CDZ Small Town America, Guns, and “Black Lives Matter”

[Tom Paine 1949]

We have all seen media coverage of criminal looting and of statues being torn down, and maybe the much larger, peaceful, but less photogenic marches of hundreds of thousands in large cities. People mostly see and pay attention to what confirms their biases.

Yet looting, arson and violence today are nothing like on the scale of the 1960s, when Civil Rights leaders and liberal politicians were assassinated, and anger boiled over. Party partisanship and conspiracy thinking, however, certainly seem higher than ever. While the screamers are more emboldened today, I believe race relations in general have improved.

I watched recently some videos about black and white and integrated gun clubs, and how many organized to act if needed ... without overt racism and without lunatics starting trouble. In rural areas where gun ownership is most prevalent, where voters are much more conservative and “white,” and in areas where police, demonstrators and guns sometimes mixed on the streets, we seem to have gotten through this period — thank heaven — without any serious disasters.

The number of white demonstrators peacefully joining protests against racism and police violence, the increasing recognition among the young that racism is indeed a problem in American society — not just among police, whose jobs are difficult in the best of times — these are encouraging to me. I excerpt below from an article about largely white “Black Lives Matter” demonstrations in small communities in America:


On TV and on social media, the protest movement sweeping the country often looks grim and explosive, a montage of rubber bullets and teargas, activists facing off with police, low-flying military helicopters, broken store windows. When protests first started popping up in small towns across the country, some residents could only imagine they were the work of interlopers. Rumors whipped through dozens of rural and suburban communities about busloads of anti-fascist activists on their way to wreak havoc....

For people living in small towns, the dissonance between the dark fantasy of antifa marauders and the actual nature of local protests—many of which have included kids, dogs, and elderly people—has been hard to miss.... [Soon] armed counter-demonstrators largely disappeared. “They have been made to look kind of silly. You should have seen how they showed up. It was like a war—these people showed up for an enemy that was never there,” said [one black musician in almost all white Klamath Falls, Oregon]. Meanwhile, people continued to gather in town for Black Lives Matter rallies during the first two weeks of June. “I think it’s very important because it shows people, you know, a different side of things? It’s happening in these smaller towns with little to no black population. That shows people this is a human thing, and that there’s a lot of us out there who care about each other and want to stand up for each other. And you know, change can happen from anywhere”....

Some protests offered at least a temporary reclamation of public space in communities long defined by segregation and legacies of brutal racism—places like Vidor, Texas, a former Ku Klux Klan haven that Texas Monthly described as the state’s “most hate-filled town” during a struggle over court-ordered desegregation of public housing in the early 1990s....

“I’ve never seen so many white people give a darn about black people,” said Mildred Henderson, a 78-year-old woman and veteran activist who was interviewed by The Southern Illinoisan at a June 4 rally in Anna, Ill. In 1909, mobs drove black residents out of Anna after a lynching in a nearby town; for decades, Anna was known as a sundown town, where black people were not welcome after dark. Although Anna was originally named for a woman, the town’s racist history has given it an unofficial acronym: “Ain’t No [N-words] Allowed.” Kevin Jackson, who also attended the protest in Anna, told the Belleville News-Democrat that it was the first time he’d ever walked down the town’s Main Street... “I probably wouldn’t do it again without my white brothers and sisters,” Jackson said.

Black Lives Matter Protests Are Everywhere, Even in the Unlikeliest Places

 

[2aguy]

We have all seen media coverage of criminal looting and of statues being torn down, and maybe the much larger, peaceful, but less photogenic marches of hundreds of thousands in large cities. People mostly see and pay attention to what confirms their biases.

Yet looting, arson and violence today are nothing like on the scale of the 1960s, when Civil Rights leaders and liberal politicians were assassinated, and anger boiled over. Party partisanship and conspiracy thinking, however, certainly seem higher than ever. While the screamers are more emboldened today, I believe race relations in general have improved.

I watched recently some videos about black and white and integrated gun clubs, and how many organized to act if needed ... without overt racism and without lunatics starting trouble. In rural areas where gun ownership is most prevalent, where voters are much more conservative and “white,” and in areas where police, demonstrators and guns sometimes mixed on the streets, we seem to have gotten through this period — thank heaven — without any serious disasters.

The number of white demonstrators peacefully joining protests against racism and police violence, the increasing recognition among the young that racism is indeed a problem in American society — not just among police, whose jobs are difficult in the best of times — these are encouraging to me. I excerpt below from an article about largely white “Black Lives Matter” demonstrations in small communities in America:


On TV and on social media, the protest movement sweeping the country often looks grim and explosive, a montage of rubber bullets and teargas, activists facing off with police, low-flying military helicopters, broken store windows. When protests first started popping up in small towns across the country, some residents could only imagine they were the work of interlopers. Rumors whipped through dozens of rural and suburban communities about busloads of anti-fascist activists on their way to wreak havoc....

For people living in small towns, the dissonance between the dark fantasy of antifa marauders and the actual nature of local protests—many of which have included kids, dogs, and elderly people—has been hard to miss.... [Soon] armed counter-demonstrators largely disappeared. “They have been made to look kind of silly. You should have seen how they showed up. It was like a war—these people showed up for an enemy that was never there,” said [one black musician in almost all white Klamath Falls, Oregon]. Meanwhile, people continued to gather in town for Black Lives Matter rallies during the first two weeks of June. “I think it’s very important because it shows people, you know, a different side of things? It’s happening in these smaller towns with little to no black population. That shows people this is a human thing, and that there’s a lot of us out there who care about each other and want to stand up for each other. And you know, change can happen from anywhere”....

Some protests offered at least a temporary reclamation of public space in communities long defined by segregation and legacies of brutal racism—places like Vidor, Texas, a former Ku Klux Klan haven that Texas Monthly described as the state’s “most hate-filled town” during a struggle over court-ordered desegregation of public housing in the early 1990s....

“I’ve never seen so many white people give a darn about black people,” said Mildred Henderson, a 78-year-old woman and veteran activist who was interviewed by The Southern Illinoisan at a June 4 rally in Anna, Ill. In 1909, mobs drove black residents out of Anna after a lynching in a nearby town; for decades, Anna was known as a sundown town, where black people were not welcome after dark. Although Anna was originally named for a woman, the town’s racist history has given it an unofficial acronym: “Ain’t No [N-words] Allowed.” Kevin Jackson, who also attended the protest in Anna, told the Belleville News-Democrat that it was the first time he’d ever walked down the town’s Main Street... “I probably wouldn’t do it again without my white brothers and sisters,” Jackson said.

Black Lives Matter Protests Are Everywhere, Even in the Unlikeliest Places

Black Lives matter was founded by marxists with the intent of destroying the United States as founded.....they are using race as a sword and a shield to accomplish that goal......

 

[miketx]

They tried to come here, saw all the guns and went elsewhere. We didn't want any blm scum here and that's what we got.

 

[2aguy]

We have all seen media coverage of criminal looting and of statues being torn down, and maybe the much larger, peaceful, but less photogenic marches of hundreds of thousands in large cities. People mostly see and pay attention to what confirms their biases.

Yet looting, arson and violence today are nothing like on the scale of the 1960s, when Civil Rights leaders and liberal politicians were assassinated, and anger boiled over. Party partisanship and conspiracy thinking, however, certainly seem higher than ever. While the screamers are more emboldened today, I believe race relations in general have improved.

I watched recently some videos about black and white and integrated gun clubs, and how many organized to act if needed ... without overt racism and without lunatics starting trouble. In rural areas where gun ownership is most prevalent, where voters are much more conservative and “white,” and in areas where police, demonstrators and guns sometimes mixed on the streets, we seem to have gotten through this period — thank heaven — without any serious disasters.

The number of white demonstrators peacefully joining protests against racism and police violence, the increasing recognition among the young that racism is indeed a problem in American society — not just among police, whose jobs are difficult in the best of times — these are encouraging to me. I excerpt below from an article about largely white “Black Lives Matter” demonstrations in small communities in America:


On TV and on social media, the protest movement sweeping the country often looks grim and explosive, a montage of rubber bullets and teargas, activists facing off with police, low-flying military helicopters, broken store windows. When protests first started popping up in small towns across the country, some residents could only imagine they were the work of interlopers. Rumors whipped through dozens of rural and suburban communities about busloads of anti-fascist activists on their way to wreak havoc....

For people living in small towns, the dissonance between the dark fantasy of antifa marauders and the actual nature of local protests—many of which have included kids, dogs, and elderly people—has been hard to miss.... [Soon] armed counter-demonstrators largely disappeared. “They have been made to look kind of silly. You should have seen how they showed up. It was like a war—these people showed up for an enemy that was never there,” said [one black musician in almost all white Klamath Falls, Oregon]. Meanwhile, people continued to gather in town for Black Lives Matter rallies during the first two weeks of June. “I think it’s very important because it shows people, you know, a different side of things? It’s happening in these smaller towns with little to no black population. That shows people this is a human thing, and that there’s a lot of us out there who care about each other and want to stand up for each other. And you know, change can happen from anywhere”....

Some protests offered at least a temporary reclamation of public space in communities long defined by segregation and legacies of brutal racism—places like Vidor, Texas, a former Ku Klux Klan haven that Texas Monthly described as the state’s “most hate-filled town” during a struggle over court-ordered desegregation of public housing in the early 1990s....

“I’ve never seen so many white people give a darn about black people,” said Mildred Henderson, a 78-year-old woman and veteran activist who was interviewed by The Southern Illinoisan at a June 4 rally in Anna, Ill. In 1909, mobs drove black residents out of Anna after a lynching in a nearby town; for decades, Anna was known as a sundown town, where black people were not welcome after dark. Although Anna was originally named for a woman, the town’s racist history has given it an unofficial acronym: “Ain’t No [N-words] Allowed.” Kevin Jackson, who also attended the protest in Anna, told the Belleville News-Democrat that it was the first time he’d ever walked down the town’s Main Street... “I probably wouldn’t do it again without my white brothers and sisters,” Jackson said.

Black Lives Matter Protests Are Everywhere, Even in the Unlikeliest Places

This is the real Black Lives Matter...

Greater New York Black Lives Matter leader Hawke Newsome made an appearance on Fox News Wednesday night and threatened to burn the country down if demands aren't met.


“If this country doesn’t give us what we want then we will burn down the system and replace it. All right. And I could be speaking figuratively, I could be speaking literally. It’s a matter of interpretation," Newsome said.

Black Lives Matter Leader Threatens to Burn the Country Down

townhall.com

 

[MarcATL]

Are insults allowed in the clean debate zone?

 

[Death-Ninja]

Here's how it works, if by some miracle of the devil, antifa managed to ignite Hayward's streets into lawless rioting seemingly led by BLM blacks, we shoot the rich white Marxist kids 4-8 rows back of the BLM blacks, ending the party! BLM are the black slaves of rich white antifa Marxists, they are simply shock troops of grotesquely privileged & wealthy white shot-callers, all of whom return to their A-list colleges after the rioting and get rubber stamped into the federal(fascist)bureaucracy for life, the blacks get burned out neighborhoods, which never re-emerge from the rubble....

 

[miketx]

Are insults allowed in the clean debate zone?

Don't worry about it sir, you being here is not much of an insult.

 

[MarcATL]

Don't worry about it sir, you being here is not much of an insult.

Thats a good one. I'll give you that.

 

[2aguy]

More on Black Lives Matter as another way to exploit Black Americans.....for the profit of rich, white left wing democrats....

The Black Lives Matter–media cabal is not what it makes itself out to be. It is a wolf in sheep's clothing. They pretend to be the liberal friends of African-Americans, but in reality, they are their mortal enemies. The policies that they so aggressively push cause nothing but more damage to the African-American community.

Under the guise of eliminating racism, they push a policy to "Defund the Police." This is right on the front of the Black Lives Matter website.

Under the guise of eliminating racism, they push a policy that they call "Stop The Mass Incarcerations." This is a policy that promotes the release of prison inmates before their time is up and putting them back on the street.

Under the guise of eliminating racism, they push for the decriminalization of drug offenses and the immediate pardon of all of them existing, with reparations paid to those convicted.

So sum this up. In the African-American community, where there is the highest crime rate and the biggest problems with drug abuse, they push to release the inmates from prison and put them back on the streets, let drug use and drug-dealing run wild, and then take away the police. What do you think the outcome of these policies will produce? More crime and drug abuse in the African-American community. High crime and drug areas minus police equals hell — easy math.

The Black Lives Matter Movement is the Enemy of African-Americans

The first thing that I have to say is that I am an African-American man living in the Minneapolis area. I have to state this now; otherwise, I would probably be called a racist. Most people think Black Lives Matter is a grassroots, black-cre...

www.americanthinker.com

 

[OldLady]

We have all seen media coverage of criminal looting and of statues being torn down, and maybe the much larger, peaceful, but less photogenic marches of hundreds of thousands in large cities. People mostly see and pay attention to what confirms their biases.

Yet looting, arson and violence today are nothing like on the scale of the 1960s, when Civil Rights leaders and liberal politicians were assassinated, and anger boiled over. Party partisanship and conspiracy thinking, however, certainly seem higher than ever. While the screamers are more emboldened today, I believe race relations in general have improved.

I watched recently some videos about black and white and integrated gun clubs, and how many organized to act if needed ... without overt racism and without lunatics starting trouble. In rural areas where gun ownership is most prevalent, where voters are much more conservative and “white,” and in areas where police, demonstrators and guns sometimes mixed on the streets, we seem to have gotten through this period — thank heaven — without any serious disasters.

The number of white demonstrators peacefully joining protests against racism and police violence, the increasing recognition among the young that racism is indeed a problem in American society — not just among police, whose jobs are difficult in the best of times — these are encouraging to me. I excerpt below from an article about largely white “Black Lives Matter” demonstrations in small communities in America:


On TV and on social media, the protest movement sweeping the country often looks grim and explosive, a montage of rubber bullets and teargas, activists facing off with police, low-flying military helicopters, broken store windows. When protests first started popping up in small towns across the country, some residents could only imagine they were the work of interlopers. Rumors whipped through dozens of rural and suburban communities about busloads of anti-fascist activists on their way to wreak havoc....

For people living in small towns, the dissonance between the dark fantasy of antifa marauders and the actual nature of local protests—many of which have included kids, dogs, and elderly people—has been hard to miss.... [Soon] armed counter-demonstrators largely disappeared. “They have been made to look kind of silly. You should have seen how they showed up. It was like a war—these people showed up for an enemy that was never there,” said [one black musician in almost all white Klamath Falls, Oregon]. Meanwhile, people continued to gather in town for Black Lives Matter rallies during the first two weeks of June. “I think it’s very important because it shows people, you know, a different side of things? It’s happening in these smaller towns with little to no black population. That shows people this is a human thing, and that there’s a lot of us out there who care about each other and want to stand up for each other. And you know, change can happen from anywhere”....

Some protests offered at least a temporary reclamation of public space in communities long defined by segregation and legacies of brutal racism—places like Vidor, Texas, a former Ku Klux Klan haven that Texas Monthly described as the state’s “most hate-filled town” during a struggle over court-ordered desegregation of public housing in the early 1990s....

“I’ve never seen so many white people give a darn about black people,” said Mildred Henderson, a 78-year-old woman and veteran activist who was interviewed by The Southern Illinoisan at a June 4 rally in Anna, Ill. In 1909, mobs drove black residents out of Anna after a lynching in a nearby town; for decades, Anna was known as a sundown town, where black people were not welcome after dark. Although Anna was originally named for a woman, the town’s racist history has given it an unofficial acronym: “Ain’t No [N-words] Allowed.” Kevin Jackson, who also attended the protest in Anna, told the Belleville News-Democrat that it was the first time he’d ever walked down the town’s Main Street... “I probably wouldn’t do it again without my white brothers and sisters,” Jackson said.

Black Lives Matter Protests Are Everywhere, Even in the Unlikeliest Places

Thanks for a little good news, Tom!

We have all seen media coverage of criminal looting and of statues being torn down, and maybe the much larger, peaceful, but less photogenic marches of hundreds of thousands in large cities. People mostly see and pay attention to what confirms their biases.

Yet looting, arson and violence today are nothing like on the scale of the 1960s, when Civil Rights leaders and liberal politicians were assassinated, and anger boiled over. Party partisanship and conspiracy thinking, however, certainly seem higher than ever. While the screamers are more emboldened today, I believe race relations in general have improved.

I watched recently some videos about black and white and integrated gun clubs, and how many organized to act if needed ... without overt racism and without lunatics starting trouble. In rural areas where gun ownership is most prevalent, where voters are much more conservative and “white,” and in areas where police, demonstrators and guns sometimes mixed on the streets, we seem to have gotten through this period — thank heaven — without any serious disasters.

The number of white demonstrators peacefully joining protests against racism and police violence, the increasing recognition among the young that racism is indeed a problem in American society — not just among police, whose jobs are difficult in the best of times — these are encouraging to me. I excerpt below from an article about largely white “Black Lives Matter” demonstrations in small communities in America:


On TV and on social media, the protest movement sweeping the country often looks grim and explosive, a montage of rubber bullets and teargas, activists facing off with police, low-flying military helicopters, broken store windows. When protests first started popping up in small towns across the country, some residents could only imagine they were the work of interlopers. Rumors whipped through dozens of rural and suburban communities about busloads of anti-fascist activists on their way to wreak havoc....

For people living in small towns, the dissonance between the dark fantasy of antifa marauders and the actual nature of local protests—many of which have included kids, dogs, and elderly people—has been hard to miss.... [Soon] armed counter-demonstrators largely disappeared. “They have been made to look kind of silly. You should have seen how they showed up. It was like a war—these people showed up for an enemy that was never there,” said [one black musician in almost all white Klamath Falls, Oregon]. Meanwhile, people continued to gather in town for Black Lives Matter rallies during the first two weeks of June. “I think it’s very important because it shows people, you know, a different side of things? It’s happening in these smaller towns with little to no black population. That shows people this is a human thing, and that there’s a lot of us out there who care about each other and want to stand up for each other. And you know, change can happen from anywhere”....

Some protests offered at least a temporary reclamation of public space in communities long defined by segregation and legacies of brutal racism—places like Vidor, Texas, a former Ku Klux Klan haven that Texas Monthly described as the state’s “most hate-filled town” during a struggle over court-ordered desegregation of public housing in the early 1990s....

“I’ve never seen so many white people give a darn about black people,” said Mildred Henderson, a 78-year-old woman and veteran activist who was interviewed by The Southern Illinoisan at a June 4 rally in Anna, Ill. In 1909, mobs drove black residents out of Anna after a lynching in a nearby town; for decades, Anna was known as a sundown town, where black people were not welcome after dark. Although Anna was originally named for a woman, the town’s racist history has given it an unofficial acronym: “Ain’t No [N-words] Allowed.” Kevin Jackson, who also attended the protest in Anna, told the Belleville News-Democrat that it was the first time he’d ever walked down the town’s Main Street... “I probably wouldn’t do it again without my white brothers and sisters,” Jackson said.

Black Lives Matter Protests Are Everywhere, Even in the Unlikeliest Places

 

[CremeBrulee]

I excerpt below from an article about largely white “Black Lives Matter” demonstrations in small communities in America:

I think it's important to note the distinction between "black lives matter" and Black Lives Matter. The demonstrations described in the excerpt, and I think at large, are the former rather than the latter. As a statement, "black lives matter" is factual and supported by almost every single person in this country. Black Lives Matter on the other hand is an organization founded by "trained Marxists" (their words not mine) who hold views most find extreme. To say the people participating in these demonstrations, especially those occurring in the small towns from the excerpt, are supporting the destruction of the nuclear family, overthrow of capitalism, and general restructuring of American society among other things, would be incorrect.

 

[OldLady]

I excerpt below from an article about largely white “Black Lives Matter” demonstrations in small communities in America:

I think it's important to note the distinction between "black lives matter" and Black Lives Matter. The demonstrations described in the excerpt, and I think at large, are the former rather than the latter. As a statement, "black lives matter" is factual and supported by almost every single person in this country. Black Lives Matter on the other hand is an organization founded by "trained Marxists" (their words not mine) who hold views most find extreme. To say the people participating in these demonstrations, especially those occurring in the small towns from the excerpt, are supporting the destruction of the nuclear family, overthrow of capitalism, and general restructuring of American society among other things, would be incorrect.

That's true. However radical the Black Lives Matter organizers may be, they are still the negotiators for change, I believe, and although we may not support their whole agenda, we can't throw out the baby with the bathwater, either. Let's say you are Pro-Life. Does that mean you wouldn't negotiate with Democrats over an infrastructure plan? Of course not.
So, knowing BLM has these ideas is a good thing, but it doesn't change the fact that they are advocating for positive change for their communities, and the primary agenda item they are focusing on right now is changes in the justice system. Ideals are things we keep in mind while we grasp at what in reality we can reach.

 

[CremeBrulee]

I am going to respectfully disagree with you on some of that.

That's true. However radical the Black Lives Matter organizers may be, they are still the negotiators for change, I believe, and although we may not support their whole agenda, we can't throw out the baby with the bathwater, either. Let's say you are Pro-Life. Does that mean you wouldn't negotiate with Democrats over an infrastructure plan? Of course not.

They are not interested in working with anyone that doesn't share their extreme views. I have seen this first hand in the nearby college town that is incredibly liberal by any standard. The local chapter spends as much time attacking a city government comprised of the left and far left as they do a state government with a Republican super majority. This is a quote from Patrisse Khan-Cullors posted to the organization's website: " We are doing that through our continued fight against elected officials, be it Democrat or Republican, who don’t share a vision that is radical and intersectional. " I would even go so far as to say they don't see a difference between white supremacists and those of us that don't want anything to do with radical intersectionality. In my opinion, this organization only wants to throw the bathwater out after they have used it to drown the baby.

So, knowing BLM has these ideas is a good thing, but it doesn't change the fact that they are advocating for positive change for their communities, and the primary agenda item they are focusing on right now is changes in the justice system. Ideals are things we keep in mind while we grasp at what in reality we can reach.

While I agree about the nature of ideals, I don't think they are advocating for positive change in their communities. I am highly suspect of said communities supporting their idea of change either. This is born out by opinion polls and the elected leaders these communities choose.

 

[OldLady]

I am going to respectfully disagree with you on some of that.

That's true. However radical the Black Lives Matter organizers may be, they are still the negotiators for change, I believe, and although we may not support their whole agenda, we can't throw out the baby with the bathwater, either. Let's say you are Pro-Life. Does that mean you wouldn't negotiate with Democrats over an infrastructure plan? Of course not.

They are not interested in working with anyone that doesn't share their extreme views. I have seen this first hand in the nearby college town that is incredibly liberal by any standard. The local chapter spends as much time attacking a city government comprised of the left and far left as they do a state government with a Republican super majority. This is a quote from Patrisse Khan-Cullors posted to the organization's website: " We are doing that through our continued fight against elected officials, be it Democrat or Republican, who don’t share a vision that is radical and intersectional. " I would even go so far as to say they don't see a difference between white supremacists and those of us that don't want anything to do with radical intersectionality. In my opinion, this organization only wants to throw the bathwater out after they have used it to drown the baby.

So, knowing BLM has these ideas is a good thing, but it doesn't change the fact that they are advocating for positive change for their communities, and the primary agenda item they are focusing on right now is changes in the justice system. Ideals are things we keep in mind while we grasp at what in reality we can reach.

While I agree about the nature of ideals, I don't think they are advocating for positive change in their communities. I am highly suspect of said communities supporting their idea of change either. This is born out by opinion polls and the elected leaders these communities choose.

It's good to talk to someone who has actually had some dealings with these folks. I don't have a clue what radical intersectionality is; lol it's not even in the spell checker.

If they're really that extreme in their demands and they continue to stick with that, they're not going to get much of what they want.

 

[Tom Paine 1949]

Even as an “organization,” Black Lives Matter is a very decentralized and amorphous group. It started as an internet hashtag and is no more “Marxist“ than my Aunt Ellie. From the beginning it has been torn by differences, for example on how to approach Bernie Sanders and how to approach black policemen and black Mayors. It is most potent not as an organization but as a diverse movement. Its tactics vary from place to place and time to time, and also on the local personalities in charge.

I note that here on this thread BLM’s virulent critics see it as everything from a mere front group of deluded ignoramuses manipulated by rich whites, to a serious black Marxist revolutionary organization determined to exterminate the American way of life. Neither, of course, is anywhere close to the truth. In any case, this thread is really not about Black Lives Matter as an organization, but rather as a protest movement, and how those protests fit into evolving small town American consciousness.

This Wiki article discusses BLM and its critics: Black Lives Matter - Wikipedia

 

[CremeBrulee]

I am going to respectfully disagree with you on some of that.

That's true. However radical the Black Lives Matter organizers may be, they are still the negotiators for change, I believe, and although we may not support their whole agenda, we can't throw out the baby with the bathwater, either. Let's say you are Pro-Life. Does that mean you wouldn't negotiate with Democrats over an infrastructure plan? Of course not.

They are not interested in working with anyone that doesn't share their extreme views. I have seen this first hand in the nearby college town that is incredibly liberal by any standard. The local chapter spends as much time attacking a city government comprised of the left and far left as they do a state government with a Republican super majority. This is a quote from Patrisse Khan-Cullors posted to the organization's website: " We are doing that through our continued fight against elected officials, be it Democrat or Republican, who don’t share a vision that is radical and intersectional. " I would even go so far as to say they don't see a difference between white supremacists and those of us that don't want anything to do with radical intersectionality. In my opinion, this organization only wants to throw the bathwater out after they have used it to drown the baby.

So, knowing BLM has these ideas is a good thing, but it doesn't change the fact that they are advocating for positive change for their communities, and the primary agenda item they are focusing on right now is changes in the justice system. Ideals are things we keep in mind while we grasp at what in reality we can reach.

While I agree about the nature of ideals, I don't think they are advocating for positive change in their communities. I am highly suspect of said communities supporting their idea of change either. This is born out by opinion polls and the elected leaders these communities choose.

It's good to talk to someone who has actually had some dealings with these folks. I don't have a clue what radical intersectionality is; lol it's not even in the spell checker.

If they're really that extreme in their demands and they continue to stick with that, they're not going to get much of what they want.

I completely forgot to add something in that second part. There are probably a lot of other groups and organizations in general that advocate for ideals and change that are more representative of the communities they serve, have a more positive effect, and be more palatable to those with whom they disagree, but need to work with, in order to achieve their goals.

 

[yidnar]

I excerpt below from an article about largely white “Black Lives Matter” demonstrations in small communities in America:

I think it's important to note the distinction between "black lives matter" and Black Lives Matter. The demonstrations described in the excerpt, and I think at large, are the former rather than the latter. As a statement, "black lives matter" is factual and supported by almost every single person in this country. Black Lives Matter on the other hand is an organization founded by "trained Marxists" (their words not mine) who hold views most find extreme. To say the people participating in these demonstrations, especially those occurring in the small towns from the excerpt, are supporting the destruction of the nuclear family, overthrow of capitalism, and general restructuring of American society among other things, would be incorrect.

That's true. However radical the Black Lives Matter organizers may be, they are still the negotiators for change, I believe, and although we may not support their whole agenda, we can't throw out the baby with the bathwater, either. Let's say you are Pro-Life. Does that mean you wouldn't negotiate with Democrats over an infrastructure plan? Of course not.
So, knowing BLM has these ideas is a good thing, but it doesn't change the fact that they are advocating for positive change for their communities, and the primary agenda item they are focusing on right now is changes in the justice system. Ideals are things we keep in mind while we grasp at what in reality we can reach.

businesses are getting out of the inner cities after the burning and looting .....

 

[OldLady]

I am going to respectfully disagree with you on some of that.

That's true. However radical the Black Lives Matter organizers may be, they are still the negotiators for change, I believe, and although we may not support their whole agenda, we can't throw out the baby with the bathwater, either. Let's say you are Pro-Life. Does that mean you wouldn't negotiate with Democrats over an infrastructure plan? Of course not.

They are not interested in working with anyone that doesn't share their extreme views. I have seen this first hand in the nearby college town that is incredibly liberal by any standard. The local chapter spends as much time attacking a city government comprised of the left and far left as they do a state government with a Republican super majority. This is a quote from Patrisse Khan-Cullors posted to the organization's website: " We are doing that through our continued fight against elected officials, be it Democrat or Republican, who don’t share a vision that is radical and intersectional. " I would even go so far as to say they don't see a difference between white supremacists and those of us that don't want anything to do with radical intersectionality. In my opinion, this organization only wants to throw the bathwater out after they have used it to drown the baby.

So, knowing BLM has these ideas is a good thing, but it doesn't change the fact that they are advocating for positive change for their communities, and the primary agenda item they are focusing on right now is changes in the justice system. Ideals are things we keep in mind while we grasp at what in reality we can reach.

While I agree about the nature of ideals, I don't think they are advocating for positive change in their communities. I am highly suspect of said communities supporting their idea of change either. This is born out by opinion polls and the elected leaders these communities choose.

It's good to talk to someone who has actually had some dealings with these folks. I don't have a clue what radical intersectionality is; lol it's not even in the spell checker.

If they're really that extreme in their demands and they continue to stick with that, they're not going to get much of what they want.

I completely forgot to add something in that second part. There are probably a lot of other groups and organizations in general that advocate for ideals and change that are more representative of the communities they serve, have a more positive effect, and be more palatable to those with whom they disagree, but need to work with, in order to achieve their goals.

I was wondering if some of what you've encountered is because you are in a college town. Sounds like college profs in their narrow sided ivory towers everywhere. I had my fill of them just getting my bachelor's. They were pushing me to go for a Ph.D., and there ain't no way I was going to get further into high falutin' theoretical guff for however many more years.. lol My feet are firmly planted on the ground. That's where I like 'em.

P.S. I am not one of those people who hates education and thinks campuses are all Marxist indoctrination camps either. The above is not about particular politics.

 

[OldLady]

I excerpt below from an article about largely white “Black Lives Matter” demonstrations in small communities in America:

I think it's important to note the distinction between "black lives matter" and Black Lives Matter. The demonstrations described in the excerpt, and I think at large, are the former rather than the latter. As a statement, "black lives matter" is factual and supported by almost every single person in this country. Black Lives Matter on the other hand is an organization founded by "trained Marxists" (their words not mine) who hold views most find extreme. To say the people participating in these demonstrations, especially those occurring in the small towns from the excerpt, are supporting the destruction of the nuclear family, overthrow of capitalism, and general restructuring of American society among other things, would be incorrect.

That's true. However radical the Black Lives Matter organizers may be, they are still the negotiators for change, I believe, and although we may not support their whole agenda, we can't throw out the baby with the bathwater, either. Let's say you are Pro-Life. Does that mean you wouldn't negotiate with Democrats over an infrastructure plan? Of course not.
So, knowing BLM has these ideas is a good thing, but it doesn't change the fact that they are advocating for positive change for their communities, and the primary agenda item they are focusing on right now is changes in the justice system. Ideals are things we keep in mind while we grasp at what in reality we can reach.

businesses are getting out of the inner cities after the burning and looting .....

like who? Specific city? Who is leaving?

 

[OldLady]

Even as an “organization,” Black Lives Matter is a very decentralized and amorphous group. It started as an internet hashtag and is no more “Marxist“ than my Aunt Ellie. From the beginning it has been torn by differences, for example on how to approach Bernie Sanders and how to approach black policemen and black Mayors. It is most potent not as an organization but as a diverse movement. Its tactics vary from place to place and time to time, and also on the local personalities in charge.

I note that here on this thread BLM’s virulent critics see it as everything from a mere front group of deluded ignoramuses manipulated by rich whites, to a serious black Marxist revolutionary organization determined to exterminate the American way of life. Neither, of course, is anywhere close to the truth. In any case, this thread is really not about Black Lives Matter as an organization, but rather as a protest movement, and how those protests fit into evolving small town American consciousness.

This Wiki article discusses BLM and its critics: Black Lives Matter - Wikipedia

That's a really comprehensive Wiki article, Tom. Thanks.

It's decentralized nature and many spokespeople has made it difficult to discuss over the past few weeks. People speak in generalities, attack in generalities, and it is hard to zero in on specific statements or particular "missions." It's obvious that locally, black activists are meeting with town and city officials all over the country to voice concerns and raise solutions. I'm assuming those solutions will be different in each locality. It makes sense to do it that way, but for the pretty much uninformed like me, it is hard to counter general attacks against BLM because there isn't a "general" platform or approach that applies to all that I can point to in supporting it.

It can be confusing. The article was helpful.