how loosely organized BLM is. There is no central leadership in the 30 world wide chapters that exist. I think there should be solid leadership; someone(s) accountable for what’s said and done, someone(s) to police their own and say this acceptable and this is not. They should try to entice psychologist, politicians, lawyers, and even police to join. It’s easy for me to say “they should” and I say it because I believe in the cause. It needs to become America’s cause and I want it to bring about change, not be a drop in the bucket. If BLM ends up being an insult to the the very people it represents then it was a waste of time. This, to me, is insulting…Black Lives Matter Chapter Co-founder Marissa Johnson walked onstage, sized the microphone from Bernie Sanders and called his supporters racists and white supremacists (video 5:20). Nikki Stephens, the operator of a Facebook page called “Black Lives Matter: Seattle” issued an apology to Sanders’ supporters, claiming these actions did not represent her understanding of BLM. She was then sent messages by members of the Seattle Chapter which she described as threatening, and was forced to change the name of her group to “Black in Seattle”. The founders of Black Lives Matter stated that they had not issued an apology. In August 2015, the Democratic National Committee passed a resolution supporting Black Lives Matter. Some of the negativity from BLM is effective to some extent and that’s unfortunate. I want to see BLM bring about real change, not for the shock value causing some scared and pitiful Caucasian person to pull forth a penny from their tightly concealed purse. There’s the other side of the story where Alicia Garza spoke at the University of Virginia and said “All lives do, in fact, matter” and the reader said she spoke of love.
Although I don’t believe the loosely woven BLM movement represent all African Americans and Mulattos well, I hope they can in the future. There’s a lot baby raising in the African American genes and a well organized BLM movement would do superbly under Occupational Parenting. The Rule of Socialized Genetics on The Environment page explains why. I think it is justified, I think it is insulting and I think it can be racist. Black Lives Matter shakes things up. Hopefully in the future it can smooth things out without America loosing focus on how unfair the American values are. Maybe they’ll change the name. Until next time, keep your homes well.
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