While there is no doubt that concerns of Black Lives Matter include law enforcement targeting Black Americans, the intent was the elimination of rogue, gangster, homicidal cops, not men and women in blue legitimately dedicated to the commitment “to protect and serve.” The clear distinction was purposely blurred by media sensationalism.
When Black people utter those three words, all that is meant is that people of the African Diaspora deserve all rights and privileges afforded to all citizens. It’s really not complicated. Black peoples’ lives matter as much as any other!
Because that simple message has been misinterpreted, it is little wonder that a new national poll conducted by Civiqs, a nonpartisan online survey firm affiliated with the progressive media group Daily Kos, found 44 percent of respondents said they oppose the Black Lives Matter movement. Another 43 percent said they support it, while 11 percent said they neither support nor oppose it.
According to the poll, support for the Black Lives Matter movement peaked in June 2020 at 52 percent, a month after the Floyd killing. During the height of the movement, protesters marched in cities across the country to express their outrage at Floyd’s death, which was seen by millions via disturbing video displaying Floyd losing consciousness as a white police officer kneeled on his neck for almost 10 minutes.
Since then, public opposition to BLM has risen following the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by police officers in Kenosha, Wiscon- sin, in August 2020, and the conviction in April of Derek Chauvin in the murder of Floyd.
NBC reports that while 82 percent of the respondents in support of Black Lives Matter in the most recent poll were Black, more than half of those in opposition were white, reflecting a pattern of public opinion when it comes to racial justice movements, said Vida Robertson, director of the Center for Critical Race Studies.
“These polls are quite representative of America’s approach,” Robertson said. “There’s no historical evidence whatsoever that America has ever been interested in Black liberation and building an equitable society.
“We are simply coming to grips with our romantic ideals that are run- ning up against our political realities. And the fact stands that America has constantly and will constantly struggle with the liberation of Black bodies because we are endemically a racist society.”
The struggle is real and must continue. But no war is won without knowledge of enemy thinking. You may not like it, but you need to hear it.
CIRCLE CITY CONNECTION by Vernon A. Williams is a series of essays on myriad topics that include social issues, human interest, entertainment and profiles of difference-makers who are forging change in a constantly evolving society. Williams is a 40-year veteran journalist based in Indianapolis, IN– commonly referred to as The Circle City. Send comments or questions to: [email protected].
Media is orchestrating plot to discredit Black Lives Matter
First, Black Lives Matter is not an organization, it is not political ideology, it is not social justice dogma, and it is not a classist strategy for racial reckoning in this divided nation.
These definitions and phrases are some of the ways in which we unwittingly, and in some cases consciously, permitted predominantly white media to bastardize the birth of potential cutting-edge thought.
Clearly, many Americans have a stake in sustaining levels of misunderstanding that feed antipathy between people who, given an opportunity, would discover more commonalities than differences.
Entering into a framework of compassion and intellectual integrity is a direct threat to those desperate to maintain the status quo. Oppressors are working overtime to hang on to the state of privilege to which they have grown accustomed.
Change risks levels of access and excess they are unwilling to relinquish or even compromise. So, when white, yellow, red and brown Americans – and people around the world – joined in chanting BLACK LIVES MATTER, it was a narrative that simply couldn’t be allowed.
A new poll shows a decline in support among Americans for the Black Lives Matter movement, a year and a half after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other high-profile deaths of Black people in encounters with police sparked a global outcry.
So, in addition to politicizing the definition of BLM, there was a vicious media effort to mischaracterize goals. Instead of a quest for equity, social justice and freedom, the BIG LIE focused on anti-police rhetoric.
While there is no doubt that concerns of Black Lives Matter include law enforcement targeting Black Americans, the intent was the elimination of rogue, gangster, homicidal cops, not men and women in blue legitimately dedicated to the commitment “to protect and serve.” The clear distinction was purposely blurred by media sensationalism.
When Black people utter those three words, all that is meant is that people of the African Diaspora deserve all rights and privileges afforded to all citizens. It’s really not complicated. Black peoples’ lives matter as much as any other!
Because that simple message has been misinterpreted, it is little wonder that a new national poll conducted by Civiqs, a nonpartisan online survey firm affiliated with the progressive media group Daily Kos, found 44 percent of respondents said they oppose the Black Lives Matter movement. Another 43 percent said they support it, while 11 percent said they neither support nor oppose it.
According to the poll, support for the Black Lives Matter movement peaked in June 2020 at 52 percent, a month after the Floyd killing. During the height of the movement, protesters marched in cities across the country to express their outrage at Floyd’s death, which was seen by millions via disturbing video displaying Floyd losing consciousness as a white police officer kneeled on his neck for almost 10 minutes.
Since then, public opposition to BLM has risen following the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by police officers in Kenosha, Wiscon- sin, in August 2020, and the conviction in April of Derek Chauvin in the murder of Floyd.
NBC reports that while 82 percent of the respondents in support of Black Lives Matter in the most recent poll were Black, more than half of those in opposition were white, reflecting a pattern of public opinion when it comes to racial justice movements, said Vida Robertson, director of the Center for Critical Race Studies.
“These polls are quite representative of America’s approach,” Robertson said. “There’s no historical evidence whatsoever that America has ever been interested in Black liberation and building an equitable society.
“We are simply coming to grips with our romantic ideals that are run- ning up against our political realities. And the fact stands that America has constantly and will constantly struggle with the liberation of Black bodies because we are endemically a racist society.”
The struggle is real and must continue. But no war is won without knowledge of enemy thinking. You may not like it, but you need to hear it.
CIRCLE CITY CONNECTION by Vernon A. Williams is a series of essays on myriad topics that include social issues, human interest, entertainment and profiles of difference-makers who are forging change in a constantly evolving society. Williams is a 40-year veteran journalist based in Indianapolis, IN– commonly referred to as The Circle City. Send comments or questions to: [email protected].
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