Black Lives Matter Activist: ‘We Are in a Terrible War with Our Own Country’

Tuesday on CNN’s “Wolf,” Black Lives Matter organizer Julius Jones said reiterated his view that black lives are very much endangered in the United States.

“From the palette of things that we will do, there’s a diversity,” Jones said. “We’ll shut them down, we’ll have meetings, it will — whatever it takes to get Black Lives Matter on the national agenda is what we’re seeking to do. And it’s important to note that folks want to characterize and judge the Black Lives Matter movement in myriad ways but what no one can argue with is that this is a pressing issue. This is a pressing issue. And some people live in a world where it’s just a pressing issue in politics and some people live in a world where it’s actually our kids dying. And so if folks want to inform their own perspective on Black Lives Matter, it’s the urgency that we see in the video of Sam Dubose who got shot in the head, point blank range, in a car just for driving.”

“It’s the urgency of Tamir Rice who was 12-years-old, shot literally for playing and it’s the urgency of Sandra Bland, the case that everybody knows,” he continued. “So temper — I would say temper your perspective with the urgency that black lives are actively under attack and we are in a terrible war with our own country, African-Americans are Americans and we’re not treated like that. We’re not treated as if black lives matter and when people say ‘All lives matter,’ it’s a violent statement because the only time that people say ‘All lives matter’ is in opposition to black lives matter and it’s the most violent statement of love that you can do. It’s like ‘All lives matter!’ Yes, we understand that, it’s true, but in this country, for a long time, the United States acts like black lives don’t matter.”