Black Lives Matter, the movement that launched as a hashtag after George Zimmerman was acquitted in 2013 for the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, turned four today. To mark its anniversary, we have compiled a list of the five most outrageous statements activists associated with the movement have made.
1.) A Black Lives Matter activist suggested police officers be abolished.
“The police force in this country began as a slave patrol,” activist Jessica Disu said last year on the “Kelly File.” She then went off the deed end, advocating:
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
We need to abolish the police, period. Demilitiarize the police, disarm the police, and we need to come up with community solutions for transformative justice.
2.) The co-founder of the Toronto chapter implied that white people are genetically inferior.
According to the Toronto Sun, Yusra Khogali reportedly opined in a 2015 Facebook post that “white ppl are recessive genetic defects. this is factual. White ppl need white supremacy as a mechanism to protect their survival as a people because all they can do is produce themselves. black ppl simply through their dominant genes can literally wipe out the white race if we had the power to.”
3.) A Black Lives Matter protest featured a “fry ’em like bacon” chant about police officers.
The St. Paul, Minn. chapter of the movement held a protest in 2015 where demonstrators chanted “Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon” as they marched the streets. Trahern Crews, an organizer of that march, subsequently told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes that the chant was meant to be “playful” and that marchers had exchanged lighthearted barbs with an officer monitoring the march.
It’s hard to say which was more offensive: the chant or the claim that it was done in harmless jest.
4.) The Philadelphia chapter explained why it’s OK to ban white people from their meetings.
Asked about the decision to prevent white people from participating in their dialogues, L. Williams, a BLM Philly member, said, “Black-centered spaces provide black people with the opportunity to come together to strategize, organize and heal in fellowship without the fear of violence and co-optation.” Shorter L. Williams: Keep out, cracker!
5.) The movement published a tribute to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro upon learning of his death.
In op-ed published at Medium on Nov 27, 2016, BLM wrote:
We are feeling many things as we awaken to a world without Fidel Castro. There is an overwhelming sense of loss, complicated by fear and anxiety. Although no leader is without their flaws, we must push back against the rhetoric of the right and come to the defense of El Comandante. [Emphasis added]
This report, by Amber Randall, was cross-posted by arrangement with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
