Black Lives Matter Protestor, December 2014 — photo by Robert Stribley

What Black Lives Matter Really Says About Violence

What did the leadership of Black Lives Matter and some of its more prominent advocates have to say about the murder of police officers in Dallas — as the event was unfolding?

Last week was a bad week. Two black men, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, were killed by police when they were apprehended — both we’ve pretty much established by now were innocent of any wrong-doing at the time, both were videotaped as they died. Sadly, later in the week one deranged man took it upon himself to kill five police officers in Dallas, TX, wounding an additional seven — as well as at least two Black Lives Matter bystanders. Before he was killed via a controlled explosion, Micah Johnson said he hoped to “kill white people” but also complained about Black Lives Matter.

In the following days, understandably, most of us were simply horrified by these murders, but some also took the opportunity to resurrect the slurs, which have been perpetrated against the Black Lives Matter movement since its inception: That Black Lives Matter and its participants are “cop killers” and even that the human rights movement is a “domestic terrorist organization.” Often these accusations are accompanied by cherrypicked incidents and quotations, the content of which prompted me (like many of you, I’m sure) to conclude that many people simply aren’t paying attention at all to what Black Lives Matter is actually saying.

With that in mind, I’d like to introduce you to the leadership and other prominent advocates of Black Lives Matter via their tweets posted the very night Micah Johnson murdered those five police officers in Dallas last week. In addition to posting their tweets, I’m adding their names and Twitter follower counts, so you can see I haven’t just cherry-picked a few random people with little influence.

Deray McKesson, @deray, 495,000 followers

Shaun King, @shaunking, 283,000 followers

Black Lives Matter (official account), @blklivesmatter, 149,000 followers

Jamelle Bouie, @jbouie, 89,000 followers

Tracey Clayton, co-host of Another Round, @brokeymcpoverty, 69,900 followers

Keith Boykin, @KeithBoykin, 36,900 followers

Crommunist, @Crommunist, 8,000 followers

Upon waking in the morning after the Dallas shootings:

Kelly McCreary, @KellyMcCreary, 136,000 followers

And finally on the morning after the shooting having spent the night speaking to CNN about the unfolding events, Charles M. Blow:

Charles M. Blow, @CharlesMBlow, 162,000 followers

That’s a selection of tweets from some of the more prominent members of Black Lives Matter. There are thousands of #BlackLivesMatter advocates on Twitter. If you’re not on Twitter, look for them on Facebook. Here’s another quote from Nekima Levy-Pounds (@nvlvy, 11,500 Twitter followers) posted on Facebook after she appeared on CNN hours after the shooting.

Many of these leaders and prominent advocates have 10 of thousands, even 100s of thousands of followers. Why not consider following several of them for a few weeks (not minutes, weeks) so we can all learn more about what Black Lives Matter really has to say. If you’re a white person, you may feel uncomfortable with what some members have to say from time to time, but you’ll learn a tremendous amount and see the overwhelming emphasis is non-violent. Besides, of course, you may feel uncomfortable if criticism is directed at you or your culture, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t legitimate. We all have to be willing to experience a degree of discomfort as we’re prompted to improve our immediate communities, as well as our larger society — which often means understanding and modifying our own personal behavior.

One more quote from one of the three original co-founders of Black Lives Matter.

Alicia Garza, @aliciagarza, 28,600 followers

“We are not anti-police. We are anti our people being murdered in the streets.” — Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza

I’m not saying that there aren’t some people under the Black Lives Matter banner who espouse violence. I’m engaging with those people who suggest that Black Lives Matter equals killing cops or Black Lives Matter equals “domestic terrorist group.” Doubtless, there are people within the movement who do espouse violence but the overwhelming voice of the leadership is anti-violence. (And not just the leadership but every single BLM supporter I’ve ever interacted with online or offline.) So suggesting Black Lives Matter is a terrorist organization is akin to suggesting the overall Pro Life movement approves of killing doctors (some certainly do) or that all Police are racist (patently absurd, of course).

Finally, some have complained that Black Lives Matter is divisive. My response to that would be, “So?” Human rights movements are almost always inherently divisive. Anytime people speak up on behalf of their own rights, it’s going to sound divisive to some who would rather the oppressed sit down and shut up all together. So, if that’s your complaint, then, yes, #BlackLivesMatter is “divisive.” It’s quite possible to advance your cause peacefully, but doggedly, arguing to be treated as an equal and to still be seen as “divisive” to those who are happy with the status quo.

They’ll have to get over it.