Civil rights activist Johnetta Elzie notes that white gun control activists emerged from the Parkland, Florida, school shooting in February with corporate sponsors — while black activists are left looking in from the outside.
Politico Magazine notes that Elzie, who is black, became a Black Lives Matter activist after Michael Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, Missouri. She took part in Ferguson protests and was then labeled a “threat actor” by the FBI when she announced plans to protest the 2016 Republican National Convention.
She believes being labeled a “threat actor” was the government’s way of intimidating her and her family.
And now, after watching the way David Hogg and other Parkland activists are broadly lauded, she wonders how it must feel to have such widespread support.
Elzie said:
It made me wonder, what does it feel like to have protests with corporate sponsors? I don’t know. On Twitter, I had a thread that showed just how big of a difference there was between our protests—people of color—and theirs: like having free hotel rooms and things. People were really maxing out credit cards trying to really help these children and these brands are willing to give so much to them, and I think that is because—at the center of it—we’re talking about gun violence.
Hogg and his classmates have been fêted by the mainstream media and celebrated for, among other things, leading boycotts of Fox News host Laura Ingraham.
In addition to newfound celebrity, Hogg and his fellow activists have scored a book deal. Their book will be released June 5.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.