I read an article today that stuck me as a supporter of the BLM movement and a Christian. I read things from as many sides of an argument as I can generally to try to see what makes sense to me. Medium is an app that does a good job of letting people express themselves. They are virtually uncensored and many of it's paying authors write articles about being gay and/or being black in America and the struggle inherent in each. Here's an example of a clearly educated black female author who took a while to write a lengthy, fairly well thought out piece about why she thinks it's racist to consider looting wrong in the BLM movement. Among her points, she states that white people have been "looting" black people since early in history with capitalism. There are some things she refused to face. One is that looting in the riots serves no purpose but to ruin the lives of the poor working people in the area and stops all people, including black people, from making a living in that area afterwards. She also fails to see that even though her arguments are based largely in fact, she has made many suppositions or leaps of logic that are not logical like assuming that all white people and especially all white rich people are racist because racism still exists and they haven't fixed it. Lastly, she forgets that even Martin Luther King Jr was a staunch non-violent man who made the world stand up and notice many of the things she is saying once before and he was right that violence begets violence and hatred begets hatred, so the only way to truly beat racism is not by calling people racist and polarizing yourself against an "enemy" but by changing behaviors and effectively, legally making change. It's good that the BLM movement had occurred because it has awakened a passion for change. But we all have to let it be about bringing people together not breaking us apart. The movie on Netflix called The Social Dilemma shares some very interesting data about how social media algorithms are feeding this polarization of opinions on both sides of arguments like these. It is our duty as leaders and thinking people to cut through the hatred and show that articles like this on either side that support violence and hatred are themselves also racist and further the agenda of polarizing the arguments both ways. We have to be the example of the light and the way to the people around us and stop both white and black strangers, friends and family from spewing hatred like this if we are to ever beat racism. (Read the article I'm talking about here: “Why White People Being Concerned About Looting Is Racist” by Marley K. )
© All Rights Reserved