by J. Pharoah Doss, For New Pittsburgh Courier
In 2012 a Black teen was fatally shot by a Florida community watch volunteer. The volunteer claimed self-defense. He wasn’t arrested or charged with a crime. Civil Rights organizations rushed to Florida to demand the arrest of the volunteer.
This started the Black Lives Matter movement. The BLM slogan was quickly embraced, but no one knew their agenda.
In 2014 a White police officer fatally shot a Black teen in Ferguson, Missouri. The officer claimed he fired in self-defense. Witnesses said the teen was shot while his hands were up. Rioting and protests took place for over a week.
Here BLM gained national recognition, but there were some red flags.
No video captured the shooting, and no one knew what happened. Instead of waiting for the official investigation to reveal more information, protesters and rioters went forward based on their assumptions. Taking drastic measures before knowing all the facts was irresponsible and reckless. (As it turned out, the hands-up story was false.) Also, Ferguson and Florida were different. The goal in Florida was to arrest the community watch volunteer and let the system play out. Ferguson had no equivalent agenda.
That same year Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy who had an airsoft gun replica, was fatally shot by a police officer in Cleveland. BLM led the outcry. This shooting was so tragic that it gained sympathy and support for BLM.
The next year the sympathy and support carried over to Baltimore after a Black man died in the back of a police van. However, it was Ferguson all over again. There was no video footage, no one knew what happened, an official investigation was launched, and all the officers involved were suspended. Once again, the protesters had no interest in letting the system play out before they drew their conclusions and rioting broke out in Baltimore that lasted for weeks.
This time protesters let it known they were protesting systemic racism. The problem here is that an effective protest deals with specifics, and they went from the specific to the general which is backward. Since accusations of systemic racism are rarely challenged it was ignored that the claim was made in a majority-Black city with a Black mayor, a Black police chief, a Black school superintendent, and a majority-Black city council.
That made no sense.
The senselessness carried over to the Democratic presidential primary. Groups of BLM activists invaded campaign rallies and interrupted campaign speeches by chanting “Black Lives Matter”. After this intrusion happened to Bernie Sanders one Black progressive writer called BLM an embarrassment and claimed BLM was, “a vehicle for individuals to become celebrity activists.” BLM also interrupted the 2015 Netroots Conference. (A convention for progressive political activists) The same Black writer wrote: Guess what? We are here with BLM activists denouncing people as White supremacists who are at a rally for programs supported by Black people by a 9 to 1 margin.
In 2016 BLM attempted to get organized and for the first time released a list of demands to the public, but their agenda boiled down to two trivial points.
1). End the war on Black people.
2). Reparations.
Then Donald Trump was elected President.
Moderates accused BLM of contributing to Hillary Clinton’s loss. BLM disappeared from the national scene and reemerged in 2020 after George Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minnesota. The officers involved were fired and charged with a host of crimes. Even though the system was in operation toward justice, riots and protests broke out across the country. This time the police killing was recorded, and BLM gained more sympathy and support.
This led to millions of dollars in donations for BLM causes.
Then in 2021, Tamir Rice’s mother started to complain to anyone that would listen. She accused BLM of profiting off her son’s death. She stated she never permitted them to raise money in her son’s name.
This year there are reports in right-wing and left-wing news outlets about BLM leaders using millions of dollars in donations for personal use. One headline said BLM secretly bought a $6 million house—Allies and critics alike have questioned where the organization’s money has gone.
But missing money isn’t the first red flag. They’ve been there all along.
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