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New Harvard Poll says 57% of Americans view Black Lives Matter negatively

My dad calls them terrorists, and I call them heroes.

It doesn't surprise me that most people in America view them negatively, just look at all the neonazies in power.

I think the biggest dichotomy is when I was in school, the Black Panthers were shown as criminals and terrorists. But when I went to actually read on them, they actually sounded like a civil rights group standing up for their community and people.
 

LionPride

Banned
I read up on them a bit but didn't find a clear answer. What did the Black Panthers actually do that was wrong? I think I might already know the answer to this, but all I'm seeing is that they were openly protesting while exercising their right to open-carry. Which led to open-carry being repealed in California, a law which the NRA supported. You know what, the more I write about what I read, the more I'm convinced I already know the answer...
Well they did attempt to indoctrinate children to hate cops but honestly beyond that...they were black and usin they rights to protect themselves.
 

L Thammy

Member
I dislike the name of the movement as it should have taken all of 1 second to realize that every racist and their grandma will reply "all lives matter!!!" or "blue lives matter!!". So now we have to see such stupid rebuttals all the time.

There's nothing wrong with the name of the movement. The name of the movement is such a basic and obvious statement that nobody should be able to deny it in good conscience. The problem is that there are people out there that are actually uncomfortable with the idea.
 

Espada

Member
65% of whites opposing a group with a message as basic as "Black Lives Matter" makes me queasy.

We need a radical transformation of American society to upend the structures of white supremacy. Proactive measures need to be taken to challenge prejudicial attitudes among everyday Americans and our criminal justice system needs to be dismantled and built anew.

The radical transformation you're talking about is massive amounts of violence. Few groups ever give up power peacefully and gracefully. Characterizing white people as a hateful horde is racist, inaccurate, and ultimately unproductive. The reality is that there is a very large group of white people that despises minorities (especially black people) and does everything in their power to ruin them, and an even larger group of white people that silently look on while enjoying the numerous benefits of being part of the group in power.

They are preconditioned (both by the media and the hateful core spreading garbage about minorities) to mistrust minorities and anything they do or say. It's no surprise that BLM has been smeared so bad that they see it negatively.
 

sqwarlock

Member
A majority, 54 percent, said the police are held accountable for misconduct. Among blacks, only 23 percent agreed.

Seventy-five percent, including two-thirds of African-Americans surveyed, said more attention is paid to police behavior than to gangs or crime. Nearly 90 percent said that scrutiny has triggered more violence against the police.

And 62 percent said the focus on police behavior has handcuffed law enforcement officials by discouraging them from doing their jobs, although only 44 percent of blacks agreed.

That second paragraph in particular is surprising. Would be curious to hear the thoughts behind the majority voters for that question.
 

Nydius

Gold Member
Meanwhile, Colin Kaepernick still doesn't have a job in the NFL over a peaceful protest and A&E's Live PD is growing in viewership every week.

So I can't even feign shock at the statistics put forth in this report.
 
I'm mixed but all I've seen the local BLM group do is scream at white kids studying a few times on campus.

Hard not to have a negative opinion when they've done jack shit but inconvenience regular people and embarrass themselves during the primaries.

Still better than the police though.
 

FUME5

Member
A lot of people buying what the media sells them without having the personal life experience necessary to refute it.

Not that that's any excuse.
 

Acerac

Banned
I'm mixed but all I've seen the local BLM group do is scream at white kids studying a few times on campus.

Hard not to have a negative opinion when they've done jack shit but inconvenience regular people and embarrass themselves during the primaries.

Still better than the police though.

It'd be better if all protests could be ignored. That way they'd not inconvenience anyone or change anything.
 

Goofalo

Member
I'm mixed but all I've seen the local BLM group do is scream at white kids studying a few times on campus.

Hard not to have a negative opinion when they've done jack shit but inconvenience regular people and embarrass themselves during the primaries.

Still better than the police though.

That is one of my criticisms of the BLM movement is lack of structure. Not necessarily centralized leadership, but enough people on the ground with training as organizers. Now, there are good reasons for that, a lot of the groups were formed ad hoc, and the group sprang up out of urgency as opposed to a structured organizational founding. I do hope they do establish some structure, which allows individual communities to best address the issues that affect their community/situation, but also to give people the training and strategizing that would make them more successful.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
White people in a nutshell. I am not a racist, but its clear to see that on some level, many of them don't "get" us, and won't even try.

This is not about the organization, its about trying to dismiss concerns of systemic injustice out of an irrational fear of "black privilege", when in reality, its all about that (to be fair, many times unconscious) white privilege.


I'm mixed but all I've seen the local BLM group do is scream at white kids studying a few times on campus.

Hard not to have a negative opinion when they've done jack shit but inconvenience regular people and embarrass themselves during the primaries.

Still better than the police though.

Who was "inconveniencing regular people and embarrassing themselves"? Let me know

Cause all i saw was a bunch of white folk trying to practice whataboutism just to deflect.
 

Order

Member
I'm mixed but all I've seen the local BLM group do is scream at white kids studying a few times on campus.

Hard not to have a negative opinion when they've done jack shit but inconvenience regular people and embarrass themselves during the primaries.

Still better than the police though.
Wow, I can't believe a group fighting for change is protesting. What a bunch of assholes.

Why can't they be more like MLK?
 
It'd be better if all protests could be ignored. That way they'd not inconvenience anyone or change anything.

Harassing college aged white kids (aka the most likely whites to be on our side) instead of disrupting police orgs or politicians against police reform is pointless and cowardly at best.
QUOTE=silvon;245340880]My exposure to BLM here in Canada is when they threatened to boycott the gay pride parade unless the police are banned from marching. That left a negative impression on me. I don't think fighting suppression with suppression is cool, and I'm not sure why they chose the pride parade to voice their platform.[/QUOTE]

See now THIS I can get behind. Fuck them in every way possible until they change, not the stressed out freshmen who has no idea why people are screaming at him.
 
The media needs to do a much more thorough job report on all the positives things they do besides the rare instances of violent rioting and looting and threats against police and white people.
 

silvon

Member
My exposure to BLM here in Canada is when they threatened to boycott the gay pride parade unless the police are banned from marching. That left a negative impression on me. I don't think fighting suppression with suppression is cool, and I'm not sure why they chose the pride parade to voice their platform.
 
I'm mixed but all I've seen the local BLM group do is scream at white kids studying a few times on campus.

Hard not to have a negative opinion when they've done jack shit but inconvenience regular people and embarrass themselves during the primaries.

Still better than the police though.

You should pay attention more.

And who are umm regular people and how are BLM activists not regular people?


Harassing college aged white kids (aka the most likely whites to be on our side) instead of disrupting police orgs or politicians against police reform is pointless and cowardly at best.

On a scale of 1 to 10 how much do you love Sam Harris?
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
Harassing college aged white kids (aka the most likely whites to be on our side) instead of disrupting police orgs or politicians against police reform is pointless and cowardly at best.

Oh yes, because BLM didn't do any of what you suggested at all, and the white kids need their safe spaces from protests rights?

Next your gonna tell me they were being a nuisance by blocking traffic and inconveniencing people trying to get to work
 

Ridisc

Banned
Most of my exposure to black lives matter has been through negative media attention and protests so I can see how this figure is accurate, expected it to be higher honestly.
 
My exposure to BLM here in Canada is when they threatened to boycott the gay pride parade unless the police are banned from marching. That left a negative impression on me. I don't think fighting suppression with suppression is cool, and I'm not sure why they chose the pride parade to voice their platform.

Because they were black members of the LGBT community and they don't want to march with their uniformed oppressors

And police is a job not an identity.

And Pride used to mean something before it became tamed and "unpolitical" once certain members of the community umm got theirs.
 

Acerac

Banned
Harassing college aged white kids (aka the most likely whites to be on our side) instead of disrupting police orgs or politicians against police reform is pointless and cowardly at best.

You suggest they disrupt police organizations? I suppose that would be far more brave, but I question how effective their protests would be from inside jail cells.
 
Its the Black Panthers all over again.

Try to stand up for your community, get called thugs and terrorists.
Absolutely. And it's same Malcolm X. The narative has been the same for years. The 'correct way' for black people to protest is the way which requires you to put yourself down and try to adopt the a very 'white', for the convenience of white racists. A way that requires you to abandon your own culture. There's a reason Martin Luther King is regarded as the defacto leader of the Civil Rights movement. He's safer than figures like Malcolm X. His means of addressing oppression works to the favor of white racists. It easy for them to use it to prolong opression while convincingly spinning it as being progress. And it continues today, manifesting here with Black Lives Matter. The status quo prevents them from acting in way that would actively change that status quo.

It's insane.
 
Oh yes, because BLM didn't do any of what you suggested at all, and the white kids need their safe spaces from protests rights?

Next your gonna tell me they were being a nuisance by blocking traffic and inconveniencing people trying to get to work
RIP Nana Ruth, may a choir of angels sing thee to thy rest.
 

Strike

Member
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said:
First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;" who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
.
 
This is depressing. They didn't even think highly of MLK until years after he died.

And, as earlier pointed out, they're in love with a fuzzy, misremembered caricature of the man, which is why you'll often see him quoted to browbeat protesters with bullshit like 'MLK would not have protested like that' or 'MLK didn't fight and die so y'all could act like [insert any modern social movement] does!'
 
Nana Ruth is just trying to get her college degree finally and BLM is ruining her success story.
Keebler Elf Jefferson Beauregard Sessions just wants to help Nana get her Master's.

My dad calls them terrorists, and I call them heroes.

It doesn't surprise me that most people in America view them negatively, just look at all the neonazies in power.

I think the biggest dichotomy is when I was in school, the Black Panthers were shown as criminals and terrorists. But when I went to actually read on them, they actually sounded like a civil rights group standing up for their community and people.
Also how Malcolm X is villified when history has pretty much proven him right.
 
And, as earlier pointed out, they're in love with a fuzzy, misremembered caricature of the man, which is why you'll often see him quoted to browbeat protesters with bullshit like 'MLK would not have protested like that' or 'MLK didn't fight and die so y'all could act like [insert any modern social movement] does!'

Most of the "left" ignores everything he had to say about economic justice since that's inconvenient for them.
 
Depressing. But not surprising considering the slant their coverage gets. Also shithead anarchists ruining shit for everyone else.
 
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