Is #BlackLivesMatter a legit movement or black supremacy?

[Tora]

Just in case: TRIGGER WARNING

I have been looking into this movement and some of the things that I have found has been quite appalling. So the question is whether or not this movement is legit or just a rallying call for black supremacy. According to #BlackLivesMatter the term "all lives matter" is racist.

Along with this appalling statement directed at whites; "You have to actually sacrifice yourself." What is that supposed to mean? What does that entail? Is it related to this video from University of Harvard students?

I'm sorry but a call for whites to kill themselves is going too far. There is no justification of these statements.

Evidently the movement's infamous co-founder is literally about killing whites. She even posted a tweet about it. Later removing it.

This movement is looking more and more like supremacy than anything else.

Continuing on we find that they are inevitably racist none the less despite whether they are about black supremacy or not. Apparently they have a no-whites policy. They decided to have a meeting at the Nashville Public Library with the explicit rule and I quote, "BLM General Body meetings are open to black and non-black people of color only." Obviously having anyone white would destroy their cause. The library decided to ban the meeting with sane reasoning, "Library officials said all meetings at their taxpayer-funded facilities must be open to the general public and news media.." BLM decided to call this reasoning white supremacy. “Due to white supremacy in our local government, this week’s BLM General Body Meeting location has changed, BLM General Body meetings are open to black and non-black people of color only.”

They try to defend their nonsense with this quote, "The Nashville Chapter of BLM has this policy in place to center the voices and experiences of people of color that have historically been excluded or segregated within supposedly public spaces, [W]e view these spaces as integral to healing and community building, particularly to those who have experienced racialized violence and ardently maintain this policy as imperative to the work and mission of BLM.”

So lets talk about it. Is this movement real or is it black supremacy?

[Regulus]

You're framing this in such a way that it's difficult to disagree.

Here's the deal, though: regardless of whether or not the BLM movement has any merit, I think we can all agree that the issues they protest about are not issues that should be ignored. Certain people and certain events in the movement may be examples of black supremacy, you're correct on that front. But that doesn't change the fact that black people tend to be poorer and are typically more harshly punished by the criminal justice system.

[Rollo]

Couldn't agree with you more Regulus, especially that first sentence. This is a very one-sided opening to a debate. I'd hardly call that fair. It's almost immediately disowning anyone with the opinion that BLM is a good thing, or is capable of positive changes in society. Surely there should be a little more information about why BLM was started, which, regardless of how the movement may have progressed since then, was for very legitimate reasons? Even just something to promote the positive things that BLM has managed to achieve? Where is that?

[TheLionPrince]

I hate the #BlackLivesMatter movement with a passion, although I would say it's their tactics that I hate more than the actual movement. They tend to become nuisances by shouting down others who are on the opposing side and those who could be their political allies (as seen when they took over a Bernie Sanders rally) and initiate shutdowns of public facilities like commercial stores. Because this movement lacks a hierarchical organization, their members can say whatever they want such as advocating for white genocide and call for black supremacy. I cannot say for sure that this movement promotes this, but a large segment of them seem to support this philosophy and the core founders, as far as I'm aware, has not discouraged this. But let's not forget one of their most dishonorable moments when marching activists called the execution of police officers singing the chant "Pigs in a blanket / Fry 'em like a bacon":


However, I will admit they have legitimate reasons to protest against. With the exploitation of the national media, there have been a number of headline-grabbing reports of police officers using excessive force and other methods of police brutality upon arresting black individuals that often led to the victims' deaths. These incidents were the deaths of Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Sandra Bland, Samuel DuBose, and etc. And while more whites died at the hands of police officers (no doubt because they constitute more than 70% of the population in the United States), The Washington Post did report that 40% of blacks killed were unarmed and "blacks [are killed] at three times the rate of whites when adjusted for the populations where these shootings occurred." However, they ignore the high statistics of black-on-black homicide, which is significantly higher than white-on-black homicide. In 2013, the FBI released homicide statistics listing that of the amounted 2,491 homicide deaths of African Americans, 2,245 of those deaths were also caused by other African Americans. That is over 90 percent. In comparison, 189 of those deaths were caused by whites.

In the end, the lives of African American do matter when they can contribute to the betterment of society, as does every else's. However, they can't ignore that black people tend to murder their own, and the reasons lie because of illegally sold guns, lack of education, the disintegration of the family, the inability to find a job, and growing up in ghettos. The movement also needs to target the high abortion rate of babies born to African American mothers. And I will never understand in what way does "All Lives Matter" constitute as a racist statement?

[Rollo]

The reason All Lives Matter was branded as racist is simply because of bad timing. I was very active on Tumblr around the time that Michael Brown was shot and to my knowledge, this is when things really started to move forward for BLM. At that time I never saw any black supremacy on the website, and almost everyone seems to believe that Tumblr is where you're likely to see incidents like this. What I witnessed was black people trying to defend their human rights against white police officers who acted in a way that suggested they had none. BLM started to become very popular, black people across the world were teaming together to show that they would stand against the forces, you know the story. Someone decided this was leaving everybody out despite the fact that this was not an issue about any other race in terms of relevancy - this was about black people being targeted for no reason other than being black! All Lives Matter was a horribly insensitive thing when you consider that it was almost like telling BLM to pipe down. I'm not talking about what it stands for nowadays, but back then, when the issue had first arisen. BLM were trying to be heard when no one would allow them a voice. ALM wasn't exactly helping. It was time to give black people a chance. They were the ones being hurt by these particular instances of recurring police brutality.

Even to this day, I still find All Lives Matter a bit...iffy. To me, it was not built on the foundation of equality. It was built on the majority (and most All Lives Matter supporters tend to be white) becoming upset that they weren't getting attention about THEIR human rights, which were not being made redundant in favour of the police at this time. This had nothing to do with them.

[KopsTheTerminator]

Ah, Fox News. The most biased of American media outlets.

All Lives Matter is being seen as controversial because it refuses to aknowledge the racial issues of blacks in American society. Yes, all lives matter, that much is obvious- but saying that is generalising the problem when it's this particular minority being discriminated against in this situation.

Of course the BlackLivesMatter Movement has nutcases, all groups do. Does that mean that there's no racial tension in America that needs to be addressed? Certainly not. There's evidently a problem with the US' police brutality that hasn't been properly addressed in a very long time, it's about time someone brought it to light.

[Rollo]

Yeah, you have to wonder why on earth someone would use Fox News as a source for one of their claims. It's almost like saying "I want this to be true, but meh, it's probably BS."

[KopsTheTerminator]

[quote="TheLionPrince"]In the end, the lives of African American do matter when they can contribute to the betterment of society, as does every else's. However, they can't ignore that black people tend to murder their own, and the reasons lie because of illegally sold guns, lack of education, the disintegration of the family, the inability to find a job, and growing up in ghettos.[/quote]

The way I see it, all of these are a sign of poverty and racial inequality in the first place. Poverty can bring the worst out of people, especially marginalized groups.

[quote="www.npc.umich.edu/poverty/"]The poverty rate for all persons masks considerable variation between racial/ethnic subgroups. Poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics greatly exceed the national average. In 2010, 27.4 percent of blacks and 26.6 percent of Hispanics were poor, compared to 9.9 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 12.1 percent of Asians.[/quote]

No, this is not because they're "not working hard enough". Nobody wants to be in poverty.

As for abortion rates being an issue that's a debate for another day.

[Tora]

I love how the only responses so far, with the exception of TLP, have had no evidence in support. And in my eyes BLM is a hate group. They are solely out to benefit blacks and blacks alone regardless of how they achieve it. Even as far as saying that whites need to in-fact kill themselves and give up their rights to somehow someway give blacks rights. There is absolutely nothing standing in the way of blacks from escaping poverty. It's more less become a culture for them, and they choose to remain in it and complain. According to the article linked above, "More African-Americans are going to college than ever before. But according to new research from the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University, African-American college students are more likely to pursue majors that lead to low-paying jobs, setting up many for future debt and underemployment."

I'm sorry but that line of reasoning that it "all lives matter" makes it about whites and takes away the black's voice is utter nonsense. #factsareracist There is no evidence of systematic racism against blacks. Our system of justice is based on facts not feelings. You can feel all day that blacks have systematic racism all day, but the evidence is just not there. Sure there maybe be a case or two where individual officers may have profiled a black person, but that is not the entire system. The simple fact of the matter is that more whites do crime than blacks and that is just fact. Blacks account for 28.1% of all arrests while whites account for 69.3%. While Asians account for 1.2% and Native Americans are at 1.4%. The very fundemental arguement that blacks are being systematically profiled is completely false; no evidence supports it.

Take a look at this interesting interview. Even blacks are against this nonsense.

[KopsTheTerminator]

Of course they're there to benefit blacks, that's the whole point. You wouldn't see the first feminists trying to fight for men's rights because men already had the rights women didn't have.

As for All Lives Matter.

[quote]"If there's a subdivision and a house is on fire...the fire department wouldn't show up and put water on all the houses because all houses matter, they would show up and turn on their water on the house that was burning because that's the house that needs help the most."[/quote]

Matter of fact is, racism is far from over. It's not just an American phenomenon either, seeing the rise of far-right neo-nazi parties in Europe in response to the refugee crisis.

Honestly though, even if you take race out of the equation you've still gotta admit there's an issue of excessive force amongst US policemen compared to other countries indicating a problem.

As for the interview I'll have a look at it later, however it's not surprising that there's differing views in the black community because groups aren't hiveminds.