Vicious Conservative Bashing of Black Lives Matter Is a Dangerous Proposition
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12 September 2015
Over the past few weeks, conservative opinion toward the Black Lives Matter movement has taken a harsh and ugly turn. It has never been supportive, but now it has taken a decidedly strong bent toward dehumanization, dishonesty, and dangerous accusations that run the risk of getting one of us killed.
By defaming, discrediting, and dehumanizing us with lies, memes, and false accusations, it makes us out to be something more akin to an enemy—when we aren't. We fight for what we fight for because we want to see a fair and just America. We fight because we care for this country and our people. We fight because we've seen seismic changes happen in this nation before and we believe they can happen again.
Police brutality is real. It happens. When it happens, it's wrong.
This is not a partisan idea. This is not liberal or conservative idea. This is a human rights issue. In fact, if a Muslim country somewhere else in the world had thousands of people killed by police, and the officers regularly called the people they killed the ugliest, most inhumane names imaginable, the United States would call that place a repressive regime.
Yet those of us who are calling for serious reforms on the issue of police brutality are being treated like we are a real physical threat to police. Not only that, but the issue has jumped the fence from conservative media outlets calling us a threat to actual police departments and prosecutors calling us a threat.
This is extremely dangerous and reckless. Keep reading to examine the reasons why.
When governors, mayors, prosecutors, and police chiefs start erroneously blaming the Black Lives Matter movement for the deaths of police and saying that we are waging a war on police, they are putting all of us in danger.
It's painful to say this, but in all seriousness and sobriety: If we continue to go down the path we are currently on, in which activists and protestors are being painted as pseudo-terrorists, it's only a matter of time before someone attempts to assassinate one of us. Ironically, it would be in the name of protecting this nation from the emerging threat they claim we are.
Sadly, the trend of dehumanization leading to assassination is not a new one in this country. It happened with four little girls in Birmingham; it happened with Medgar and Martin during the Civil Rights Movement; and it could very well happen to any one of us today.
More than at any point during my lifetime, we are in a crucial moment for civil rights. But, as a student of history, I am well aware that the actual movement was opposed not just with dogs and hoses, but also with bombs and bullets.
It feels like we are heading in that direction. After the massacre in Charleston this year, we may already be there.
I hope I'm wrong.