Said a black woman, heard in episode 857 of "This American Life," "Museum of Now."
She is commenting on the removal of the 2-block-long, 50-foot-tall words, "Black Lives Matter," that had been set in concrete in a street near the White House.
Prompted by the question, "Is this more honest, actually, that they actually are ripping this up?," we hear her struggling in real time to understand why the de-installation of the motto wasn't upsetting her or wasn't upsetting her that much.
One might say the original installation was propaganda and pandering. Jackhammering it out of there said something accidental and authentic.
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Pardon me for being obtuse: 'What' was never ' in you, in the first place'? What was her meaning, or is it unclear?
How many people really care about us at any point in our lives? Why even look for public expressions of caring?
Maybe it was torn up because her ilk didn’t care enough about others enough to say “All Lives Matter”?
@Aggie, the woman probably — probably! — means that the people who erected the “Black Lives Matter” installation don’t care about the lives of black people, and never did.
Tribalism will tear this country apart. But that was the point.
But yeah, let's tear down all those Confederate statues and build one to drug addict George Floyd.
Did the DC government give the work to a minority contractor?
Talk to the women who pocketed all the Black Lives Matter money - and live in nice mansions now.
Gosh, you’d think something two blocks by 50 feet long would have a bit more staying power. I wonder if USAID paid for it.
Some, Select [Black] Lives Matter in liberal democracies under Diversity (e.g. racism) regimes. #BabyLivesMatter
Another meme lost in a back... black hole... whore h/t NAACP. That's one less "burden" h/t Obama to obstruct progress.
@Big Mike, that's what I'm hoping for - a common recognition that there cannot be 'no racism !' until there is no racism.
"it was never in them in the first place to even care about somebody else."
This, in the capital city of the most charitable nation on earth.
"not even bothering to pay lip service anymore..."
In the end, it was a monument to a dead drug dealer. How much lip service should be paid, exactly?
"so many things happening every day since President Trump took office, like federal agencies being gutted..."
If we could just "gut" one federal agency, and call it a victory, that would be enough for me. Let's start with the Department of Education and call it a day. An agency whose name is the opposite of its mission. It reminds me of an old National Lampoon quip: "Not just a slogan - a Department!"
"Talk to the women who pocketed all the Black Lives Matter money - and live in nice mansions now" Some mattered more than others.
In Ken Burns's Civil War series, one veteran ponders after Lee's surrender if the war ever really happened or if it was all some mad dream or nightmare. Obviously, there was a lot of destruction and death that proved the war was real, but if "woke" is ending now, there's a similar confusion. Was it all real? Is it really over now? What the heck happened during the DEI era and what the heck is happening now?
Virtue signaling is always "fake" at best. The Dims and the Wokesters have it down to a fine art.
Unlike Africa and other progressive spaces, in America under conservative philosophy there is diversity of individuals, minority of one, and all lives matter.
To be fair, there is a forward-looking problem with George "Fentanyl" Floyd syndrome that was covered up by Black Lives Matter in insurrection and other American Civil Liberties Unburdened, Special Peculiar Liberal Corporations under Democratic rule. NOW... now that equivocal and inclusive scheme is being mitigated.
It always meant that people who are not very smart are important. It relied on a stereotype.: important with no reason given. If it said that East Asian lives are important, you'd assume that it's because they're smart and we need smart people.
It was all a BS facade to force everyone to comply.
Comply or you are a racist!
the problem was/is, these same nitwits - including white leftists - still think everyone is a "racist".
“One might say the original installation was propaganda and pandering.”
One would be correct in saying that.
The left have moved on to: "Illegal Violent Gangs matter."
“Black Lives Matter” is emblematic of the denial that is killing the black community. Who kills more black people, white cops or other black people? It’s not even close! Do the black on black killers think Black Lives Matter?
“I’m In You” - Peter Frampton, 1977
"Pardon me for being obtuse: 'What' was never ' in you, in the first place'? What was her meaning, or is it unclear?"
We're left to interpret that. I would say that she's saying that the idea embodied in the slogan "Black Lives Matter" was never actually believed in by the people who were bandying it about back when the words were set in concrete. But what WAS the idea, as far as SHE understands that OTHER PEOPLE understood it? That issue was not explored in the episode.
The idea of "Black Lives Matter" isn't understandable from the words alone. The way I hear it, there is an implied foundation, something like: White people don't really believe that black lives matter and so we need to wake them up to the reality that black people are real human beings too.
I think of the Langston Hughes poem "I, Too."
Does that explain what she meant by "it was never in you"? I think she meant she didn't believe white Americans ever advanced to the idea in the slogan but were always back in the original, unstated idea that black people don't matter.
Black Lives Matter!
do they? do they? REALLY?
https://abc7chicago.com/post/chicago-shooting-15-year-old-boy-shot-killed-south-komensky-avenue-little-village-police-say/16100158/
https://people.com/9-year-old-girl-killed-multiple-people-injured-in-chicago-mass-shooting-8631451
https://abc7chicago.com/live-updates/chicago-shootings-tracking-gun-violence-2024-live-updates/15046239/
Black Luxury, Leverage, License Matters (BLM).
It's not gun violence. More lives don't matter under machete, scalpel, and other bladed instruments. Perhaps a little Fentanyl when they can afford to suppress their respiratory function.
B... Lives Matter (BLM)... April Fools.
It wasn't very long ago, and it is quite clear what "Black Lives Matter" means and stands for. It means that all police (including black police) are racists who seek to kill black men. It means that police departments needed to be "defunded" and the money distributed to "social workers." It means that police are not to be trusted and that any altercation which results in negative consequences is presumed to be the fault of the police. It means that if you disagreed with those premises you are a racist.
It means we need to "wake up" white people by using public funds to enshrine these sentiments in massive block letters in public installations.
That woman is right. Support for that was never in me in the first place.
Go look at how Blacks vote, and have voted, for over 50 years. They vote Left, and they vote Democrat. Thats especially true of black women. In one election they voted 95 percent Democrat! Everytime something patriotic is voted on by Congress who are in the opposition? its black Congressmen and hardcore leftists.
We, the trump supporters, owe Blacks as a group nothing. I think its absurd that we have 2 - count them - 2 federal holidays honoring them. They're 12 percent of the population.
I think one holiday was sufficient.
Its the same ol' story. Equality under the law isn't enough. Tolerance isn't enough. Civil rights enforcement isn't enough. No they must have special privilages and special rights. I say to hell with it.
I don't believe a 5 foot 8 inch, 135 pound man, beat to death a 6 foot 4 inch, 275 pound man. And I'm kind of surprised that more people don't feel like Derek Chauvin was lynched.
I do care about the lives of black people. I don’t care about Black Lives Matter
I think she's struggling because she was told by activists, politicians, celebrities, the news media and probably some people she knows that she was supposed to be angry about this but it wasn't evident why she was supposed to be angry, nor was the told why she was supposed to be angry. Like the concept that "whiteness" was the cause of the the world's problems it's too vague for people to understand unless prompted by the usual suspects.
"2-block-long, 50-foot-tall words"
Disappointed that image is not five stories high.
Seems more wide than tall.
Question: Would you say I care more about Black people if I:
a) Painted a slogan that said "Black Lives Matter" on a street in Downtown Washington DC, but did nothing else to change anything.
b) Had the slogan removed from the street, but opened education to school choice for all parents, closed the border so our own citizens are not competing for jobs with 12 million others who were just placed in our cities, and created economic policies that brought manufacturers back to the US spurring growth for everyone.
Just wondering.
Is "Black Lives Matter" propaganda, or is it the frustration of black folks from high-rise tenements stacked in cold and dirty dilapidated apartments? A fix in time saves nine. It is better to fix a problem when it is small than to wait and let it become a bigger problem. That, of course, is our racism nutcracker.
Our Chief Racist, The Don, offered no explanation when he demanded that the block-long mural painted on 16th Street just north of the White House be removed. The block is now known as Black Lives Matter Plaza, so named during protests resulting from the death of George Floyd. Trump's logic will have him renaming the plaza, "Black Lives Matter Not in America,"
It was bad enough that the racist scam was alowed to succeed in it's only goals: money and control, but that we should honor such a scam is embarrassing. Where is Bernie Madoff's monument?
One might point out to her that a massively disproportionate number of the abortions performed by Planned Parenthood have been Black. Speaking of lives that don't matter.
Do American lives matter?
Propagandum Fidei
Floyd-worship had/has all the hallmarks of a religion. So why not propagandize? And compel auto-da-fë?
Let’s say certain beliefs about reparations change and lo and behold Congress in its finite wisdom were to award black reparations for the injustice of slavery. Would that be considered something that was in us to do as a nation?
so called BLM was a resurgence of the black liberation army, which devolved from the panthers, so called antifa came from the Weatherman and May 19th Movement,
Because in her heart she knows the BLM stands for Buying Large Mansions
Black Wives Matter
Black Lives Matter is a prime example of motte and bailey. Do black lives matter? Of course they do! Who would disagree with such an innocuous statement? But Black Lives Matter is a Marxist organization that turns donations into mansions, wants to foment racial division and unrest in order to destabilize society to the point people want Revolution. It's outrageous that the slogan was enshrined in concrete.
It was yellow paint on an asphalt surface. There's no concrete to be dug up. Any competent road crew could have removed it in a couple days.
And the lady is right...most of us don't give a shit.
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