Is #BlackLivesMatter a legit movement or black supremacy?

[Elton John]

I just want accountability for cops. If they murder an innocent person they shouldn't get off with a slap on the wrist. They should get the same punishment a normal person would.

That would deter most innocent deaths by cops. They would not have such ichy trigger fingers.

[Squeely]

It's a legitimate movement for sure. Just a focused one. I personally see nothing wrong with focusing on issues a certain group faces, especially marginalized groups. Far too many innocent black lives have been taken, unjustifiably. I really hate the attitude that a black person "wasn't compliant" or "had a record" and therefore deserved to get shot, as though any infraction makes their death okay. Because it doesn't. It really, really doesn't. If someone is resistant or has a record, then calling for backup is the proper action to take. Tasering is an option, to incapacitate, not kill. Pepper spray is an option. What about those clubs cops are stereotypically depicted with? Those are an option. Again, to incapacitate. I think we need to re-evaluate and re-train our police forces, to be better at handling intense situations without guns, and to only use guns as a last resort.

Sadly, with America's violence problem, I don't think taking guns away from cops is a good idea. But I think we need to restructure their training, with better emphasis on guns being last-resort-only. Quite frankly, as an American citizen, cops killing people over misdemeanors scares the hell out of me.

[Chavratheserval]

Well, it seems things are civil in this thread right now. It's good to see people agree with me on some points. I'm happy to see a brighter attitude I guess.Anyways, let's have faith and hope that things like this violence will quickly shrink down. Cause I have growing concerns. Maybe this will stop, not entirely cause that will never happen. Just try to see from there side.

[Amur_Tiger]

It's a legitimate movement for sure. Just a focused one. I personally see nothing wrong with focusing on issues a certain group faces, especially marginalized groups. Far too many innocent black lives have been taken, unjustifiably. I really hate the attitude that a black person "wasn't compliant" or "had a record" and therefore deserved to get shot, as though any infraction makes their death okay. Because it doesn't. It really, really doesn't. If someone is resistant or has a record, then calling for backup is the proper action to take. Tasering is an option, to incapacitate, not kill. Pepper spray is an option. What about those clubs cops are stereotypically depicted with? Those are an option. Again, to incapacitate. I think we need to re-evaluate and re-train our police forces, to be better at handling intense situations without guns, and to only use guns as a last resort.

Sadly, with America's violence problem, I don't think taking guns away from cops is a good idea. But I think we need to restructure their training, with better emphasis on guns being last-resort-only. Quite frankly, as an American citizen, cops killing people over misdemeanors scares the hell out of me.

I'm not sure the movement really is all that focused though, both their tactics and their international nature.

Vancouver, BC, Canada has a BLM branch that tried ( without success thankfully ) to get the VPD police out of the Vancouver Gay Pride parade. The province-wide average for police involved shootings in BC is about half of what it is in the US and the Metro Vancouver area has around 1% people of 'African origins', less then the Danish population. The narrative pushed by BLM just doesn't fit with the reality and continuing with the same confrontational tactics and attitudes only serves to alienate people from the cause. If BLM can't treat entire police departments as individual from others a country and thousands of kilometers away then what hope is there of getting their desired outcome of treating Black men/women as individuals instead of making assumptions.

This strikes me as a movement that's really quite confused about where the problem is and who's causing it and instead is lashing out in all directions at anyone they view as having the power and influence to help. The VPD can't do anything to improve the lot of black lives beyond the 23 545 that live in the Vancouver Metro area ( less actually due to patchwork jurisdictions ). A brief look though the Vancouver chapter of BLM 's facebook feed shows a lot about what they're doing ( friction with local police ) and what they're protesting against, deaths in the US and one in Ottawa. There was also this posted. For a variety of reasons this doesn't work in Canada particularly well and works even worse in Vancouver, but in an effort to stick to the 'message' I guess they kept it exactly the same. Either that or they simply didn't put any thought into what they actually want to see change.

I support the premise of black lives matter, I think the organization and movement will have to die before progress is made as currently it's an engine for division and discord instead of any unifying force for change.

[zerodix]

if it says "all lives matter", then it is about equality. this, is pure racism and hate. racism and hate are often prescribed to for white people, but do not forget that hate and racism are amongst every race and ethnic group.

[Panpardus]

I say this with whatever 'authority' you may ascribe to me as a black person, though it should be apparent regardless of your skin tone or ethnicity.

Is Black Lives Matter a black supremacy movement at its core? No, definitely not. If you want a black supremacy movement, check out something more like the New Black Panther Party (not the original Black Panther Party) or any number of weird kinda-fringe groups that we more 'conventional' black folk like to call Hotep men (they are a riot...). You will always have your run-of-the-mill folks who will try to ride the current of a certain movement for their own reasons, and oftentimes that's what you see when actual riots occur. Thing is, things weren't that much different in the 1950s and '60s when the Civil Rights Movement was in full swing. American history has never held MLK to a high regard until well after he was killed, and even now most talk about him is sanitized so that you never really hear the more fiery criticisms he made of U.S. society and government.

Regarding the statement "All Lives Matter", I think it's been explained before, but let me use a common and clear example for why people take offense to this. You and some friends are at dinner after a hard day's work (pick your poison), and someone is serving you guys. Everyone else is getting food, but for some reason yours hasn't come, so you say "I need food." Everyone else replies "We all need food." Now, both statements are true, but in that instance, everyone saying "We all need food" is doing nothing to rectify the fact that you never got your food. In fact, they were more or less ignoring the fact that you hadn't been served until you brought it up in the first place. To extend the metaphor to explain why hearing "All lives matter" gets even more frustrating, now there's another table in the room and for some reason those people have no food either, but the folks at your table saying "We all need food" are not making any comments to the waiter and asking them to bring food to the folks at the other table, and oftentimes when you go to this restaurant, the only one at your table trying to take action against the service discrepancy against both yourself and the people at the foodless table is you.

Basically, in case you missed the metaphor, the reason "All lives matter" gets on people's nerves is because it's only used as a response to shut up "Black Lives Matter" activists. It's completely reactionary in its nature, and whenever something happens outside of the immediate purview of BLM -- say, when white people suffer at the hands of police brutality, which does happen by the way, and fairly often -- you never hear any uproar from [white] folks who chant "All lives matter.' In fact, it's unfailingly the BLM crowd who bring attention to the fact that police brutality affects white people too, and are the only ones calling for justice to be done. "All Lives Matter" folks are not making statements on the current situation at Standing Rock, nor advocating for the betterment of immigrants to the U.S. both documented and undocumented, nor necessarily do they promote sweeping support for LGBTQ+ legislation. Meanwhile BLM is officially in solidarity and helping to bring attention to and fight for causes like those. That's the exact same thing that happened with the Civil Rights Act; it was a movement centered around black people, but what they were ultimately arguing for was equality for everyone, hence why the Act formally prevents discrimination via more than just race, but also sex, color, religion, and national origin. The point of BLM is to ultimately address systemic problems in law enforcement and the criminal justice system so that ultimately everyone can benefit from the improvements that are made. All this being said, I'm not saying that it's a perfect movement, but it's really not deserving of the stigmatized reputation it's gotten, particularly when their opponents are at best just remaining silent on such issues.

[Squeely]

They said black lives matter. They didn't say black lives were the only lives that mattered. So, all lives matter is unnecessary at best.

[KopsTheTerminator]

Oh god not this thread lol.

They said black lives matter. They didn't say black lives were the only lives that mattered. So, all lives matter is unnecessary at best.

Yeah, the apparent offense people take at it genuinely confuses me tbh?

[PridelandsPhantom]

All lives matter, period whatever race or ethnicity you are. First of all, I side with the cops on the Ferguson debate if that's what this was about. If you'd like to pm me then I'd be happy to talk it out. First of all, there are legitimate cases of racism, but accusing racism at every turn does not help. As a white person I'm afraid of saying anything to anyone of a different race because I will be painted with a racist brush. African-Americans have shown they can tackle inequality without resorting to violent means, as evidenced by the sit-ins, SNICC, and other movements of non-violence in the 60s.

BLM is a more militant group in the fact that there are other groups that have also had a horrible time in the U.S. (Native Americans were slaughtered, put on reservations, and given diseases), so yes, it exists, but there are too many aspects of it that are like the more extreme of many groups like ALF