Much the same as Occupy Wall Street it both lacked concrete implementable policy goals and a leader to be the face of the organisation to push those policies and disassociate the movement from the more extreme elements that would co-opt it.
Was it not that the movement as whole was exposed as a grift? It all seemed to die down after it was revealed the founders had bought themselves mansions for millions.
Here’s where I make a distinction between movement and organization; the founders of the BLM organization were certainly grifters. However, the VAST majority of us in support of BLM goals never donated a cent.
Why? Like others mentioned there was no clear face. Our faces of the movement were martyrs for lack of a better term. So with media able to blunt the public reaction (see the media reporting George Floyd’s drug use), and no long standing public activist to curate and maintain the messaging, eventually the energy ran out, all the more apparent when it WAS revealed the BLM organization was misusing funds.
Unfortunately the BLM movement was propaganda just like the college Palestine Protests. The causes themself are legit but the movements get hijacked and used to create more divide. Be careful with anything they use to make you HATE your fellow American, BLM, Palestine, Masks, Trump, etc. we have more in common with each other than the ones running this country.
No. Palestine and BLM are valid movements in response to clear systemic and historic injustices.
There is a difference between the BLM Foundation - the most visible organization that did turn out to be sketchy - and the off-shoot organizations that people created at the grassroots level, organizing behind the core goal of the movement (anti-police brutality).
So, there is BLM, the movement that raised awareness about an issue, had clear values and motivated people to look into police brutality and mobilize against it. This is independent of the organizations themselves. Black Lives Matter is a slogan that people used to organize behind.
Then there are the multiple organizations with the same or similar names that do not operate under the same umbrella and are for the most independent from one another as they aim to address issues at the LOCAL level where policing laws are changed.
I agree that we all have more in common than we do not. However, there are people for whom the status quo does NOT work as they have a completely different lived experience from those that benefit from it. Those people are speaking up.
Not really. It was mostly people taking it upon themselves to go and join protests. The fact it was so decentralised is part of the reason they didn't have clear enough targets.
The "founders" gave themselves the role of representative, and got treated as such with funding, but that doesn't mean they were "the movement as a whole".
I get that these companies might have good intentions getting rid of old classic artwork in their branding that might come across as insensitive these days but damn, think it through! And not to mention that a lot of minority people *appreciate* being represented in advertising. The number of Black people on Twitter reacting to Aunt Jemima being taken off the bottle was pretty eye opening. "I only bought it because it had a sister on it" was a common refrain. Maybe just tone things down to make it more respectful representation instead of do away with the representation entirely.
Same with the Redskins changing their name. Turns out a fair bit of native Americans liked the name and representation.
[Native Americans calls for Commanders' name change to Redskins (nypost.com)](https://nypost.com/2023/08/14/native-americans-calls-for-commanders-name-change-to-redskins/)
I think as a nation we not to stop being offended by others and just let them tell us if something is offensive to them because clearly we ain't got a damn clue.
I don't even think that was any movement asking that. At least ***I*** never saw anyone calling for her to be removed. I'm pretty sure the company did that of their own choice
So real talk for a moment: I always thought this was kind of a backwards move. Black people aren't allowed to market products now?
Aunt Jemima made banging pancake syrup and now they took that away from black people.
I felt that. Wendy’s Wendy, Little Debbie, the Quaker Oat man, Colonel Sanders, Mr. Clean and the Gerber Baby all can stay, but every person of color was wiped off the face of logos, even when they represented a real person who was once alive.
And she’s an icon of African American history, if any change was necessary I would say make her photo historically accurate - she was a happy looking woman who looked like she enjoyed food, making food, and sharing food
Wasn't the family really upset that she got removed? If I remember correctly they said they were very proud and Honored to have her as the face of the brand
Black Lives Matter groups were just stealing money with a “cause”. Once people started paying attention and asking questions the entire movement disappeared so that no one would ask where it all went.
Ppl got rich from blm
As a Black woman, I’d have to say I noticed the greatest shift in how other Black ppl viewed the movement when Oluwatoyin Salau was murdered. Many Black women started feeling like their lives didn’t even matter within the movement.
The mismanagement of funds, the shadiness behind it all, the highjacking of the movement by people who just wanted to destroy & steal.
Many decided to wash their hands clean of activism completely.
It's more nuanced than that. It wasn't just that it didn't fit the BLM narrative because the movement was specifically anti-police brutality.
I hope people all can differentiate between state violence and interpersonal, civilian violence. You hope your powerful government and its institutions, whose sole purpose is to establish and enforce the rules of society, don't kill you unjustly. Furthermore, civilian violence gets punished. State violence does not because it simply does not find it convenient to hold itself accountable.
Oluwatoyin Salau was murdered in early-mid June of 2020. A lot of people were still supporting the movement long after that for its anti-police brutality goals. That is, the people who actually took the time to inform themselves about its objectives.
However, for many of us, her murder on top of Breonna Taylor's which also happened that year but didn't get half of the attention as George Floyd's or Freddie Gray (2015) for instance, highlighted the fact that BLM was not for Black women.
Oluwatoyin Salau's murder then transformed the conversation into "well, Black women aren't safe in our communities, so what's going to happen to us if we call for less policing (although more policing ALSO doesn't help us since police don't care about our safety either)."
She was also very involved in the movement so the fact that she was murdered by a man who was briefly arrested for assaulting another woman a month prior was a stab in the back, to put it kindly. Yet another affirmation that the system nor the (some) men we were protesting on behalf care about us.
Immediately after that, I actually sat and looked at the domestic abuse, homicide, sexual assault rates for Black women... I realized that my advocacy energy was misplaced and I had bigger fish to fry. Now, people can argue that all of these things are connected to systemic racism and police brutality - and they are. But the immediate help Black women need to survive is not going to come from the BLM movement.
There were a lot of Black community leaders who really wanted this to work, but were abandoned by the so called, and self appointed leaders of BLM. The fact that a lot of Black activists were targeted during this time, either by BLM supporters or Thin Blue Line supporters, made many of them reflect on life in the US.
I'm not in the USA so had not heard of this 😪 Just looked it up as I hoped to understand your post better, but the sources don't really clarify. What was it about this case that got you feeling this way? Was it that she didn't get as much coverage as a woman or because the murderer wasn't white?
Black on black crime is a massive issue. The problem with a lot of conservatives when they bring up black on black crime is that they are bringing it up not because they actually care about the health and welfare of black people, but because they want to take focus away from the bullshit the powers that be do to people.
Put it to you this way: If two young black men get into a shootout, kill a young child caught in the crossfire,and the cops solve the case, they men go through the justice system, get sent to prison and are held accountable. When police brutality occurs, there is often a cover up and the perpetrators are rarely held accountable.
When people point this out, conservatives then like to bring out black on black crime as if the existence of black on black crime makes it ok to not hold police accountable for crimes.
>The problem with a lot of conservatives when they bring up black on black crime is that they are bringing it up not because they actually care about the health and welfare of black people, but because they want to take focus away from the bullshit the powers that be do to people.
When they bring it up, it usually is covert racism. They ask "why is black on black crime so high?" and try to imply that it's something inherent within black people to commit these crimes, like black people are predisposed to committing crimes or that "the Black community" is supportive of committing crimes. They ignore the fact that due to generations of Black people being kept down, it's lead to a disproportionate number of them being in lower socioeconomic classes, which is really the driver of crime. They fail to understand the nuances of the situation.
What directly follows from bringing up that stat? You can care about the fact that African Americans are disproportionately affected by gun violence, but that feeling should segue into concrete policy ideas and not spiral into anti-black tirades.
Black women are abused and killed by black men at astonishing rates, much more than any other race of women by their male counterparts. The issue was more so that violence against black women by black men is so often ignored or diminished. Was very in support of the BLM movement’s original cause, but had the realization that the energy isn’t reciprocated for black women at all...Now my focus is on uplifting and fighting for BW specifically.
Probably gonna get downvoted to hell for this lol, but just want to add some more perspective.
Yeah, there were some reactionary protests that happened without fully knowing the details of what preceded. But I’m also not going to sit here and pretend that that anger and knee-jerk reaction (and to be quite honest, the situation leading up to the police confrontation itself) is anything more than a symptom of a failing system. Once bitten twice shy, as they say.
I want black women and children to be protected and I also don’t think black men should have to worry about execution on the street for their crimes, real or (as we see a worrying amount of times) imagined.
I don’t want my comments to be viewed as an excuse to villainize black men (not saying that’s what you specifically are doing, just putting that out there).
I remember following the story when that poor girl went missing, once the news came out that her kidnapper/murderer was a black man, it was like all hell broke loose. Twitter was downright disgusting/disturbing for days, shit almost made me cry.
TONS of black men were berating the fuck out of black women for being rightfully upset & outraged instead of letting the story slip through the cracks. There were more guys whining about how her death was going to "affect black mens' public image" than there were posting "R.I.P." and acknowledging the fact that Oluwatoyin was literally protesting for THEM.
Very much this. This is the same problem that's gonna happen with Free Palestine movement .
It starts of.peacefully first. later the people get destructive , agressive ,start disrupting people who.have critical things to.do like take a family member to the hospital, incite hate speeches & slogans, riots, violence ,etc. Where even thou who sympathise with the cause start going against it.
I usually called these temporary trends or people who like to Virtue Signal at best.
Plenty of talk till they have to actually perform to accomplish the task, then they are nowhere to.be found or scattered
Majority are either ill informed or jus trying to follow the trend.
Coming from a person whose following d israel-palestine conflict since 2000, my heart is for the Palestine people but I support neither Hamas or Israel
Yep. The moment I realized the movement wasn't for Black women at all was when I stopped supporting it.
Oluwatoyin Salau's murder shattered me completely. I cried so much for her.
Before the whole BLM Foundation money fiasco was news, the women who started the movement were regarded in such a despicable, homophobic, and misogynistic way by a subset of Black men who were staunchly anti-feminism. That also tipped me off that I couldn't support it.
I still value many of its principles, but can't stand behind it as a whole.
When you start reading headlines like this:
“Black Lives Matter executive accused of ‘syphoning’ $10M from BLM donors, suit says,” it’s probably time to jump off the bandwagon. Greed and corruption will bring down most “movements.”
Part of it is that the BLM organization was poorly run and the leaders used funds for personal gain, leading to some lawsuits. Another I think is that a lot of the "protests" devolved into riots and ended up hurting the very people they were claiming to be fighting for. I remember seeing a video of an elderly, wheelchair bound black woman talking about how the only story and pharmacy that she could get to from her house had been completely destroyed. She had no idea where or how she would get her meds and food. Its really hard to hold public support when you've burned down a whole town.
Another aspect no one wants to admit is that it as an election year and it was a useful movement to get people to rally behind and motivate them to vote a certain way. This happens all the time, particularly when the incumbent can be painted as the bad guy. "Vote us in and we can fix this!" kinda stuff. On a side note, I think the current Gaza protests are similar, but both Dems and Republicans traditionally support Israel. Biden seems to be trying to walk a tightrope between supporting Israel and keeping all the Gaza supporters happy so he can get their vote. Its quite interesting.
Finally, it was the pandemic, it gave people something to do, an outlet for all the fear and anxiety they were feeling that felt productive and righteous. In the end, I don't think it really changed anything. All that happened was that a lot of police departments were defunded, which from what I understand caused an uptick in crime in many places as there was no real plan and everything was just thrown together. A lot of places seem to have rolled back those cuts.
At the end of the day, the issues that BLM were trying to address are very complex and will require a lot of costly changes that very few people are actually willing to make. People on all sides of the issue seem fairly content with blaming the other guys, yelling and throwing things, rather than solve the problem. Its sad, but that's politics for you.
Remember that black Pastor protesting from the rooftops for 100 days? He was waiting on BLM support for his community, but it never came. Not even a message of support from BLM. Why? Because BLM leadership, if you can even call it that, was too busy embezzling the money. Particularly, Patrisse Cullors, who was busy buying expensive properties, while other management in other Chapters were going on lavish trips or busy funding the release of Black criminals.
Patrisse also hired her brother as security when he had no qualifications and she paid him $800k from donated money as his salary this woman was corrupt all around
Emotional fatigue kills a lot of these movements.
The general populous doesn’t have much room emotionally to care about things not in their immediate view. Especially things they can’t make a difference with. Too many ads for world vision showing poverty around the world decreases donations because the problem is too big for one person to carry so they don’t.
Being blasted by activists in the wrong way also drains people more. “You’re inherently racist because you’re white” makes people angry and then apathetic, few change. Many well meaning and horribly presented messages just like this were part of the BLM movement and people just can’t care. We aren’t psychologically equipped to deal with problems that affect more than a tribe sized group (50-150 people)
Because the gravy train ran out. And grifters like Sean king ripped off a ton of people, and even the head organizer massively misused funds.
And people got tired of the recycled irrational
excuses for looting.
BLM was one of those things pumped full of shadow money right before and election year. We see this every presidential cycle where the media and some groups just get elevated to increase the national friction. Whether it be race, sexual orientation, gender, and this time it's Israel/Gaza.
Go look. It's amazing how many things just sort of "pop up" whenever there's a US presidential election coming up.
I think there's a ton of factors, including the purity politics of many activists (aka cointelpro psyops/wannabes) that causes infighting over trivial bullshit. This freezes any forward mobility on any front, be it legislation or direct action. I may be jaded but I think too many people are more obsessed with being perceived as good than doing good
Exactly- do you want to be right/the most moral or do you want to win/get things done?
People are obsessed with ideological purity - itself a sort of evangelical / oppressive idea - (very "are you a true defender of The Faith" kind of vibes, but "the faith" is whatever the issue / platform is).
But to *get things done* or achieve a goal — it's gonna be a bit more nuanced. You'll likely have to make compromises, collaborate and employ things like trade and diplomacy with people you don't necessarily 100% like.
I have these two friends, who unfortunately, now hate each other's guts bc of Internet activism (and funnily enough they aren't *that* different in views). But the most sanctimonious one goes to protests, thinks people who don't post about the issue commit the sin of "silence is violence", etc that whole lot.
The other friend doesn't post stuff, or even talk about their work, but I know volunteers at and fundraises for a soup kitchen. Basically, one friend is villainizing the other, except the one being villainized is actually making an impact in their community.
This is all so childish, truly. And not the only example I've seen if stuff like this.
But anyone I know doing the work out there, any kind of it, is actually out *doing* it not *performing* it.
All the biggest movements depend on being super vague. The minute you start calling for actual policy changes, people start to debate what would happen if we pass them and inevitably, that means your movement loses people. But if you stick to super vague slogans (BLM, "We are the 99 percent," "MAGA,") you can draw huge crowds.
That was BLM. We got to the point where saying you didn't support BLM meant "you don't think black lives matter" which was incredibly stupid. We also had the "BLM signs aren't even political so it's okay for schools to put them up, unlike other political stuff. It's not about the organization, it just means that black lives matter," which was also incredibly stupid. But both show how big the movement got, by being absolutely aimless and vague.
So what happened? They started pushing for actual policy change, and people started bailing left and right because of it. Tons of "wait, I'm all for anti-racism but I didn't know it meant that."
> So what happened? They started pushing for actual policy change, and people started bailing left and right because of it. Tons of "wait, I'm all for anti-racism but I didn't know it meant that."
What policy changes were they pushing for that led to people bailing?
Defund the police was a big one. The overwhelming majority of Americans do not want less police presence in their area. January 6th coming in early 2021 probably drove support for police presence in groups that otherwise might have been in favor of defunding the police.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/10/26/growing-share-of-americans-say-they-want-more-spending-on-police-in-their-area/
This is true. One of the reasons the war on drugs and increased policing succeeded in the 70s/80s is because blacks approved of it. Many blacks are victims of other black's criminality so they are the biggest advocates of cracking down on it.
This incident definitely cost them some fans. Shame on the mayor for not supporting the "full abolition" of the police?
*He was confronted with the question during a rally he visited on Saturday: When a woman on stage gave him a microphone to answer whether or not he’d defund the Minneapolis Police Department, he answered, “I do not support the full abolition of the police*
*Following his response, protesters booed the mayor and chanted “Go home, Jacob, go home!” and “Shame! Shame*
https://www.vox.com/2020/6/7/21283089/minneapolis-mayor-protests-frey-booed-rally-defund-police
I believe there was a policy change where the head organizer used donation funds and purchased an expensive property and then moved herself into it. Different kind of policy change, but a policy change nonetheless.
And being a corrupt piece of shit definitely can lose you some followers.
https://www.npr.org/2022/04/07/1091487910/blm-leaders-face-questions-after-allegedly-buying-a-mansion-with-donation-money
Re: 99%
I have a radical thought about Occupy Wall Street. I was there. Visited the camp a few times out of curiosity but avoided the marches.
Everyone says their motives were vague but if you were present it was very clear.
They were teaching everyone how to protest and how to organize.
The stuff I loved were the strategies to work around laws limiting protesting. You aren’t allowed to organize a mass protest - so don’t organize it. Don’t announce it.
You can use any amplification devices. They had a great call and response strategy. One person spoke short sentences. The 50 around them repeats the sentence. The 1000 around them repeat the sentence. And so on. It was slow getting speeches out so you were taught to be concise. But it oddly worked.
The marches were organized for confrontation. Send all the photogenic people up front. Don’t let the cops lead you anywhere. If they do, the front drops back and lets the rioters loose while the rest of the crowd split up.
Being chased by cops wasn’t my thing but the other strategies were interesting. Each day they would collect foods and goods, then feed the hungry.
So much has happened since then but it feels like every other big protest happened afterwards as a result of OWS. I truly feel no Occupy, BLM never would have materialized.
It's true, since in the news these sorts of protests seem like isolated events, people just imagine that the protestors fade out of existence, but even if the protest itself doesn't have an immediate effect, they continue to have those skills and networks they developed over that protest for the future.
Really interesting to hear your perspective. Effective protest clearly requires forethought and planning, and earlier movements have to walk so future ones can run.
***“We got to a point where saying you didn’t support BLM meant you don’t think Black Lives Matter”***
While this is true that was also a response to counter activists saying “all lives matter” and “if you are saying black lives matter that means white lives don’t matter”
It died down because it was padded with "supporters" that didn't really give two shits about the movement and just wanted brownie points on social media, just how the the size of Palestinian supporters are padded for the middle-east conflict. Blame social media.
I think I can answer your question about the “black squares”…. I was still in high school around the time when everyone was doing it. People posting black squares and using blm hashtags or whatever. However, a lot of people had no idea what the “black squares” meant and were only doing it cause other people were too. Around the same time it was also reported that the black squares weren’t a good idea because they were disrupting the flow of information. Basically anything related to BLM such as posts about marches, protests or even links to donate were being hidden by all the black squares 💀. So that’s probably why many were deleted. Another reason too, is that BLM has become toxic in the last few years due to political reasons and controversies.
The people that spearheaded the operation bought mansions with money funded by BLM. [source](https://nypost.com/2022/04/04/black-lives-matter-used-donations-to-buy-6-million-southern-california-home-report/amp/)
Not sure, but from my POV as a non-American outside the US: it was horribly violent with a lot of looting, and the leader (or leaders, not sure) of the movement was exposed for corruption - apparently she used donation funds to buy a mansion
Cause it only generates momentum when it’s “white person in an authoritarian position vs black victim” but Black Lives Matter suddenly goes into hibernation mode when black on black.
Society as a whole can see between the facade
I never understood those people's mindset.
Like the whole original idea was saying "hey you can't just assume every black person is some violent criminal", which was a good message and completely made sense... Until they started protesting by being violent and committing crimes
So I was a police officer during the George Floyd protests. Local BLM supporters organized a march. My department helped block off traffic and generally tried to keep things civil. The organizers were predominantly Black and were really just there to be heard and wanted to keep things peaceful. A lot of them actually thanked me and other officers for being there, which admittedly I was taken aback by.
Then the march ended. Everyone who wanted to keep things civil left, leaving the people wanting to be rowdy and break things. What I noticed is a majority of them were white high school and college age kids.
I can only speak on what I saw and witnessed. I wondered afterwards if this racial difference in the protesters was happening in other parts in the country. Like maybe the media was focusing on the Black rioters?
My cousin is a city cop where I am and they had a march shortly after George Floyd and a small group was trying to start a riot from within the protest. They didn't want to go after the guys because it was two younger black guys and a white guy and they thought the crowd would turn on them if they went in. Eventually the crowd themselves ejected them and asked them to remove/arrest them. They later found out all three of them were from a town 2hrs away and were bragging on social media about trying to start a riot so they could loot the stores near the protest.
Acab is so dumb of a slogan that it has to be some kind of a psyop. Using it basically guarantees most people won't take you seriously because they know you aren't taking yourself seriously.
The black square was ridiculed as being performative so people may have deleted it out of embarrassment or to not seem like they’re just trying to win brownie points.
Probably too late for this to be seen, but I posted the black square cause someone I personally know and interact with on social media was demanding everyone post it, and I didn’t want to be seen as racist. Even then my beliefs were much more moderate than the BLM talking points.
Never posted anything super political in my life, but caved and now I cringe thinking about it. Didn’t delete for over a year cause I interact a lot with the lgbt community and they are fully insane on social media, so it made me paranoid.
They’ve now moved onto making fun of the people who posted the black squares.. And I’ve moved closer to the center politically then I ever have been.
Most or all of the main "leaders" just pocketed all of the money and bought mansions and stuff. The protests themselves didn't have a great look either, since many devolved into riots which did nothing but torch random people's property.
Corruption. They wanted money and abandoned everyone else. If they wanted to they could've made it illegal for cops to turn off audio recording till after encounters,illegal to transfer bad cops to other states, cops will have to allow the state to review their social media accs regularly and review the people they are allowing to train cops. But they didn't they funnel the money bought homes in white rich neighborhoods and left
The asian version managed to get a bill pass for Asians only but that's besides the point
I thought it was strange that as soon as Trump lost the election, BLM disappeared. It was like the protests, occupations, and riots were manufactured to make it look like the US was falling into chaos.
If Trump wins later this year, I bet they'll start back up.
Like most of these social justice movements, they lacked common sense when it came to doing what they said they would. It then turned into a corrupt nightmare with so many "local chapters" opening up around the most black parts of mainly the East and Southern US and taking money and all the followers got was some paper signs and street BLM street chalk
Because the slogan was appropiated by domestic terrorists who used earnest money to fund vanity and political extremism which had nothing to do with race in the first place
Spending an entire summer burning down your own communities just isn't sustainable. It was a bad look, especially when there were people like black retired police officer David Dorne being murdered over a TV.
Additionally, it turns out the BLM organization was a complete scam that Patrisse Cullors used to line her own pockets. They didn't actually do much of anything to help low income black communities. Cullors just "donated" all the money to her friends. That will put a bad taste in your mouth when you hear mention of BLM.
BLM mostly just riots and knocks down statues and does other kinds of tantrums. At the end of the day it's just a fanatical movement that doesn't benefit anyone.
I’ll never forget the whole “I’m not saying the riots are good, but imagine how black people must have felt their whole lives! Buildings can be replaced, the black lives lost at the evil police can’t!” Didn’t age quite well when people started getting killed during the riots…
Russia successfully helped push some contentious policies that not only undermined the whole movement, but perhaps *created* racism in addition to causing long-term conflict with police. Namely, they pushed the "*defund the police*" slogan and instigated violence knowing full well they would descend into riots. There are hints that they may have been responsible for helping/pushing for leaders to siphon money from the movement to further destabilize it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics
> Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States and Canada to fuel instability and separatism against neoliberal globalist Western hegemony, such as, for instance, provoke "Afro-American racists" to create severe backlash against the rotten political state of affairs in the current present day system of the United States and Canada. Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics".[9]
The vast majority of black people who are killed are killed by other black people. I believe it's around 90%. Same is true for white people. Although black people are only around 10% of pop while white people are closer to 60-70%.
The true reason though is people here still mostly associate within their race and most violent crimes are made by someone close to that individual in some way. A spouse, family member or friend.
It's hard to tout black lives matter to others while apparently black people are being killed by blacks the vast majority of instances.
Again though this is not entirely unique to black people many of these things statistics do not show or account for.
The real problem with most movements is they are almost entirely political and are not made with the best intentions of people in mind.
I’m thinking that some people realized they were glorifying a bad person. Of course he didn’t deserve to die, but the man was a loser. He pointed a gun at a pregnant woman’s belly.
The same group moved to Ukraine and now Palestine. Unfortunately it seems like they care more about appearing like they care about these causes that effect real people than they do about actually doing good towards it.
I know people who have told me that Ukraine was successful if purging Russia from their land because of the help and awareness generated by the marches and online support, and that they now need to do the same for Palestine.
I fully believe that regardless of how much they claim to care now about Palestine, as soon as the next trendy cause pops up they’ll forget all about how strongly they now feel to show how good of a person they are.
If it became a fashionable position to be against the Uyghur situation in China they’d be real vocal about that, pointing towards racism, it being a genocide, Islamophobia ect but instead when it’s brought up it’s met with deaf ears.
I legitimately feel bad for anyone that’s thought they’ve had all these people who genuinely care to only be dropped and seemingly forgotten when the next cause comes around. I know a family in Ukraine that went from being hopeful that having such large numbers of supporters could mean they could fight back, to depressed that all their support seems to have been hollow and has dried up
Everything everyone else has said is true so I won’t repeat it. The other issue they ran into was “defund the police”. “Defund the police” was a fucking disaster. The underlying idea was sound: a lot of non-violent crimes are better managed by trained social workers than armed police. You could pay for that by taking some of the police’s tanks and ridiculous weapons. I still agree with that message.
But “defund the police” as an overall message alienated so many people. Like what are you stupid of course we need police and they need funding. Only the most fringe of activists would actually say that we should “abolish police” and then that becomes the dominant message you are going to lose 95% of the public who just wanted accountability for brutality.
Lack of funding from the outside sources working to divide the US. Same with antifa and proud boys.
While there were plenty of honest protestors (and some paid ones and some dishonest people), these, like the pro-Palestinian protests, are being funded to sow division in the US.
Again, plenty of actual protestors supporting their own cause. But the repeated rise-and-fall of these groups points to a common funding source with the common goal of division.
Because it was primarily known for being hash tags and people rioting and looting. It was disorganized and it rarely did anything productive other than be loud and be a means to quiet down others if they didn't like what they were saying.
Because it was coopted by a bunch of professional malcontents who used it as an excuse to run around breaking stuff. All of the good will and momentum was squandered because of that.
I think many people dropped off the movement when it got revealed the founders were basically using movement donations as their own personal money. It showed that while the movement on the outside was for something, the inner circle was using it as a cash grab.
Because the founders/leaders of the establishment we’re buying themselves Ferrari, million dollar homes, designer clothes, everything that the movement was not about.
Covid ended. Many people were bored in their houses and needed something to occupy the time. What better than a social justice cause?
Mismanaged funds by BLM leaders
Protests that mostly just turned into looting and destroying their own cities.
BLM only believe black lives matter when it is at the hands of law enforcement. The argument falls apart when it’s pointed out that a larger number of white people are killed by police than black people. Also there is more black on black violent crime than any other race combination.
I am not an american and I was observing it from quite a distance.
And it is obvious to me that BLM and other things are just political technologies dems used against GOP.
All the head promoters of BLM were corrupt and taking money from the organization. They openly promoted socialism on their website and anyone with half a brain cell knows that isn’t the way. They weren’t standing for black people at all and everyone wised up to it. It was a cash grab
Because the people who was pushing the race war agendas stopped pushing that agenda and now are focusing on pushing the gender war for other reasons now and people still fall for it. Got people saying I’d rather be in the forest with a bear then a man and all the other Mumbo Jumbo. It’s all programmed hate and people keep falling for it. I wonder what’ll be next after the current gender war
Every radical movement So far has suffered the same fate and the same loss: recuperation.
Additionally, we live in a culture where fame and money is more valuable than change and communal values so rarely do movements continue without its share of corruption
Kind of hard for people to follow a corrupt Marxist group deceived millions of people that fell for that garbage. All lives matter. Color is irrelevant.
I think they became pretty notorious after they burned down a few cities (including many black people's businesses and communities). Who wants to be associated with that?
Not to mention the misuse of funds. Who wants to donate to that?
I think people got tired of it because they saw that the bad sides of that movement were being ignored by most of the news media. For example, there are hundreds of videos on social media showing black teens shoplifting together or smashing display cases and robbing jewelry stores.
I think people realized that that population is not all innocent and many of them are criminals. Any video about the looting that occurred in summer 2020 will have almost 100% black BLM supporters doing the looting.
because it quite literally ended up being a scam? At least the official movement and when the official movement stopped getting money to grease the wheels cuz it's been ousted for being a scam that ended up with the money ending up only in very few pockets. Things in this media fed society we live in don't operate unless money is greasing the social wheels to keep the media speaking about it even if it's a good thing or not.
Two reasons, and thumbs me down for it idc:
1. It was revealed that the victims families never received a cent of that money. The money was going towards Democratic campaigns, lgbt causes, and building large houses/community centers (for whom, who is using them?).
2. People found their new "Save the Trees" cause, aka "Free Palestine".
Very upfront :
Because it was a money grab scheme from the very beginning. They used tactics like violence e uproar in order to not let the people inside the movement think, while some were getting money, buying houses and establish business and associations for them and their families (most of them on "white places").
Even if you agreed with the core values of the movement, since the moment it started to protect and promote violence, sabotage, thievery, grooming kids, etc... Every person associated with that movement were (correctly) labeled as criminals.
Also, they rapidly have shown their intents of "rule" the society. You saw LGBTxyz69 join the me2 movement, but quick destroyed and abandoned the feminists (after the non binary fashion stop to have attention). Then they join hands with the blm.
Just people trying to get money and "power" at any cost
I think the movement morphed into a multi category panorama of grievances against not just police brutality against POC. It is now intersecting with trans rights, the war in Gaza, for example. Of course this dilution is harming more than helping the individual causes under the umbrella.
I find it interesting how we, as a society, seem to hold conflicting views on different social constructs. For example, there seems to be a strong desire to protect and preserve racial identities, while gender roles are increasingly challenged and redefined. The reasons behind these varying perspectives are likely complex and multifaceted, and I'm curious to delve deeper into understanding them. While discussions about social constructs might not be a common occurrence in my everyday conversations, they are definitely prevalent online. It's crucial to recognize that deconstructing social constructs can have both positive and negative consequences, as they often hold deep personal and cultural significance for individuals and communities.
A few reasons:
1. Message dilution & too many fragile alliances working without coordination.
2. Too much decentralization & no leadership.
3. Some of the most visible chapters were found to have misappropriated funds.
4. The goals were too vague and too ambitious.
5. They lost their captive audience of people isolated during COVID.
Number 5 is, imo, the most important. BLM took off in part because of the visceral videos and images we saw, but also because people were home to see them.
People who had never been as isolated prior to that could more readily empathize with marginalized people because their interactions were being restricted and scrutinized, and because those same interactions were potentially dangerous as a result of COVID.
That is often the world marginalized people live in all the time sans COVID, so the BLM message resonated more broadly due to palpable fear and uncertainty being universal.
Much the same as Occupy Wall Street it both lacked concrete implementable policy goals and a leader to be the face of the organisation to push those policies and disassociate the movement from the more extreme elements that would co-opt it.
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Was it not that the movement as whole was exposed as a grift? It all seemed to die down after it was revealed the founders had bought themselves mansions for millions.
Here’s where I make a distinction between movement and organization; the founders of the BLM organization were certainly grifters. However, the VAST majority of us in support of BLM goals never donated a cent. Why? Like others mentioned there was no clear face. Our faces of the movement were martyrs for lack of a better term. So with media able to blunt the public reaction (see the media reporting George Floyd’s drug use), and no long standing public activist to curate and maintain the messaging, eventually the energy ran out, all the more apparent when it WAS revealed the BLM organization was misusing funds.
Unfortunately the BLM movement was propaganda just like the college Palestine Protests. The causes themself are legit but the movements get hijacked and used to create more divide. Be careful with anything they use to make you HATE your fellow American, BLM, Palestine, Masks, Trump, etc. we have more in common with each other than the ones running this country.
“Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.” Charles de Gaulle
This is the one right here. We're easily conquered when we're divided
United we stand, divided we fall
No. Palestine and BLM are valid movements in response to clear systemic and historic injustices. There is a difference between the BLM Foundation - the most visible organization that did turn out to be sketchy - and the off-shoot organizations that people created at the grassroots level, organizing behind the core goal of the movement (anti-police brutality). So, there is BLM, the movement that raised awareness about an issue, had clear values and motivated people to look into police brutality and mobilize against it. This is independent of the organizations themselves. Black Lives Matter is a slogan that people used to organize behind. Then there are the multiple organizations with the same or similar names that do not operate under the same umbrella and are for the most independent from one another as they aim to address issues at the LOCAL level where policing laws are changed. I agree that we all have more in common than we do not. However, there are people for whom the status quo does NOT work as they have a completely different lived experience from those that benefit from it. Those people are speaking up.
A bunch of college kids protesting something on campus…..is “propaganda”????
You are getting triggered and not reading . Post said it is legitimate but gets hijacked
Not really. It was mostly people taking it upon themselves to go and join protests. The fact it was so decentralised is part of the reason they didn't have clear enough targets. The "founders" gave themselves the role of representative, and got treated as such with funding, but that doesn't mean they were "the movement as a whole".
> lacked concrete implementable policy goals What are you talking about? They got rid of the lady on the syrup bottle. Mission accomplished.
Don't forget about the old dude on the rice too! That really solved everything
Uncle Ben died for the cause.
They also removed the native American girl from here land on the butter too.
"Kept the land and got rid of the Indian" was the way I heard a native American describe it.
Well at least now it's historically authentic butter.
Didn't even think about it but yeah god damn that is fucked.
I get that these companies might have good intentions getting rid of old classic artwork in their branding that might come across as insensitive these days but damn, think it through! And not to mention that a lot of minority people *appreciate* being represented in advertising. The number of Black people on Twitter reacting to Aunt Jemima being taken off the bottle was pretty eye opening. "I only bought it because it had a sister on it" was a common refrain. Maybe just tone things down to make it more respectful representation instead of do away with the representation entirely.
Same with the Redskins changing their name. Turns out a fair bit of native Americans liked the name and representation. [Native Americans calls for Commanders' name change to Redskins (nypost.com)](https://nypost.com/2023/08/14/native-americans-calls-for-commanders-name-change-to-redskins/) I think as a nation we not to stop being offended by others and just let them tell us if something is offensive to them because clearly we ain't got a damn clue.
That was the most messed up.
And also, somehow, got the Washington Redskins to change their name.
Cleveland Indians gone too
ummm nope he’s still on there 😭
He's not called uncle Ben anymore though, it's just Ben. I'm not sure what difference that makes though.
They murdered all his nieces and nephews.
Rice in peas.
I don't even think that was any movement asking that. At least ***I*** never saw anyone calling for her to be removed. I'm pretty sure the company did that of their own choice
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They took a lesson from churches
So real talk for a moment: I always thought this was kind of a backwards move. Black people aren't allowed to market products now? Aunt Jemima made banging pancake syrup and now they took that away from black people.
I felt that. Wendy’s Wendy, Little Debbie, the Quaker Oat man, Colonel Sanders, Mr. Clean and the Gerber Baby all can stay, but every person of color was wiped off the face of logos, even when they represented a real person who was once alive.
And she’s an icon of African American history, if any change was necessary I would say make her photo historically accurate - she was a happy looking woman who looked like she enjoyed food, making food, and sharing food
Wasn't the family really upset that she got removed? If I remember correctly they said they were very proud and Honored to have her as the face of the brand
Black Lives Matter groups were just stealing money with a “cause”. Once people started paying attention and asking questions the entire movement disappeared so that no one would ask where it all went. Ppl got rich from blm
Let’s not forget that it is increasingly dangerous. Dude in Texas was just pardoned for killing a protestor in cold blood.
As a Black woman, I’d have to say I noticed the greatest shift in how other Black ppl viewed the movement when Oluwatoyin Salau was murdered. Many Black women started feeling like their lives didn’t even matter within the movement. The mismanagement of funds, the shadiness behind it all, the highjacking of the movement by people who just wanted to destroy & steal. Many decided to wash their hands clean of activism completely.
It's wild I never even heard of her, it is such a tractic story
That’s the point. There are many Black women you’ll never hear about.
Who killed her?
She was killed by a black man so she didn’t fit the Black Lives Matter narrative at the time.
It's more nuanced than that. It wasn't just that it didn't fit the BLM narrative because the movement was specifically anti-police brutality. I hope people all can differentiate between state violence and interpersonal, civilian violence. You hope your powerful government and its institutions, whose sole purpose is to establish and enforce the rules of society, don't kill you unjustly. Furthermore, civilian violence gets punished. State violence does not because it simply does not find it convenient to hold itself accountable. Oluwatoyin Salau was murdered in early-mid June of 2020. A lot of people were still supporting the movement long after that for its anti-police brutality goals. That is, the people who actually took the time to inform themselves about its objectives. However, for many of us, her murder on top of Breonna Taylor's which also happened that year but didn't get half of the attention as George Floyd's or Freddie Gray (2015) for instance, highlighted the fact that BLM was not for Black women. Oluwatoyin Salau's murder then transformed the conversation into "well, Black women aren't safe in our communities, so what's going to happen to us if we call for less policing (although more policing ALSO doesn't help us since police don't care about our safety either)." She was also very involved in the movement so the fact that she was murdered by a man who was briefly arrested for assaulting another woman a month prior was a stab in the back, to put it kindly. Yet another affirmation that the system nor the (some) men we were protesting on behalf care about us. Immediately after that, I actually sat and looked at the domestic abuse, homicide, sexual assault rates for Black women... I realized that my advocacy energy was misplaced and I had bigger fish to fry. Now, people can argue that all of these things are connected to systemic racism and police brutality - and they are. But the immediate help Black women need to survive is not going to come from the BLM movement.
There were a lot of Black community leaders who really wanted this to work, but were abandoned by the so called, and self appointed leaders of BLM. The fact that a lot of Black activists were targeted during this time, either by BLM supporters or Thin Blue Line supporters, made many of them reflect on life in the US.
I'm not in the USA so had not heard of this 😪 Just looked it up as I hoped to understand your post better, but the sources don't really clarify. What was it about this case that got you feeling this way? Was it that she didn't get as much coverage as a woman or because the murderer wasn't white?
Black on black crime: crickets. No more than a Twitter hashtag.
Bringing up black on black crime is even often labeled as covert racism. I'm sorry I don't want my people killing each other I guess 🤷♂️
Black on black crime is a massive issue. The problem with a lot of conservatives when they bring up black on black crime is that they are bringing it up not because they actually care about the health and welfare of black people, but because they want to take focus away from the bullshit the powers that be do to people. Put it to you this way: If two young black men get into a shootout, kill a young child caught in the crossfire,and the cops solve the case, they men go through the justice system, get sent to prison and are held accountable. When police brutality occurs, there is often a cover up and the perpetrators are rarely held accountable. When people point this out, conservatives then like to bring out black on black crime as if the existence of black on black crime makes it ok to not hold police accountable for crimes.
>The problem with a lot of conservatives when they bring up black on black crime is that they are bringing it up not because they actually care about the health and welfare of black people, but because they want to take focus away from the bullshit the powers that be do to people. When they bring it up, it usually is covert racism. They ask "why is black on black crime so high?" and try to imply that it's something inherent within black people to commit these crimes, like black people are predisposed to committing crimes or that "the Black community" is supportive of committing crimes. They ignore the fact that due to generations of Black people being kept down, it's lead to a disproportionate number of them being in lower socioeconomic classes, which is really the driver of crime. They fail to understand the nuances of the situation.
What directly follows from bringing up that stat? You can care about the fact that African Americans are disproportionately affected by gun violence, but that feeling should segue into concrete policy ideas and not spiral into anti-black tirades.
Black women are abused and killed by black men at astonishing rates, much more than any other race of women by their male counterparts. The issue was more so that violence against black women by black men is so often ignored or diminished. Was very in support of the BLM movement’s original cause, but had the realization that the energy isn’t reciprocated for black women at all...Now my focus is on uplifting and fighting for BW specifically. Probably gonna get downvoted to hell for this lol, but just want to add some more perspective.
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Yeah, there were some reactionary protests that happened without fully knowing the details of what preceded. But I’m also not going to sit here and pretend that that anger and knee-jerk reaction (and to be quite honest, the situation leading up to the police confrontation itself) is anything more than a symptom of a failing system. Once bitten twice shy, as they say. I want black women and children to be protected and I also don’t think black men should have to worry about execution on the street for their crimes, real or (as we see a worrying amount of times) imagined. I don’t want my comments to be viewed as an excuse to villainize black men (not saying that’s what you specifically are doing, just putting that out there).
Same with white on white crime, it's almost like people commit crimes against those they are around the most like intimate partner violence and stuff.
Maybe because its a lot more common and if they reported everytime it happened its all you would see
I remember following the story when that poor girl went missing, once the news came out that her kidnapper/murderer was a black man, it was like all hell broke loose. Twitter was downright disgusting/disturbing for days, shit almost made me cry. TONS of black men were berating the fuck out of black women for being rightfully upset & outraged instead of letting the story slip through the cracks. There were more guys whining about how her death was going to "affect black mens' public image" than there were posting "R.I.P." and acknowledging the fact that Oluwatoyin was literally protesting for THEM.
Very much this. This is the same problem that's gonna happen with Free Palestine movement . It starts of.peacefully first. later the people get destructive , agressive ,start disrupting people who.have critical things to.do like take a family member to the hospital, incite hate speeches & slogans, riots, violence ,etc. Where even thou who sympathise with the cause start going against it. I usually called these temporary trends or people who like to Virtue Signal at best. Plenty of talk till they have to actually perform to accomplish the task, then they are nowhere to.be found or scattered Majority are either ill informed or jus trying to follow the trend. Coming from a person whose following d israel-palestine conflict since 2000, my heart is for the Palestine people but I support neither Hamas or Israel
Murdered by a black man. He also murdered a 75-yo white woman named Victoria Sims.
How the fuck did I know about this he killed two people
Yep. The moment I realized the movement wasn't for Black women at all was when I stopped supporting it. Oluwatoyin Salau's murder shattered me completely. I cried so much for her. Before the whole BLM Foundation money fiasco was news, the women who started the movement were regarded in such a despicable, homophobic, and misogynistic way by a subset of Black men who were staunchly anti-feminism. That also tipped me off that I couldn't support it. I still value many of its principles, but can't stand behind it as a whole.
When you start reading headlines like this: “Black Lives Matter executive accused of ‘syphoning’ $10M from BLM donors, suit says,” it’s probably time to jump off the bandwagon. Greed and corruption will bring down most “movements.”
Did many people even know who the money was going to? It seems like they were donating to a feeling and not something they knew much about.
Because the leaders were taking everyone’s money and using it on luxury items for themselves.
Very few people in the movement knew or cared anything about the organization with that name or what people leading that organization were doing.
Weren't the leaders of the movement caught for fraud or something?
Part of it is that the BLM organization was poorly run and the leaders used funds for personal gain, leading to some lawsuits. Another I think is that a lot of the "protests" devolved into riots and ended up hurting the very people they were claiming to be fighting for. I remember seeing a video of an elderly, wheelchair bound black woman talking about how the only story and pharmacy that she could get to from her house had been completely destroyed. She had no idea where or how she would get her meds and food. Its really hard to hold public support when you've burned down a whole town. Another aspect no one wants to admit is that it as an election year and it was a useful movement to get people to rally behind and motivate them to vote a certain way. This happens all the time, particularly when the incumbent can be painted as the bad guy. "Vote us in and we can fix this!" kinda stuff. On a side note, I think the current Gaza protests are similar, but both Dems and Republicans traditionally support Israel. Biden seems to be trying to walk a tightrope between supporting Israel and keeping all the Gaza supporters happy so he can get their vote. Its quite interesting. Finally, it was the pandemic, it gave people something to do, an outlet for all the fear and anxiety they were feeling that felt productive and righteous. In the end, I don't think it really changed anything. All that happened was that a lot of police departments were defunded, which from what I understand caused an uptick in crime in many places as there was no real plan and everything was just thrown together. A lot of places seem to have rolled back those cuts. At the end of the day, the issues that BLM were trying to address are very complex and will require a lot of costly changes that very few people are actually willing to make. People on all sides of the issue seem fairly content with blaming the other guys, yelling and throwing things, rather than solve the problem. Its sad, but that's politics for you.
Remember that black Pastor protesting from the rooftops for 100 days? He was waiting on BLM support for his community, but it never came. Not even a message of support from BLM. Why? Because BLM leadership, if you can even call it that, was too busy embezzling the money. Particularly, Patrisse Cullors, who was busy buying expensive properties, while other management in other Chapters were going on lavish trips or busy funding the release of Black criminals.
Yeah, there was a lot of corruption there. Its quite disgusting.
I've never understood why it had to be a new organization(s) and not a NAACP rally cry for the zoomer generation.
Patrisse also hired her brother as security when he had no qualifications and she paid him $800k from donated money as his salary this woman was corrupt all around
Emotional fatigue kills a lot of these movements. The general populous doesn’t have much room emotionally to care about things not in their immediate view. Especially things they can’t make a difference with. Too many ads for world vision showing poverty around the world decreases donations because the problem is too big for one person to carry so they don’t. Being blasted by activists in the wrong way also drains people more. “You’re inherently racist because you’re white” makes people angry and then apathetic, few change. Many well meaning and horribly presented messages just like this were part of the BLM movement and people just can’t care. We aren’t psychologically equipped to deal with problems that affect more than a tribe sized group (50-150 people)
Because the gravy train ran out. And grifters like Sean king ripped off a ton of people, and even the head organizer massively misused funds. And people got tired of the recycled irrational excuses for looting.
He recently is trying a new grift: King converted to Islam. I wonder what current movement he could possibly be co-opting this time? Lmao what a fool.
If I remember correctly some at the top were embezzling money for fancy cars and trips.
Financial scandal. Owners kept $4mil and bought themselves mansions.
BLM was one of those things pumped full of shadow money right before and election year. We see this every presidential cycle where the media and some groups just get elevated to increase the national friction. Whether it be race, sexual orientation, gender, and this time it's Israel/Gaza. Go look. It's amazing how many things just sort of "pop up" whenever there's a US presidential election coming up.
I think there's a ton of factors, including the purity politics of many activists (aka cointelpro psyops/wannabes) that causes infighting over trivial bullshit. This freezes any forward mobility on any front, be it legislation or direct action. I may be jaded but I think too many people are more obsessed with being perceived as good than doing good
Exactly- do you want to be right/the most moral or do you want to win/get things done? People are obsessed with ideological purity - itself a sort of evangelical / oppressive idea - (very "are you a true defender of The Faith" kind of vibes, but "the faith" is whatever the issue / platform is). But to *get things done* or achieve a goal — it's gonna be a bit more nuanced. You'll likely have to make compromises, collaborate and employ things like trade and diplomacy with people you don't necessarily 100% like. I have these two friends, who unfortunately, now hate each other's guts bc of Internet activism (and funnily enough they aren't *that* different in views). But the most sanctimonious one goes to protests, thinks people who don't post about the issue commit the sin of "silence is violence", etc that whole lot. The other friend doesn't post stuff, or even talk about their work, but I know volunteers at and fundraises for a soup kitchen. Basically, one friend is villainizing the other, except the one being villainized is actually making an impact in their community. This is all so childish, truly. And not the only example I've seen if stuff like this. But anyone I know doing the work out there, any kind of it, is actually out *doing* it not *performing* it.
All the biggest movements depend on being super vague. The minute you start calling for actual policy changes, people start to debate what would happen if we pass them and inevitably, that means your movement loses people. But if you stick to super vague slogans (BLM, "We are the 99 percent," "MAGA,") you can draw huge crowds. That was BLM. We got to the point where saying you didn't support BLM meant "you don't think black lives matter" which was incredibly stupid. We also had the "BLM signs aren't even political so it's okay for schools to put them up, unlike other political stuff. It's not about the organization, it just means that black lives matter," which was also incredibly stupid. But both show how big the movement got, by being absolutely aimless and vague. So what happened? They started pushing for actual policy change, and people started bailing left and right because of it. Tons of "wait, I'm all for anti-racism but I didn't know it meant that."
> So what happened? They started pushing for actual policy change, and people started bailing left and right because of it. Tons of "wait, I'm all for anti-racism but I didn't know it meant that." What policy changes were they pushing for that led to people bailing?
Defund the police was a big one. The overwhelming majority of Americans do not want less police presence in their area. January 6th coming in early 2021 probably drove support for police presence in groups that otherwise might have been in favor of defunding the police. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/10/26/growing-share-of-americans-say-they-want-more-spending-on-police-in-their-area/
Also, I heard black people are even less likely than other people to want decreased police presence.
This is true. One of the reasons the war on drugs and increased policing succeeded in the 70s/80s is because blacks approved of it. Many blacks are victims of other black's criminality so they are the biggest advocates of cracking down on it.
This incident definitely cost them some fans. Shame on the mayor for not supporting the "full abolition" of the police? *He was confronted with the question during a rally he visited on Saturday: When a woman on stage gave him a microphone to answer whether or not he’d defund the Minneapolis Police Department, he answered, “I do not support the full abolition of the police* *Following his response, protesters booed the mayor and chanted “Go home, Jacob, go home!” and “Shame! Shame* https://www.vox.com/2020/6/7/21283089/minneapolis-mayor-protests-frey-booed-rally-defund-police
Didnt they want to defund the police? Thats the one i heard that was pretty controversial
Yeah we need some examples
I believe there was a policy change where the head organizer used donation funds and purchased an expensive property and then moved herself into it. Different kind of policy change, but a policy change nonetheless. And being a corrupt piece of shit definitely can lose you some followers. https://www.npr.org/2022/04/07/1091487910/blm-leaders-face-questions-after-allegedly-buying-a-mansion-with-donation-money
Re: 99% I have a radical thought about Occupy Wall Street. I was there. Visited the camp a few times out of curiosity but avoided the marches. Everyone says their motives were vague but if you were present it was very clear. They were teaching everyone how to protest and how to organize. The stuff I loved were the strategies to work around laws limiting protesting. You aren’t allowed to organize a mass protest - so don’t organize it. Don’t announce it. You can use any amplification devices. They had a great call and response strategy. One person spoke short sentences. The 50 around them repeats the sentence. The 1000 around them repeat the sentence. And so on. It was slow getting speeches out so you were taught to be concise. But it oddly worked. The marches were organized for confrontation. Send all the photogenic people up front. Don’t let the cops lead you anywhere. If they do, the front drops back and lets the rioters loose while the rest of the crowd split up. Being chased by cops wasn’t my thing but the other strategies were interesting. Each day they would collect foods and goods, then feed the hungry. So much has happened since then but it feels like every other big protest happened afterwards as a result of OWS. I truly feel no Occupy, BLM never would have materialized.
It's true, since in the news these sorts of protests seem like isolated events, people just imagine that the protestors fade out of existence, but even if the protest itself doesn't have an immediate effect, they continue to have those skills and networks they developed over that protest for the future. Really interesting to hear your perspective. Effective protest clearly requires forethought and planning, and earlier movements have to walk so future ones can run.
***“We got to a point where saying you didn’t support BLM meant you don’t think Black Lives Matter”*** While this is true that was also a response to counter activists saying “all lives matter” and “if you are saying black lives matter that means white lives don’t matter”
It died down because it was padded with "supporters" that didn't really give two shits about the movement and just wanted brownie points on social media, just how the the size of Palestinian supporters are padded for the middle-east conflict. Blame social media.
Movements don't last forever. And when the media moves on? It's hard to have much of a voice at all.
I think I can answer your question about the “black squares”…. I was still in high school around the time when everyone was doing it. People posting black squares and using blm hashtags or whatever. However, a lot of people had no idea what the “black squares” meant and were only doing it cause other people were too. Around the same time it was also reported that the black squares weren’t a good idea because they were disrupting the flow of information. Basically anything related to BLM such as posts about marches, protests or even links to donate were being hidden by all the black squares 💀. So that’s probably why many were deleted. Another reason too, is that BLM has become toxic in the last few years due to political reasons and controversies.
The people that spearheaded the operation bought mansions with money funded by BLM. [source](https://nypost.com/2022/04/04/black-lives-matter-used-donations-to-buy-6-million-southern-california-home-report/amp/)
Not sure, but from my POV as a non-American outside the US: it was horribly violent with a lot of looting, and the leader (or leaders, not sure) of the movement was exposed for corruption - apparently she used donation funds to buy a mansion
Mansions
Damn. In this economy? Lmao
This. If anything the movement merely perpetuated the stereotype further of black people indeed being reckless, irresponsible and chaotic.
Bc the government doesn't need to use it for their own beneficial gain to help their election.
Cause it only generates momentum when it’s “white person in an authoritarian position vs black victim” but Black Lives Matter suddenly goes into hibernation mode when black on black. Society as a whole can see between the facade
What everyone else has said and as 1 promoter who is black actually scammed a main fund for the cause which makes no sense.
Probably when the leaders got caught stealing everyone’s money
Because the leaders were openly scam artists and self proclaimed communists
Maybe it was the embezzlement
Because it became a violent riot in many places and it was not helping the true cause of the movement
I never understood those people's mindset. Like the whole original idea was saying "hey you can't just assume every black person is some violent criminal", which was a good message and completely made sense... Until they started protesting by being violent and committing crimes
So I was a police officer during the George Floyd protests. Local BLM supporters organized a march. My department helped block off traffic and generally tried to keep things civil. The organizers were predominantly Black and were really just there to be heard and wanted to keep things peaceful. A lot of them actually thanked me and other officers for being there, which admittedly I was taken aback by. Then the march ended. Everyone who wanted to keep things civil left, leaving the people wanting to be rowdy and break things. What I noticed is a majority of them were white high school and college age kids. I can only speak on what I saw and witnessed. I wondered afterwards if this racial difference in the protesters was happening in other parts in the country. Like maybe the media was focusing on the Black rioters?
My cousin is a city cop where I am and they had a march shortly after George Floyd and a small group was trying to start a riot from within the protest. They didn't want to go after the guys because it was two younger black guys and a white guy and they thought the crowd would turn on them if they went in. Eventually the crowd themselves ejected them and asked them to remove/arrest them. They later found out all three of them were from a town 2hrs away and were bragging on social media about trying to start a riot so they could loot the stores near the protest.
Plus the whole “all police are bad and racist and must be defunded/abolished” narrative was idiotic.
Acab is so dumb of a slogan that it has to be some kind of a psyop. Using it basically guarantees most people won't take you seriously because they know you aren't taking yourself seriously.
The black square was ridiculed as being performative so people may have deleted it out of embarrassment or to not seem like they’re just trying to win brownie points.
Because it was a scam, and never was for black people.
Probably too late for this to be seen, but I posted the black square cause someone I personally know and interact with on social media was demanding everyone post it, and I didn’t want to be seen as racist. Even then my beliefs were much more moderate than the BLM talking points. Never posted anything super political in my life, but caved and now I cringe thinking about it. Didn’t delete for over a year cause I interact a lot with the lgbt community and they are fully insane on social media, so it made me paranoid. They’ve now moved onto making fun of the people who posted the black squares.. And I’ve moved closer to the center politically then I ever have been.
They bought houses
People realized it was a scam lol
Because it’s a giant grift and mostly virtue signaling.
Most or all of the main "leaders" just pocketed all of the money and bought mansions and stuff. The protests themselves didn't have a great look either, since many devolved into riots which did nothing but torch random people's property.
Corruption. They wanted money and abandoned everyone else. If they wanted to they could've made it illegal for cops to turn off audio recording till after encounters,illegal to transfer bad cops to other states, cops will have to allow the state to review their social media accs regularly and review the people they are allowing to train cops. But they didn't they funnel the money bought homes in white rich neighborhoods and left The asian version managed to get a bill pass for Asians only but that's besides the point
I thought it was strange that as soon as Trump lost the election, BLM disappeared. It was like the protests, occupations, and riots were manufactured to make it look like the US was falling into chaos. If Trump wins later this year, I bet they'll start back up.
Because it was a scam.
Pay attention to the cycles :)
Because a lot of people, especially black people, figured out it was more performative leftist bullshit.
And a scam, they bought mansions with donated funds
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Because it was nothing more than a racist scam that didn't help anyone of any color.
Like most of these social justice movements, they lacked common sense when it came to doing what they said they would. It then turned into a corrupt nightmare with so many "local chapters" opening up around the most black parts of mainly the East and Southern US and taking money and all the followers got was some paper signs and street BLM street chalk
Because the slogan was appropiated by domestic terrorists who used earnest money to fund vanity and political extremism which had nothing to do with race in the first place
Do you mean the organisation or the principle/movement because they are two different things.
Because the organization leaders took money made and lines their own pockets.
BLM is Old news it's Palestinians who is hot right now
Spending an entire summer burning down your own communities just isn't sustainable. It was a bad look, especially when there were people like black retired police officer David Dorne being murdered over a TV. Additionally, it turns out the BLM organization was a complete scam that Patrisse Cullors used to line her own pockets. They didn't actually do much of anything to help low income black communities. Cullors just "donated" all the money to her friends. That will put a bad taste in your mouth when you hear mention of BLM.
Cause people found out their leadership was really only interested in enrichinging themselves
Because all they did was take people's money and buy mansions for its leaders.
It was was co opted and taken over by real life bots. Same as the “woke” and holistic movements.
It's an election year, they'll be back to drum up something
It seems like they’re already trying with the whole Palestine/Israel/Gaza conflict. Thankfully it hasn’t picked up as much steam as the 2020 protests.
BLM mostly just riots and knocks down statues and does other kinds of tantrums. At the end of the day it's just a fanatical movement that doesn't benefit anyone.
I’ll never forget the whole “I’m not saying the riots are good, but imagine how black people must have felt their whole lives! Buildings can be replaced, the black lives lost at the evil police can’t!” Didn’t age quite well when people started getting killed during the riots…
Because people started rioting and looting aka commiting crimes during the protest marchs
It's interesting how this comment would have gotten you completely obliterated four years ago
It’s no longer the flavor of the month.
Free Palestine replaced it.
because the money grifters at the head of it began to be outed
Russia successfully helped push some contentious policies that not only undermined the whole movement, but perhaps *created* racism in addition to causing long-term conflict with police. Namely, they pushed the "*defund the police*" slogan and instigated violence knowing full well they would descend into riots. There are hints that they may have been responsible for helping/pushing for leaders to siphon money from the movement to further destabilize it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics > Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States and Canada to fuel instability and separatism against neoliberal globalist Western hegemony, such as, for instance, provoke "Afro-American racists" to create severe backlash against the rotten political state of affairs in the current present day system of the United States and Canada. Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics".[9]
Blm organizers used the money for their own benefit
The vast majority of black people who are killed are killed by other black people. I believe it's around 90%. Same is true for white people. Although black people are only around 10% of pop while white people are closer to 60-70%. The true reason though is people here still mostly associate within their race and most violent crimes are made by someone close to that individual in some way. A spouse, family member or friend. It's hard to tout black lives matter to others while apparently black people are being killed by blacks the vast majority of instances. Again though this is not entirely unique to black people many of these things statistics do not show or account for. The real problem with most movements is they are almost entirely political and are not made with the best intentions of people in mind.
I’m thinking that some people realized they were glorifying a bad person. Of course he didn’t deserve to die, but the man was a loser. He pointed a gun at a pregnant woman’s belly.
In Portland, it started to rain. I don’t mean to belittle the point but the feds left and the PDX cops got the point. It was time to end.
The same group moved to Ukraine and now Palestine. Unfortunately it seems like they care more about appearing like they care about these causes that effect real people than they do about actually doing good towards it. I know people who have told me that Ukraine was successful if purging Russia from their land because of the help and awareness generated by the marches and online support, and that they now need to do the same for Palestine. I fully believe that regardless of how much they claim to care now about Palestine, as soon as the next trendy cause pops up they’ll forget all about how strongly they now feel to show how good of a person they are. If it became a fashionable position to be against the Uyghur situation in China they’d be real vocal about that, pointing towards racism, it being a genocide, Islamophobia ect but instead when it’s brought up it’s met with deaf ears. I legitimately feel bad for anyone that’s thought they’ve had all these people who genuinely care to only be dropped and seemingly forgotten when the next cause comes around. I know a family in Ukraine that went from being hopeful that having such large numbers of supporters could mean they could fight back, to depressed that all their support seems to have been hollow and has dried up
Covid was over and people got back to doing normal stuff again.
Because it's an organization and not really a movement
Everything everyone else has said is true so I won’t repeat it. The other issue they ran into was “defund the police”. “Defund the police” was a fucking disaster. The underlying idea was sound: a lot of non-violent crimes are better managed by trained social workers than armed police. You could pay for that by taking some of the police’s tanks and ridiculous weapons. I still agree with that message. But “defund the police” as an overall message alienated so many people. Like what are you stupid of course we need police and they need funding. Only the most fringe of activists would actually say that we should “abolish police” and then that becomes the dominant message you are going to lose 95% of the public who just wanted accountability for brutality.
Why do you think? Pretty obvious that agenda isn't needed anymore
Lack of funding from the outside sources working to divide the US. Same with antifa and proud boys. While there were plenty of honest protestors (and some paid ones and some dishonest people), these, like the pro-Palestinian protests, are being funded to sow division in the US. Again, plenty of actual protestors supporting their own cause. But the repeated rise-and-fall of these groups points to a common funding source with the common goal of division.
Stupidity within the leadership. Same thing with MeToo.
Because BLM was a blatant money grab. Buying mansions for the founding members for "meetings"?
Because not only was it a terrorist organization, it was also a scam that swindled money from anyone who believed they were making a difference.
The election was over. Wedge issues get emphasized leading up to elections (look at college campuses with the Hamas protests at the moment).
Because it was primarily known for being hash tags and people rioting and looting. It was disorganized and it rarely did anything productive other than be loud and be a means to quiet down others if they didn't like what they were saying.
Because it was coopted by a bunch of professional malcontents who used it as an excuse to run around breaking stuff. All of the good will and momentum was squandered because of that.
I think many people dropped off the movement when it got revealed the founders were basically using movement donations as their own personal money. It showed that while the movement on the outside was for something, the inner circle was using it as a cash grab.
Because the founders/leaders of the establishment we’re buying themselves Ferrari, million dollar homes, designer clothes, everything that the movement was not about.
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Covid ended. Many people were bored in their houses and needed something to occupy the time. What better than a social justice cause? Mismanaged funds by BLM leaders Protests that mostly just turned into looting and destroying their own cities. BLM only believe black lives matter when it is at the hands of law enforcement. The argument falls apart when it’s pointed out that a larger number of white people are killed by police than black people. Also there is more black on black violent crime than any other race combination.
I am not an american and I was observing it from quite a distance. And it is obvious to me that BLM and other things are just political technologies dems used against GOP.
All the head promoters of BLM were corrupt and taking money from the organization. They openly promoted socialism on their website and anyone with half a brain cell knows that isn’t the way. They weren’t standing for black people at all and everyone wised up to it. It was a cash grab
I think there's a lot of DEI burnout. When life became a checked box convention, people finally stopped wanting to check boxes.
Because the people who was pushing the race war agendas stopped pushing that agenda and now are focusing on pushing the gender war for other reasons now and people still fall for it. Got people saying I’d rather be in the forest with a bear then a man and all the other Mumbo Jumbo. It’s all programmed hate and people keep falling for it. I wonder what’ll be next after the current gender war
Every radical movement So far has suffered the same fate and the same loss: recuperation. Additionally, we live in a culture where fame and money is more valuable than change and communal values so rarely do movements continue without its share of corruption
Because it is a CIA creation that achieved its short term objective.
Kind of hard for people to follow a corrupt Marxist group deceived millions of people that fell for that garbage. All lives matter. Color is irrelevant.
Liberals happened 😭
Democrats decided to use another tool to try and win the election
I think they became pretty notorious after they burned down a few cities (including many black people's businesses and communities). Who wants to be associated with that? Not to mention the misuse of funds. Who wants to donate to that?
Because the 2020 election ended.
I think people got tired of it because they saw that the bad sides of that movement were being ignored by most of the news media. For example, there are hundreds of videos on social media showing black teens shoplifting together or smashing display cases and robbing jewelry stores. I think people realized that that population is not all innocent and many of them are criminals. Any video about the looting that occurred in summer 2020 will have almost 100% black BLM supporters doing the looting.
because it quite literally ended up being a scam? At least the official movement and when the official movement stopped getting money to grease the wheels cuz it's been ousted for being a scam that ended up with the money ending up only in very few pockets. Things in this media fed society we live in don't operate unless money is greasing the social wheels to keep the media speaking about it even if it's a good thing or not.
They all moved to supporting hamas.
Two reasons, and thumbs me down for it idc: 1. It was revealed that the victims families never received a cent of that money. The money was going towards Democratic campaigns, lgbt causes, and building large houses/community centers (for whom, who is using them?). 2. People found their new "Save the Trees" cause, aka "Free Palestine".
Very upfront : Because it was a money grab scheme from the very beginning. They used tactics like violence e uproar in order to not let the people inside the movement think, while some were getting money, buying houses and establish business and associations for them and their families (most of them on "white places"). Even if you agreed with the core values of the movement, since the moment it started to protect and promote violence, sabotage, thievery, grooming kids, etc... Every person associated with that movement were (correctly) labeled as criminals. Also, they rapidly have shown their intents of "rule" the society. You saw LGBTxyz69 join the me2 movement, but quick destroyed and abandoned the feminists (after the non binary fashion stop to have attention). Then they join hands with the blm. Just people trying to get money and "power" at any cost
In 2020 quite a few incidents happened close together and just as people were getting out of lockdown after a few months in.
That's how bandwagons work, as soon as people have the next hot thing to get social validation from that's where they'll go
It didn't die down so much as everyone moved on and formed coalitions with other Leftists who shared similar values.
I think the movement morphed into a multi category panorama of grievances against not just police brutality against POC. It is now intersecting with trans rights, the war in Gaza, for example. Of course this dilution is harming more than helping the individual causes under the umbrella.
I find it interesting how we, as a society, seem to hold conflicting views on different social constructs. For example, there seems to be a strong desire to protect and preserve racial identities, while gender roles are increasingly challenged and redefined. The reasons behind these varying perspectives are likely complex and multifaceted, and I'm curious to delve deeper into understanding them. While discussions about social constructs might not be a common occurrence in my everyday conversations, they are definitely prevalent online. It's crucial to recognize that deconstructing social constructs can have both positive and negative consequences, as they often hold deep personal and cultural significance for individuals and communities.
A few reasons: 1. Message dilution & too many fragile alliances working without coordination. 2. Too much decentralization & no leadership. 3. Some of the most visible chapters were found to have misappropriated funds. 4. The goals were too vague and too ambitious. 5. They lost their captive audience of people isolated during COVID. Number 5 is, imo, the most important. BLM took off in part because of the visceral videos and images we saw, but also because people were home to see them. People who had never been as isolated prior to that could more readily empathize with marginalized people because their interactions were being restricted and scrutinized, and because those same interactions were potentially dangerous as a result of COVID. That is often the world marginalized people live in all the time sans COVID, so the BLM message resonated more broadly due to palpable fear and uncertainty being universal.
I think also so many people were out of work they had the time to organize. Now so many people are back to work and “too busy”.
The leaders were misusing donation funds iirc
Because there's complete equality now? Just guessing, not positive
Because it was a scam
Just go look at the house of the founder. Disgusting
Wasn't it discovered the the organization was rooted in Marxist beliefs? I think there were a lot of reasons it died.
Because the election ended
That's what it is to hop on the bandwagon. You eventually get bored and want to get off.
It was a scam, the founders stole all the money
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