Black Lives Matter is NOT My Movement
Myth of the Monolithic Black Mind
Min. Paul Scott
I once heard a Jamaican expression that goes “every Dread is not a Rasta and every Rasta doesn’t have dreads.” This statement is appropriate in dealing with the massive Black Lives Matter Movement of 2020. Although every Black activist believes, wholeheartedly, that black lives matter, every Black activist is not a card carrying member of the Black Lives Matter Movement. Contrary to the ol’ stereotype, not only do all black people not look alike….well we don’t all think alike either.
In this country there has been a tendency to fit all Black people in a cute little box, however this cookie cutter, one size fits all mentality has never , properly, reflected the Black experience.( I remember , when white America popularized the term “gangsta rap” in the early 90’s and even threw positive, socially conscious rappers like Public Enemy into the mix.) For the last couple of months the media have labeled everyone who says “Fight the Power” as a member of Black Lives Matter, whether they want to be or not.
Although, largely ignored in popular culture, during the 60’s we had both the Civil Rights Movement as well as the Black Power Movement. However, the Civil Rights Movement is the one that survived the white washing of American History. So, with the Black Lives Matter Movement, America has popularized a movement with Hollywood-like “ Black Power’’ tactics but the same Civil Rights Movement goals and objectives.
See, the practitioners of Black Power based their ideology on a Black Nationalist ideology of forgotten Black Heroes such as Marcus Garvey and covered a wide range of issues facing not only African Americans but African people throughout the diaspora. However, BLM seems to focus on the single, although , extremely important issue of police brutality.
Most importantly, Black Nationalists believe in the sacred principle of self determination while BLM pushes an integrationist agenda much like the Civil Rights movement. If you look at many of the protests nationally , as well as locally, the overwhelming majority of the participants in the post George Floyd murder seem to be White.
This is not the first time that this phenomenon has happened in this country as one can look at the Abolitionist movement as well as the early days of the NAACP , with WEB Dubois being the sole African American in a leadership position. While this may not seem problematic to some, for those African Americans who seek to be in charge of determining a Black political, social and economic agenda in 2020 , there is a problem.
Let us not confuse the issue. This is not a case of favoring violent protests over nonviolent protests, or vice versa, Nor should it be used to start a generational conflict within the African American community. This is about who is calling the shots, Black folk or White folk ? After all African Americans in this country are rarely asked what we want; we are told what is best for us.
So, although Black Lives Matter has become the catch phrase of 2020, BLM is not my movement. While I understand that this may not be the popular opinion and I may be the lone voice crying in a wilderness of corporate sponsored Black Live Matter billboards, I still favor the Black Nationalism as advocated by the likes Marcus Garvey , Malcolm X and Kwame Ture. Even though , BLM has the billion dollar backing of corporations, as Grandma used to say :
“I’d rather have a little bit of something than a whole lot of nothing.”
Min. Paul Scott is the founder of the Durham NC based Black Messiah Movement. He can be reached at info@nowarningshotsfired.com or Twitter @truthminista
