Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Black liberation has an enemy: the United States government. Our government is actively participating in dismantling our attempts to be free. The moment we stop accepting the status quo and demand more, they are at war with us. I know my Black history nerds are like yes, amen, preach, because they know about COINTELPRO where the FBI sought to disrupt and discredit the Black Panthers, Malcolm X and Dr. King among many others. The FBI’s spying on and infiltrating the Panthers was at the heart of the 2021 film “Judas and the Black Messiah.” The FBI once sent King a letter urging him to kill himself. Of course, the infiltrating and disrupting of Black liberation efforts are not just in the past. They continue to this day.
One of the challenges that Black Lives Matter has had over the years is that sometimes their rallies have turned violent. Now, I understand the value of property damage in an ongoing fight for freedom — sometimes all the system understands is damage to capitalism. However, violence at political rallies can open people up to arrest or debilitating injury, and it can delegitimize a movement in the eyes of the white majority. Back during the George Floyd era, it was common to hear white people say things like “I support their cause as long as they protest peacefully.” To them, the main question was the peacefulness of the protests not issues like Black people getting murdered by the police. But in many cases, to me, the violence at BLM rallies seemed strange. I know many BLM people. I wrote this report about my time with people in the BLM movement, and I know that even in private, they’re not inherently violent and…
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