A counter petition on the White House website sprung up on Sunday urging the Obama administration to not recognize Black Lives Matter as a terrorist group.
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Following the Dallas cop massacre, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick was quick to directly blame Black Lives Matter protests for the killings.
For a nation heartsick over the killings of black men by police officers in Louisiana and Minnesota, and the ambush murders of officers by a gunman in Dallas, here comes Rudolph Giuliani, bringing his trademark brew of poisonous disinformation to the discussion. “Because we’re pretty clear that those lives matter and our institutions are built to protect those lives, whereas our institutions are not built.to protect black lives”. Only the lives that make the national news matter to them.
But last week, I found it hypocritical that numerous same ones who love how Trump “tells it like it is” got angry and dismissive when blacks began to tell it like it is – and always has been – as far as police encounters are concerned in our communities.
What does Black Lives Matter stand for? “So ‘Black Lives Matter” is not an exclusionary statement.
“This is about the quality of life for black people, for poor people in this country”, said Umi Selah, co-director of Dream Defenders in Miami. Branding Giuliani’s comments “dishonest”, the gay civil rights activist compared saying “all lives matter” in response to the Black Lives Matter movement with going to a breast cancer rally and shouting “colon cancer matters”. Though not officially affiliated, Dream Defenders and similar social justice groups often align themselves with Black Lives Matter.
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Philadelphia Police Department Commissioner Richard Ross said the terms Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter should not be mutually exclusive, but he acknowledges the growing divisions between the two groups. “We’re trying to change the world. developing a new vision for what this generation of black leaders can look like”.
