Black Lives Matter - Who are they?

[dimots]

BLM is not a political movement it’s a social movement. There are no politics in supporting the basic human rights of all black people.

For those who say ‘yeah but all lives matter’...what you’re really saying is ‘shut up about racism’. You’re not making a generous and impartial statement of support, you’re telling black people to be quiet.

[Randy Winkman]

dimots said:

BLM is not a political movement it’s a social movement. There are no politics in supporting the basic human rights of all black people.

For those who say ‘yeah but all lives matter’...what you’re really saying is ‘shut up about racism’. You’re not making a generous and impartial statement of support, you’re telling black people to be quiet.

On your second point I definitely agree. Arguing over the name is just a distraction.

[dimots]

Well yes, the name is the name. Maybe I should have said there ‘should be’ no politics in defending the basic human rights of black people. Labelling BLM as political is what will make it political. If everyone jumps in and supports the movement it can easily avoid being turned into a political machine.

[R Mutt]

Randy Winkman said:

dimots said:

BLM is not a political movement it’s a social movement. There are no politics in supporting the basic human rights of all black people.

For those who say ‘yeah but all lives matter’...what you’re really saying is ‘shut up about racism’. You’re not making a generous and impartial statement of support, you’re telling black people to be quiet.

On your second point I definitely agree. Arguing over the name is just a distraction.

Is this not the same as it's been throughout? If you disagree with any part of it (this time the name) you hate black people?

I'm not sure anyone has said 'Shut up about racism' in response to No Room For Racism etc. If they have, they're probably racist which isn't the same as opposing BLM on various grounds, the least relevant of which being the name.

[coolg]

Have they in one movement lost their support / momentum ?

There is a difference from trying to raise social awareness and having people support them and people voting for a political party that will have quite a narrow range of policies.

[rodericb]

dimots said:

Well yes, the name is the name. Maybe I should have said there ‘should be’ no politics in defending the basic human rights of black people. Labelling BLM as political is what will make it political. If everyone jumps in and supports the movement it can easily avoid being turned into a political machine.

Well, you just have to look at the political leanings of the people running it to see how political it is. Otherwise, there'd be a spread of political ideologies across the people who run that organisation.

[popeyewhite]

dimots said:

BLM is not a political movement it’s a social movement.

Any attempt to change social values or gov. policy is a political movement by definition.

[dimots]

rodericb said:

Well, you just have to look at the political leanings of the people running it to see how political it is. Otherwise, there'd be a spread of political ideologies across the people who run that organisation.

Who are the people running it?

[dimots]

popeyewhite said:

Any attempt to change social values or gov. policy is a political movement by definition.

That's not true you can still broadly categorise as political, social or economic. What is specifically political about BLM?

[popeyewhite]

dimots said:

popeyewhite said:

Any attempt to change social values or gov. policy is a political movement by definition.

That's not true you can still broadly categorise as political, social or economic. What is specifically political about BLM?

BLM are trying to change social values aren't they? That makes them a political movement.

[dimots]

popeyewhite said:

BLM are trying to change social values aren't they? That makes them a political movement.

No leadership, no manifesto, no ambition to enter politics. The BLM movement is not political by any definition I understand.

[bitchstewie]

dimots said:

No leadership, no manifesto, no ambition to enter politics. The BLM movement is not political by any definition I understand.

I forget exactly when but a few months back they put out some tweets where it seemed they were getting political though as you say quite where you draw the line between social views and political ones I don't know.

I think it was around the time that the Premier League and maybe a few others did a bit of a backtrack on how prominently they supported the organisation v supporting the message.

It felt like it got a bit murky around what you were actually backing if you backed the organisation itself.

[popeyewhite]

dimots said:

popeyewhite said:

BLM are trying to change social values aren't they? That makes them a political movement.

No leadership, no manifesto, no ambition to enter politics. The BLM movement is not political by any definition I understand.

You don't understand what I wrote, or you just won't accept it?

[2xChevrons]

dimots said:

No leadership, no manifesto, no ambition to enter politics. The BLM movement is not political by any definition I understand.

Almost any action by anyone is political in some sense (or can be interpreted through a political lense). Actively seeking socio-economic change and social justice is about as political as it gets. They may not be getting involved in parliamentary politics, but that's a very narrow definition of political activity. Of course BLM is political - and it always has been.

A lot of people seem to think that 'politics' is just some amorphous, irrelevant process that happens in the big brown building in London with the green benches, but that couldn't be further from the truth.

[dimots]

popeyewhite said:

You don't understand what I wrote, or you just won't accept it?

It's clearly a false dichotomy. Not sure what you expect me to say about it.

[popeyewhite]

dimots said:

popeyewhite said:

You don't understand what I wrote, or you just won't accept it?

It's clearly a false dichotomy. Not sure what you expect me to say about it.

Yawn.

[pquinn]

Well *someone* has registered Black Lives Matter as a political party in the UK, though it all seems to have gone a bit Judean Peoples Front/People's Front of Judea with all sorts of denials that different bits are linked.

[R Mutt]

dimots said:

popeyewhite said:

BLM are trying to change social values aren't they? That makes them a political movement.

No leadership, no manifesto, no ambition to enter politics. The BLM movement is not political by any definition I understand.

The founders stated their aims/ demands. Is that not leadership and a manifesto?

It's funny though, there are a hundred posts in this thread where people are validating the grass roots activism and separating that from violent protests on the basis of the latter not being promoted by 'BLM', while the Marxist agenda and sympathies (detailed on the crowdfunding page) were dismissed as purely belonging to some entity known as BLM'

Seems it's whatever you want it to be.

[Murph7355]

pquinn said:

Well *someone* has registered Black Lives Matter as a political party in the UK, though it all seems to have gone a bit Judean Peoples Front/People's Front of Judea with all sorts of denials that different bits are linked.

Double bluff? Or maybe even triple?

It's that Tommy Robinson. Or Farage I reckon.

[anonymous-user]

nikaiyo2 said:

biggbn said:

nikaiyo2 said:

Why are there not thousands on the street over

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/10/20/nigerian...

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/7/7/kenya-arre...

Or do these black lives not matter, is it only black lives in the west?

Of course they matter. It is horrendous the level of violence the world over that the West ignore, or sometimes unfortunately contribute to. Shocking. Think of the freedoms we have, and enjoy, in our much criticised country.

Are they just less important?

A career criminal is murdered by the police in America results in mass BLM protests in the UK.
Scores are murdered by the police in Africa and there is no protests.

It suggests that BLM are less interested in black lives when the protests are not likely to damage the west/ US.

I'm curious too about whether BLM actually careless about black lives. The majority of knifing victims in London are blacks, the majority of perpetrators black (in fact blacks carry out 8 times the rate of murders than the general population according to .gov.uk figures) yet never hear a thing about that. But some career criminal resisting arrest incites BLM to protests and criminal damage the world over. Surely if they actually cared about black lives the starting point would be the high rate of black murder perpetrators and black murder victims in London. They only seem to get animated when a white person is involved in the death of a black person. Isn't that racist in itself?

I would be curious if anyone could explain why BLM only appear (to me at least) to focus only on a black death where a white caused it? As others have said it does suggest that in fact their objective is nothing to do with black lives and more anti police / anti establishment.