You should be able to extract the phrase I'm discussing from that last paragraph. I will try to avoid using the phrase when possible, but I will mention the phrase in this post to explain why I don't want to use it.
The phrase in question became popular after the death of Treyvon Martin. A movement and an organization were built around the phrase. As time has progressed, popularity of the phrase has taken off outside of the organization. In many cases, the people using the phrase aren't even aware of the organization. They don't realize that their words could inadvertently lead people to an organization that has admitted to being Marxist.
There is more to the organization than Marxism. Because of confusion between the movement and the organization, it's not always easy to know when the organization is actually involved, but I have seen signs of black supremacy.
A lot of racial incidents have built off assumptions. Many of these assumptions have been disproven. It seems like every time that an incident involved someone who is white and someone who is black, we jump on the idea that it must be racially motivated. Influential people have been quick to push a racial narrative. To back the narrative, they either prematurely push something that hasn't been proven or lie. Most of the stories fueling protests are reliant on inaccuracies.
These inaccuracies became especially apparent after the death of Michael Brown. There were flimsy reports that Michael Brown had his hands up to surrender to the police. This narrative was essentially disproven, but the "Hands up, don't shoot" narrative really took off. This saying has persisted despite all the evidence against the assumption.
More recently, as I'm sure we have all heard, George Floyd was killed by police officers by kneeling on his neck. Numerous protests have recognized the 8 minutes and 46 seconds in a number of ways. It turns out that this time estimate was just bad math. This number was then corrected to 7 minutes and 46 seconds, and then revised again upwards. Despite the truth being revealed, the inaccurate numbers are still being widely used. For example, Kamala Harris cited the number during the Vice Presidential debate.
The thing that bothers me about this inaccuracy is that the truth in no way undermines the messaging. Nobody is going to insist that the difference between 8:46 and 7:46 is going to magically make the officers' actions acceptable. They still lie anyway. This does little more than show that they care more about the narrative than about the truth.
The problem I have isn't isn't that people care about black lives. The issue is as I have already stated. People confuse the movement with the organization.
For example, a lot of people capitalize the letters whenever the write the phrase. I read one article online where someone representing the Boy Scouts insisted that they "believe that Black Lives Matter." Do you see the problem there? The phrase on its own should not be capitalized. Capitalization moves from the belief to the organization. Of course, the organization doesn't even make sense in this case. It's like saying, "We believe that McDonald's." By the way, the civil rights movement is not typically capitalized. This furthers the idea that capitalization ties in to the organization.
I have seen people promoting donations to the organization as a way of supporting the movement. I have also seen people along these lines defend their use of the phrase by insisting that they're supporting the movement, not the organization. In one case, I saw this argument from a player on the Seattle Mariners. Meanwhile, the team's official website included a link to the organization.
Wikipedia is also contributing to the confusion. Not only are they using the faulty capitalization, but their page on "Hands up, don't shoot" has a serious flaw in the text. Hopefully, this will be corrected. On the page, they reference the movement's website. The website in question is actually for the organization.
According to the movement's website, it “began as a call to action in response to state-sanctioned violence and anti-Black racism.”When a report was posted claiming that 93% of Black Lives Matter protests (conveniently capitalized again) were peaceful, I went right back to the issue of confusion. I don't think there's any question that most protests that have used the phrase have indeed been peaceful. What if you isolated protests that involved the organization? As far as I'm aware, no information source has even tried to differentiate between the movement and the organization regarding protests.
It's this confusion that has me avoiding the use of the phrase myself. There's a difference between saying you believe in Black Lives Matter and you believe that black lives matter. Unfortunately, far too few have caught on to this reality.
Let me make something clear. Refusing to say the phrase does not mean that you believe that black lives don't matter. Unfortunately, some people are under the impression that it's wrong not to say the phrase.
I have shared content online that uses the phrase. There are good people out there who use the phrase. I generally don't hold a grudge. Because of the confusion, I would prefer that people use different wording. This is also why I try to avoid the phrase myself.
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