As citizens around the U.S. protest police brutality and racial inequalities, their rallying cry has been the slogan “Black Lives Matter” — a declaration of God-given value for Americans who feel marginalized. Yet that slogan was born of a political organization — now rolling in donations from massive corporations hoping to establish their social justice bona fides — whose larger agenda has gone largely unexamined.
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) Global Network Foundation is a largely decentralized international organization — listing regional chapters instead of particular leaders. It was founded by three women, two of whom identify as “queer”: Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Opal Tometi, and Alicia Garza. On its “What We Believe” page, BLM describes itself as a movement “to fight for freedom, liberation, and justice,” but its definition of those terms includes radical changes to basic societal norms.
For instance, the org’s “What We Believe” page asserts that these goals can only be achieved through the disruption of the “Western-prescribed nuclear family structure.”
“We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement,” the site declares, “by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.” The word “fathers” is deliberately excluded, replaced by the gender-neutral “parents” despite already naming “mothers” as pillars of the family.
The statement goes on to denigrate male influence on the family as oppressive. “We build a space that affirms Black women and is free from sexism, misogyny, and environments in which men are centered,” the group says, calling single mothers’ “double shifts” of working and parenting a “patriarchal practice.”
On a page describing the group’s “herstory,” BLM writes that part of the reason for its emphasis on intersectional sexual politics is that black liberation movements have historically overemphasized the voice and role of straight men:
Black liberation movements in this country have created room, space, and leadership mostly for Black heterosexual, cisgender men — leaving women, queer and transgender people, and others either out of the movement or in the background to move the work forward with little or no recognition. As a network, we have always recognized the need to center the leadership of women and queer and trans people.
As such, the “What We Believe” statement explicitly endorses LGBTQ subversion of biological sex. “We foster a queer‐affirming network,” the creed states. “When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise).”
In contrast, some black leaders who promote racial unity assert that black communities continue to struggle because of so-called progressive social policies that have incentivized single-mother families.
Rev. Bill Owens, president of the Coalition of African-American Pastors, told Breitbart News recently one of the primary reasons racial tensions still exist is because of policies that have torn apart the fabric of black families.
“We’ve seen decades of policies that helped destroy the black family and the black community,” Owens explained.
Black Lives Matter is under renewed scrutiny after a string of corporations and celebrities announced massive donations for the BLM Foundation and the BLM Action Fund. Managing Director Kailee Scales held an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) Q&A on Reddit Monday, where users excoriated her evasive answers about how the org spends its money and accusations of antisemitism.
Surprisingly, Scales did offer a tepid condemnation of violent protests, looting of businesses, and property destruction in protests around the country. “We advocate for peaceful protests in every instance and do not condone looting or destruction of any kind,” she wrote. “We also believe violations of property should never be equated with violations of human life.” This answer is a marked departure from a quote shared by the organization in 2014, blaming riots in Ferguson, MO, on “racist white folks.” BLM’s social media pages have remained silent on the violence seen in this year’s demonstrations.
The foundation has fully embraced the cause of “Defund the Police,” a policy goal of replacing police officers with social workers and EMTs. BLM has started and promoted a petition to “call on our cities and states to #DefundPolice” since late May.
“We are calling for divestment in police in order to support more teachers, mental health and restorative services, and community resilience departments, social workers, and government resource liaisons,” Scales wrote on Reddit. “Modern-day policing institutions have their roots in slave-catching. These systems were created to hunt, maim, and kill Black people — and are the result of centuries-old anti-Black attitudes codified into law. Simply put the criminal justice system in this country — including law enforcement and incarceration — is actually working the way it is intended to.”
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