It's About Creating The Narrative!
It is very important for those writing history to create the narrative on which that history stands. This is also true for those making history. The narratives of African Americans is far too often written by those who are not of African heritage. Black people and their ideas, political and social movements, and creations should be judged and evaluated from an African centered perspective. Unfortunately, in our Eurocentric world, the virtues of white Americans dictate how things are seen.
And this is the key problem for White America, who is creating their narratives? Is it FOX, CNN, MSNBC, the Washington Post, the New York Times, or the Wall Street Journal? What other sources does one need to consult to learn about the events in your nation?
Anti-racism movements are as old as the nation itself. Yet, many in our news medias portray these movements as quite recent and frequently violent. The treatment of anti-racist movements when white Americans are excluded are always described as revolutionary and radical. The white narratives tend to suggest that people of color are always looking for revenge and want to kill, rape, and plunder white society. Yet it never happens. So the key question is why do white people create false narratives?
I guess that is a rhetorical question. We all know why white America creates such narratives. And now with a president that has a gift for exaggeration, false narratives are created daily. White America, since the end of the Civil Rights Movement, has been looking for a “Negro Whisperer.” However, White America does not seem to accept that the United States has been killing all of the potential candidates to assume the mantles of Martin Luther King or Malcolm X. The nation has enjoyed the expansion of the ghettos and the incarceration of black youth. It is almost funny when media commentators or politicians discuss “black on black” crime. White society is guilty for creating many of the tensions that lead to such crime and then they politicize it for their own gains. Again it is creating a narrative. When whites commit crimes there are no labels. Whites killing whites is called murder not “white on white” crime.
If one were to create a 21st century black movement, it most likely would not be created by men, would not have a charismatic leader for whites to murder, and would focus on the full spectrum of human rights. That was the recipe for developing something akin to Black Lives Matter. It would take lessons from the past and build community-based alliances like the Nation of Islam, the Black Panthers, and the UNIA. It would make a direct appeal to the masses and not to the elites and not to white society.
Like almost every black organization in the history of this nation, Black Lives Matter was the direct result of a violent act. In this case, following the death of Trayvon Martin in 2013. Alicia Garza, Patrisse Khan-Cullors, and Opal Tometi, its co-founders, are three women of color who felt the pain of police brutality, vigilantism and other acts of violence against black people. They don’t live in the same cities and they have different lives. Yet, they are affected by the same tensions that confront African Americans throughout this nation. Black Lives Matter is universal in its construction. Issues of race, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity drive its mission, and it has found partners in Canada and the United Kingdom where people of color are equally oppressed. There are BLM chapters in Boston, Chicago, New York City, Washington D.C., Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Lansing, Long Beach, Memphis, Nashville, South Bend, Michigan, Toronto, Vancouver, Waterloo, and London. Chapters operate somewhat autonomously, and while the local chapters have leadership, many of the leaders are not well known.
So, there is no way that you can contrast the NAACP or Urban League to BLM. The organization is not closely linked to a central command and there is no national spokesman/woman. Often it is unclear who is speaking for BLM. People in the community support the organization, but that does not mean that they are actual members. This is not your parents or grandparents civil rights movement.
And, this is what infuriates white and some black critics. There is no one to blame or attack. And that leads to misrepresenting the organization and false propaganda being disseminated about BLM. Yet, BLM has a website https://blacklivesmatter.com/
with lots of information. It is a non-violent movement with focuses on arts and culture, sexuality, global sustainability, health, education and voting and citizenship. BLM wants reforms, especially as it pertains to policing and violence against people of color and sexual orientations, but it is not discussing destroying the United States.
So the next time when you hear someone criticizing BLM, stop them and ask them exactly what they know, not what they think. And when they speak, realize it’s the narrative thing!
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