Latest in a series of posts responding to the Jacob Blake shooting
Visit the Black Lives Matter web site.
Gadfly comes to the BLM web site with the strenuous negativity of Individual-1 as his immediate point of reference. Refresh yourself on that negativity here, recognizing that those clips are truncated and do not represent all such points that were in Individual-1’s essay.
Before first going to the web site, Gadfly read a BLM critic who said you will be immediately greeted by an image that shows BLM espousing “revolution.” Thus Gadfly was surprised to be greeted by the operative words “transform” and “transformation.” Not revolution.
Look at the August 25 press release on the death of Jacob Blake. Anything objectionable?
Gadfly sees honor the dead, hold those responsible accountable, press for legislation.
Look at the July 18 press release on the deaths of John Lewis and and Rev. C.T. Vivian.
Gadfly sees no Marxist models here.
Look at what BLM is “demanding”: defunding the police. please play short video
“Defund.” Poor choice of word, but I guess we’re stuck with it. Gadfly has written several times earlier that defunding the police may not be your cup o’tea, but it is not a hare-brained idea. And he has surveyed several model programs for you. Why defund? The video says because we tried reforms of the system and we’ve tried new ways of training, and the problem has not gone away. Reasonable. It’s a solution to a problem they see. Some, perhaps many, don’t see a problem that needs to be solved and hence do not understand defunding.
Look at What We Believe, the BLM creed.
Begins with “We acknowledge, respect, and celebrate differences and commonalities.”
Ends with “We embody and practice justice, liberation, and peace in our engagements with one another.”
In between find such tenets as
We are guided by the fact that all Black lives matter, regardless of actual or perceived sexual identity, gender identity, gender expression, economic status, ability, disability, religious beliefs or disbeliefs, immigration status, or location.
We make space for transgender brothers and sisters to participate and lead.
We are self-reflexive and do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift Black trans folk, especially Black trans women who continue to be disproportionately impacted by trans-antagonistic violence.
We build a space that affirms Black women and is free from sexism, misogyny, and environments in which men are centered.
We practice empathy. We engage comrades with the intent to learn about and connect with their contexts.
We make our spaces family-friendly and enable parents to fully participate with their children. We dismantle the patriarchal practice that requires mothers to work “double shifts” so that they can mother in private even as they participate in public justice work.
BLM believes in changing racial and sexual roles. Join the club, Gadfly might say.
Of the 15 tenets, the one that critics consistently point to as an indication of BLM’s revolutionary Marxism is
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.
Look at BLM’s political agenda: #WhatMatters2020. Please see the short video here.
Far from destructively revolutionary, BLM works within the system and encourages voting.
What are you seeing on the BLM web site?
Perhaps ‘individual-1’ sees it as ‘revolutionary’ to discuss or advocate for transformation of society to provide more equity, to establish collective arrangements and build community, or to change prejudiced & oppressive treatment of different genders and minorities.
The funny thing is that the BLM folks seem to support many basic Christian principles — which is quite different from supporting the tenets of most so-called Christian denominations.