Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) over the weekend demanded that media outlets begin referring to Black Lives Matter activists as “thugs” instead of calling them “protesters” or “people.”…. “They’re not protesters,” she said during an interview on Breitbart News Sunday. “You know, these are thugs, they’re rioters.”…. “And yeah, I’m calling out the media, saying quit claiming that these rioters are people,” Palin continued. “They’re stomping on a flag — figuratively and literally — shouting ‘death to cops’, celebrating violence.”…. According to the former GOP vice presidential nominee, black activists “are getting away with it because there aren’t enough of them gutsy enough to call out what it actually is — and it’s sick.”…. “And I think the media is perpetuating a message that really evil people are thriving on right now,” Palin added, “as they try to warp malleable minds that would believe that one race matters more than another.”
It’s a textbook Right-wing debate tactic, cribbed straight from the Republican playbook. Accuse your adversaries of your raison d’ etre, act outraged…and before long, you’ll deflect virtually all adverse attention to them while you continue unimpeded on your merry way.
I’ve long since stopped caring about what Sarah Palin (or Rudy Giluiani) think about ANYTHING. When they stoop to trafficking in cheap racism and offensive stereotyping, though, I think it’s time to set the record straight.
Black Lives Matter? Of course they do; it would be difficult to imagine an idea any LESS controversial.
It’s easy for ignorant, hyper-partisan pundits to discuss Black Lives Matter (BLM). The quick and easy (and wrong) explanation is that it’s just another minority group demanding special treatment…right? Well, no. It’s actually much more than that…but since when is working for equality considered militating for special treatment…unless, of course, you’re the type of Conservative who believes themself more equal than others?
Black Lives Matter is a chapter-based national organization working for the validity of Black life. We are working to (re)build the Black liberation movement.
This is Not a Moment, but a Movement.
BlackLivesMatter was created in 2012 after Trayvon Martin’s murderer, George Zimmerman, was acquitted for his crime, and dead 17-year old Trayvon was posthumously placed on trial for his own murder. Rooted in the experiences of Black people in this country who actively resist our dehumanization, BlackLivesMatter is a call to action and a response to the virulent anti-Black racism that permeates our society.
If recent events have proven anything, it’s that racism remains alive and well. It may not assume the same form it did during the ’50s and ’60s, but there’s no doubt but that White privilege is still very much a thing…and that African-Americans are still swimming upstream in their search for equality. In many respects, Whites play the victim card while defaulting to considering African-Americans suspects. Whites demand to be considered innocent until proven guilty, but generally assume African-Americans to be just the opposite.
I suspect neither Caribou Barbie nor America’s Mayor © have bothered to peruse BLM’s website. Were they to do so, they might learn a thing or two about what the movement stands for. For instance, they might discover that BLM is not about violence or oppressing the White man. They’re about peace, social justice, respecting diversity, community, acceptance, tolerance, and a whole raft load of positive values…none of which have a thing to do with destroying Whitey.
As a white person I cannot accept that the GOP candidate for office was the leading voice in the United States for the “birther movement,” which questioned the citizenship of the president of the United States because his father was from Kenya. If you can’t see that and see that we have a racist problem in America that this despicable man won his parties nomination then I think you can’t objectively understand the problem.
America in 2016 is no place for “dog whistle” politics and it’s time that more people say out loud, “Black Lives Matter” to make sure that the terrible people trying to undermine the movement don’t have air cover for continued vitriol, hatred, and racism.
Too many Conservative pundits have made the assumption, pulled out of their backside (because it fits the dominant Right-wing narrative), that BLM is the modern-day reincarnation of the Black Panthers. The truth is nothing of the sort; BLM is a coordinated nationwide movement striving for peace, equality, and social justice. It’s not about violence or rioting or burning things down. Yes, those things may have happened at some BLM events…but not because BLM has advocated for them. In fact, BLM has made it clear they don’t condone, accept, or promote violence as a means to achieve their ends.
It seems clear that many on the Far Right- Palin and Giuliani chief among them- are heavily invested in promoting the propaganda that BLM is an inherently racist and violent organization looking to destroy White America. That’s what you do when you feel your position of superiority as the Master Race is in imperiled…but the fact is that BLM isn’t looking to rule anything. What they want is peace, equality, and social justice.
I’ll leave it pundits like Caribou Barbie and America’s mayor © to propagandize us into believing otherwise.
