4 ms·

Perhaps you're getting down voted for pointing out that the BLM organization is different than the sentiment that yes, black lives matter. I've found you can't

Perhaps you're getting down voted for pointing out that the BLM organization is different than the sentiment that yes, black lives matter. I've found you can't criticize the BLM organization or else it's equated that you think black lives do not matter.

neither_color 6y ago
Exactly. It’s an organization with a website, a donation page, and a published set of beliefs on that website, but I can’t seem to say anything about it that isn’t emphatic agreement without getting back loaded questions about how how racist I might be. When Fortune 500 companies are donating to the cause and its brand imagery is showing up everywhere from video games to github, then we have a right to critique it without fearing social ostracism.
eplanit 6y ago
"I've found you can't criticize the BLM organization or else it's equated that you think black lives do not matter" I think that's by design.
- mssundaram 6y ago
  > I think that's by design. Which way do you mean this? I can interpret that in a few different ways
- junon 6y ago
  Correct. It's the same as "antifa". I can't criticize the group without being called a nazi. These things are named this way to weaponize them.
ta8645 6y ago
Those fighting for people to see where our society is falling short of its promise for blacks, should be the first to distance themselves from the BLM organization. It muddies the water and makes people who would gladly support any fight against racial injustice leery of voicing that support, for fear of it inadvertently supporting and emboldening the communists leading the BLM organization.
- toyg 6y ago
  As somebody with a cursory interest in communist movements across the centuries, I’d be curious to know how BLM leaders are “communists”. Do they advocate for collective ownership of the means of production?
  - exolymph 6y ago
    There is some substance to the claim, although the people highlighting it are predictably motivated: https://nypost.com/2020/06/25/blm-co-founder-describes-herself-as-trained-marxist/ https://nypost.com/2020/06/25/blm-co-founder-describes-herse... Communism can be pretty fashionable these days.
  - dragonwriter 6y ago
    > I’d be curious to know how BLM leaders are “communists”. One possible explanation: Patrisse Cullors specifically has credited Marx, Lenin, and other Communist figures as ideological inspiration (which isn't the same thing as being a Communist, to be sure.) I think it was also Cullors who made a comment about herself and one of the other founders (Alicia Garza, I think) being “trained Marxists” in, as I recall, the context of explaining some of their strategic/orgabizing approaches, not ideological goals.
mullingitover 6y ago
There were a lot of people during the civil rights era who were upset that they couldn't criticize Martin Luther King or it would be equated as being against equal rights. Maybe the problem is that you're overly concerned with how you can safely criticize the movement. Do you personally think black lives matter? Have you spent as much time criticizing the problems that created the movement as you have spent criticizing the movement itself?
- nerdponx 6y ago
  Yet it's a valid criticism.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

neither_color 6y ago

Exactly. It’s an organization with a website, a donation page, and a published set of beliefs on that website, but I can’t seem to say anything about it that isn’t emphatic agreement without getting back loaded questions about how how racist I might be. When Fortune 500 companies are donating to the cause and its brand imagery is showing up everywhere from video games to github, then we have a right to critique it without fearing social ostracism.

eplanit 6y ago

"I've found you can't criticize the BLM organization or else it's equated that you think black lives do not matter" I think that's by design.

mssundaram 6y ago
> I think that's by design. Which way do you mean this? I can interpret that in a few different ways
junon 6y ago
Correct. It's the same as "antifa". I can't criticize the group without being called a nazi. These things are named this way to weaponize them.

ta8645 6y ago

Those fighting for people to see where our society is falling short of its promise for blacks, should be the first to distance themselves from the BLM organization. It muddies the water and makes people who would gladly support any fight against racial injustice leery of voicing that support, for fear of it inadvertently supporting and emboldening the communists leading the BLM organization.

toyg 6y ago
As somebody with a cursory interest in communist movements across the centuries, I’d be curious to know how BLM leaders are “communists”. Do they advocate for collective ownership of the means of production?
- exolymph 6y ago
  There is some substance to the claim, although the people highlighting it are predictably motivated: https://nypost.com/2020/06/25/blm-co-founder-describes-herself-as-trained-marxist/ https://nypost.com/2020/06/25/blm-co-founder-describes-herse... Communism can be pretty fashionable these days.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > I’d be curious to know how BLM leaders are “communists”. One possible explanation: Patrisse Cullors specifically has credited Marx, Lenin, and other Communist figures as ideological inspiration (which isn't the same thing as being a Communist, to be sure.) I think it was also Cullors who made a comment about herself and one of the other founders (Alicia Garza, I think) being “trained Marxists” in, as I recall, the context of explaining some of their strategic/orgabizing approaches, not ideological goals.

mullingitover 6y ago

There were a lot of people during the civil rights era who were upset that they couldn't criticize Martin Luther King or it would be equated as being against equal rights. Maybe the problem is that you're overly concerned with how you can safely criticize the movement. Do you personally think black lives matter? Have you spent as much time criticizing the problems that created the movement as you have spent criticizing the movement itself?

nerdponx 6y ago
Yet it's a valid criticism.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]