It was December 4, 2014.
Black Lives Matter had sprung up almost four months earlier after the events in Ferguson, Missouri. The remnants of Occupy Wall Street immediately latched onto this Movement
as if it were life support.
Our plan that night was to stage a “die-in” inside Saks Fifth Avenue during the holiday shopping crush. Dozens of “activists” (of all ethnicities) entered the posh department store and pretended to be shoppers.
When we got the signal, we were supposed to plop down onto the floor and pretend to be dead (see my photo below).
This was (somehow) supposed to represent all the people of color being killed by law enforcement. I opted to not lie down because I wanted to get photos to document the action and well… I’d already had my fill of almost being arrested in this particular venue.
We perform such futile, dishonest exhibitionism because the hive mind keeps telling us: American police are hunting down black men in an epidemic of “lynchings.”
I’m not being hyperbolic.
In 2020, for example, pundits of the woke kind declared that cops are hunting black people (particularly black men).
LeBron James himself tweeted: “For Black people right now, we think you’re hunting us.” Some folks unselfconsciously call it an “epidemic.”
In the Black Lives Matter mission statement, it is stated that black people are being “systematically targeted for demise.”
The media picks up these quotes and runs with them as clickbait stories — without any pretense of fact-checking. Opinions are manufactured and thus, narratives are created and sides are drawn.
BLM was founded on this deception.
Do you know how many unarmed black people were actually killed by U.S. law enforcement in 2020, the Year of George Floyd?
I would not blame anyone if, based on public rhetoric, they guessed hundreds if not thousands. But here’s the breakdown:
There are roughly 60 million interactions between police and civilians (age 16 and older) each year.
In 2020, during those 60 million interactions, 1,021 people were killed by police.
Of that number, 55 were unarmed.
Of that number, 24 were white while 18 were black.
Yes, proportional to population demographics, unarmed blacks are indeed being killed at a higher rate than unarmed whites. But please allow me to repeat:
In 2020, 18 unarmed black people were killed by law enforcement agents.
Is that 18 too many? Yes.
Is it equivalent to “hunting,” an “epidemic,” or being “systematically targeted for demise”? Of course not.
However, an organization called Black Lives Matter opted to make this its focus. In the process, they ignore (for example) that the top cause of death for black men under 44 is homicide. Those murders are obviously not being committed by cops.
Could you instead imagine concerned citizens holding a “die-in” in the name of finding ways to prevent even more victims of gang activity, drug dealing, and other crimes?
Can you imagine pro athletes and members of Congress kneeling to honor those victims?
Sure, it would still be virtue signaling, but at the very least, they’d be trying to live up to a name like “Black Lives Matter.”
If anyone is smugly enjoying this takedown of the woke crowd, I suggest you take a good look around. The “truth” movement and “medical freedom” movement can be just as deluded and deceptive in their own way.
The longstanding “activist” blueprint is a delusion.
Let’s learn to be more discerning and embrace independent thought before we embark on journeys to free others. And remember:
This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
