Previous installments: Intro to BLM, Marxism, Is BLM Marxist?, Violence, Reporting on Violence, and Is BLM Violent? Now let’s turn to another accusation. I’ve seen a lot of people on social media claim that BLM is anti-family and/or supports the gay agenda (whatever they mean by “the gay agenda”). Let’s take those claims one at a time. Here is what they have to say about the family on their website. We make our spaces family-friendly and enable parents to fully participate... Read more
Previous installments in this series: Intro to BLM; Marxism; Is BLM Marxist?; Violence; Reporting on Violence. In the last two posts, we discussed what we mean by violence, and laid down a few conditions for saying whether BLM supports violence. Specifically, we said: if there’s credible evidence of people with a clear connection to BLM committing unjustified violent acts, then it’s reasonable to say BLM is violent. (Of course, if BLM’s leadership condemned such acts, that might be different. But... Read more
Previous installments in this series: Intro to BLM; Marxism; Is BLM Marxist?; Violence. Last time, we tried to explain direct action, violence, and self-defense. Now we’re in a better position to answer the question: does BLM support violence? The obvious answer—which is not necessarily the right answer—is no. BLM was formed in opposition to police violence against Black people. Their reason for existing is anti-violence in at least one big way. Moreover, they have this to say about their own... Read more
Previous installments in this series: Intro to BLM; Marxism; Is BLM Marxist? Let’s take a look at charge number two: that BLM supports violence. I’ll say up-front that while I’m personally committed to nonviolence, I don’t consider self-defense wrong. If BLM members have done violent things, that’s not an automatic mark against them. We have to know the context. And most opponents of BLM would agree. At least, that’s exactly the argument they always make to defend the police when... Read more
Continued from Part One: Intro to BLM and Part Two: Marxism. Last time we looked at the three founders of BLM, and weighed the claim that they’re Marxists. The answer was kind of a soft yes?—soft, because “Marxist” is a more malleable term than people tend to think. But still a soft yes. However, this doesn’t in itself tell us whether BLM as such is Marxist. If a group of Catholics found a hospital, that doesn’t automatically mean it’s a Catholic hospital,... Read more
Go here for Part One: Intro to BLM Let’s talk about that first accusation, that Black Lives Matter is atheistic and Marxist. Where does this claim come from? Story time. The founders of BLM are Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi. Khan-Cullors gave an interview in 2015, in which she said the following: We actually do have an ideological frame. Myself and Alicia in particular are trained organizers. We are trained Marxists. We are super versed on, sort of,... Read more
For starters, I’m talking about the organization. If you don’t understand why Catholics must agree with the statement “Black lives matter,” you need a hell of a lot more than a blog post. Now then. A lot of Catholics are leery of BLM. Some are actively opposed to it. It’s probably no secret what side I’m on, but I want to go through a few common accusations made against BLM,1 and see if there’s any merit to them. Criticisms even of... Read more
I am fighting with tears as I write this. Don’t worry, they’re good tears. A few years ago, I composed a poem about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; it was called Chi Ni Wa Odayaka, Japanese for “peace on earth,” as in Luke 2.14. I published it on my old blog, along with some textual notes. My mother suggested that I send the poem to Japan. I was a little hesitant—it’s obviously a very sensitive subject, and I didn’t... Read more
A couple days ago, Catholic Arena (a media outlet I hadn’t come across before) shared a story on Twitter about some activists in Poland. They’d hoisted a rainbow flag onto a statue of Christ. The tweet said, The LGBT community in Poland are now attacking statues of Jesus Christ. I sat back for a minute and thought. I replied. The statue appears to be undamaged in this photo, I wrote, which is more than can be said of LGBT... Read more
Part One; Part Two There are two further issues surrounding free speech from a leftist viewpoint. One has to do with power, and the other has to do with fascism. First, power—and in this context, I mean not just political power, but wealth and celebrity, too. These things give people more access to free speech than an ordinary person has; they can afford a megaphone, so to speak. That isn’t necessarily unjust, but it does mean that the powerful have... Read more
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