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I understand that the initial aim of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) organization was to protest the lack of regard black lives seem to have to law enforcement and the judicial system. As time progressed, I gradually came to see BLM in the lights that were its creation and the nuclear response by the conservative media, with my view of what helped create BLM standing as something that may astound some and enrage others.
First, let’s discuss the elephant in the room. I’d like to see BLM better inform the masses that it was created as a call for peaceful and lawful action against police abuses while better incorporating the need for blacks to respect each other’s lives as well. I’d like BLM to continue to drive home the fact that each and every human life on this Earth is precious, and that their specific area of concentration is on the preservation and re-valuation of black lives in order to dispel the myth that BLM somehow stands for “ONLY Black Lives Matter” or “Black Lives Matter Above All Others,” all of which I wrote about in a prior post.
Beyond the actions I’d like BLM to take and those the group has actually taken, I can only wonder what the conservative media finds so distasteful about the organization such that Right-wing pundits often fly into a rage upon its mention. Yes, recent activities by some alleged supporters of BLM are destructive, violent, and absolutely unforgivable, but those individuals are no more in support of BLM’s cause than the rocks they hurl through store windows. Certainly, the actions of the violent hangers-on hinder all efforts to relate that BLM was never about devaluing the lives of non-blacks as much as it was initially about the group’s specific concern regarding black interactions with law enforcement. I just don’t understand why so many truly fail to grasp this. Even when the protests are peaceful and free of counterproductive elements—which is very often despite images to the contrary—detractors express a fear or even a hatred toward gatherings of black people united to fight for their Constitutional rights.
The origin of the continuing hatred is a mystery, and it’s a particularly confounding one given BLM’s actions at political events and its disruptive public demonstrations both follow the lead of a previously successful group that also campaigned publicly and vociferously for change. That organization was neither the original Black Panther Party nor the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. No, the group whose disruptive actions set the modern example for BLM is none other than the ultraconservative political movement called the Tea Party.
Both the Tea Party and BLM began due to concerns regarding a black male. Conservatives championed the Tea Party as it emerged in response to the intentions of President Barack Obama just as BLM began as a response to the senseless murder of black teenager Trayvon Martin. Though both groups began as opposition forces in regards to actions concerning a black male, their perspectives of those males differed greatly. Regardless, conservatives grew the Tea Party into a decentralized, grassroots organization fighting for the beliefs of many on a state-by-state basis much as BLM later undertook its efforts on behalf of its like-minded followers, with the Black Lives Matter organization following the Tea Party's use of disruptive tactics. Thus, in the strangest and most unexpected of ways, I believe that conservative activism helped pave the way for the creation of the ultra-liberal, pro-black, pro-LGBTQIA+, BLM organization since the Tea Party is BLM’s immediate predecessor in successfully combining political action and public disturbances.
Though I disagree with those who leverage BLM’s actions to cause mayhem, nothing changes the fact that Black Lives Matter is the embodiment of many freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, just as the Tea Party was purported to be from the start. Amazingly, the more I think about it, the more I am convinced that BLM, by virtue of the nature of its creation, the strategies it employs, and its claim to leverage and protect the Constitutional rights of its constituency, really is the Tea Party’s rebellious offspring.
-TechRider