No this is still a worthwhile topic for discussion.
The first thing to understand is that black people have been trying different things to various degrees of success. So there are "black only" organizations and there are inclusive ones. For example, the NAACP was started by an interracial group.
But let me tell you a very short story that I was told by the head of one of the Black Wall Street, USA organization. They had an event to promote minority business and people came out to find minorities to award contracts to. Who benefited the most? White women. They are, after all, a "minority".
So I ask you... black people have limited resources. The needs that we have are often lowest on the list for those outside of our community. There are obviously less opportunities for black people. Not all of it is due to racism. Some is due to class-ism. Some is due to the fact that it takes money to make money. And if you don't have money you're not going to be in the social circles of those who do. So this means we have to work together to push ourselves upward. So... why should we spend our limited resources to help someone who we don't see spending their resources to help us?
The thing that really aggravated me about the opposition to BLM was this advocacy of "All Lives Matter". That's a nice thing to say because all lives DO matter, but not only did BLM never say that any lives matter more than others, but there also was an opportunity for ANY of those thousands of outraged white people to start an organization called ALM and raise money and awareness and work for solutions for tackling this issue of police brutality against all races. But outside of a FB page with anti BLM rhetoric, not a single person made any real attempt to do this; to create the thing they accused BLM of not being as if it had a moral duty to be that. For some reason, they couldn't do it either.
And I knew from the moment the criticism started they weren't going to and had no interest in doing so. They just wanted to have an argument against the thing they didn't like so they could be on the moral high ground while opposing what BLM was trying to do and accomplish. It provided them with cover so that they wouldn't have to take a deep look at themselves to see why, regular people just like them, who choose to become police officers, would be more likely to kill black people.
See? White people and black people are not monoliths. And no one wants to be thought of as racist. The problem is that even a lot of racists don't want to be called racist. And instead of identifying with the victims of these racial crimes (which I call killing an unarmed person a crime), they identify with the perpetrators because they see more similarity between themselves and the police than they do with the victims. That is my opinion and I will defend it as such. Some of the same people talking about all lives matter also talk about blue lives matter as if cops are fighting some kind of war and there are casualties on both sides; with black people killing cops.
"Black people" are NOT killing cops. That is a racist thought. Black people do not have meetings, do not have a situation room, do not have a def con 5, do not have any strategic common bone to hurt white people, but that is what many white people think, consciously or subconsciously. They think this because we "should" because of what they did to us and so they fear what we want to do in return. But we're not trying to get revenge for the past. We're trying to protect our future. We want liberty and justice for all. We want equality, fairness, and opportunity. And we fight against those who deny us these things because of their ignorance. If a cop gets killed by a black person that's unfortunate. But its not the work of "black people". That was a choice made by an individual. When a cop uses unnecessary deadly force against black people that is based on implicit or explicit bias that is an individual choice that is racially motivated. And it seems like, to them, the lives of black people have less value. BLM is a response to that. But if there are no consequences to taking black lives how can we correct this thinking that they have less value?
Of course white lives matter to a white cop. You don't need to remind him of that. BLM wasn't a slogan aimed at all of society. It was aimed at those with racist mindsets and mentalities who do not see the worth inherent in black people. This is born out by statistics. You're more likely to get shot if you're black. And its not because black people commit more crime. That's another stereotypical myth designed to create more bias against black people to the advantage of whites.
"Don't employ those nigg*rs. They steal."
Think about that. Who is more likely to steal? A black person with a master's degree, or a black person who can't get a blue collar job because every employer believes he's going to steal from them? If you can't get a job how are you supposed to survive without stealing? Or without public assistance?
"Don't employ those nigg*rs. They're lazy. Look at all the welfare queens."
But again... if you don't employ people how are they supposed to survive without public resources? The same works with the school to prison pipeline. All of these biases add up, not just to a lack of opportunities, but a system of guard rails that protect racists whites from having to see black destroy those stereotypes and prove them all lies.
BLM shouldn't exist, but it does. It does because it was trying to fill a vacuum. The NAACP should have been front and center on every shooting. Where were they? How are they choosing to use their resources? The KKK is pretty exclusive but how often are they railed against by the right wing media? Think about it. It's not like they went out of existence. It's not like they don't have a pro-white (only) agenda. What about the neo-nazis? What about the white nationalists? How often do right wing media pundits blast these groups and tell them that all lives matter? No, everyone always wants to tell black people how to feel, how to live, how to react to oppression. Telling someone they're protesting the wrong way is like telling someone screaming in pain that they're too loud. And when we're told its the same as everyone else's pain it rings hollow because how often are whites relieved when they see the cops arrive on the scene? Black people tend to tense up. I've personally been falsely treated like a criminal suspect before just because I "fit the description". Not a specific description; but his.
No no, its not the same. Domestic violence isn't the same as an assault at a bar. A three point shot isn't the same as a two pointer or a foul shot in basketball. A touch down is not the same thing as a soccer goal. It's different because racism makes it different. And that's what BLM protests. When a white person gets shot, its unfortunate. But they didn't get shot because they were white. They got shot in spite of that fact. That's the difference. So what protest could we do to stop people who are already less likely to get shot, to get shot even less, when they are shot in spite of being white? And if you take out the racial component that makes this type of shooting different, black people will still get shot more often even if you have some kind of globally beneficial effect. So is that acceptable? Is that what black people should be fighting for? Getting shot less but still more than whites for the same offenses? Do you see? Not including you doesn't mean we don't love you. It just means that its not effecting you the same way its affecting us and we don't need to pretend that it is. There were no white groups protesting this on everyone's behalf. Not before, and not after. And that's because whites (as a group) are more likely to side with the white police officer. And how many little white kids get shot in the park by cops because they're playing with a toy gun? How many people call the police on white kids mowing a lawn or selling lemonade or sleeping in a college library or being at a pool party? And its the same thought process that calls the cops on us even when we're innocent... that will shoot us when it suspects we're not.
And that's why "All Lives Matter" wouldn't work for us.
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