As a black man in America, there is no way in the world I could not get behind the idea that Black Lives Matter. So when I noticed the formation of the movement after the Trayvon Martin murder, I appreciated the what seemed to be a grassroots slogan/mantra that was advocating for the lives of all black people against police & racial violence. So I did what all Facebook users do….I showed my solidarity with the cause by blacking-out my profile. I went into posts with a defensive posture of Goku daring anyone to challenge the notion BLACK LIVES MATTER. Then one day, one of my conspiracists friend sent a link that truly started my inquiry into exactly who Black Lives Matter as an organization is and what they are about.
I give no credence to conspiracies unless its backed with information that is comprehensible and relatively logical, so i often disregard forwards, links & videos with the quickness. On this day my
curiosity was obviously peeked so I followed this random white woman who was attempting to do some forensic accounting of BLM’s donations through a company that disperses monies donated through the internet in the form of donations. She went directly to the site and just started clicking on actual links in which told you about the organization. So naturally I did as well.
their mission as an organization seems to disregard the importance of Black males
I clicked on the About Us tab and then the What We Believe hyperlinks and that’s
Screen Grab from BLM site
when I started to feel funny. In bold print
was everything you’d expect BLM to be about, but in a much smaller font was things that I wasn’t sure I wanted to be apart of. Not because I was against their beliefs, but the fact that their mission as an organization seems to disregard the importance of Black males, is actively attempting to “disrupt” things that most people may actually like and love about being black and having a black family, and attempting to “Pork-Bill” in another agenda that they do not promote on National Television.
I support BLM in the areas of justice for black people against racial killings, sanctioned local government police killings, systemic oppression & etc., but in regards to how I raise my children and what their beliefs are, we do not agree. When people start throwing around prefixes like hetero- and cis- I start to feel a bit manipulated.
There’s also this very strange disregard for Black Men in their mission statement. They reference mothers and Trans, but no mention or real reference towards men. How can they not mention Black Men when those are the same people that they rally around when they are taking donations. Where are the hetero Black Men in their leadership and if they don’t have any, why?
I was not under the impression that BLACK LIVES MATTER meant everyone but Black men. Im not knocking their sexual identities or preferences, but i have an issue with the conflation between fighting for black people as a whole….and individual rights as a sexual..non-binary or trans identity. Yet when you see BLM representatives you rarely if ever hear them make mention of their other charges as an organization. The real question is why?
I agree with the initial direction of Black Lives Matter, but am truly considering finding another organization that doesn’t conflate being black with LGBTQ+. Not that I don’t believe the LGBTQ+ community doesn’t need advocacy, but have been taught from the civil rights era, that many people benefitted from the sacrifices of the Black people as a whole, yet here we are still saying Black Lives Matter.
Please go to the Black Lives Matter site and investigate for yourself. You might be surprised at what you discover. Remember Black Lives matter when we include All Black Lives, but black bodies and black heterosexual men should not be relegated to the sidelines. This seems to be a covert action by black feminists who don’t mind to capitalize off the death of black men, but doesn’t seem to want them around at the table for discussion nor have a place in the black community in the future.