BLACK LIVES MATTER – ANOTHER PATH
Mark Fisher, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Rhode Island. (Courtesy of Mark Fisher)
Black Lives Matter Leader Stands Behind J6 Prisoners, Endorses Trump
Epoch Times – October 20, 2023 by Matt McGregor
Like many others I was disappointed, frustrated and yes, angry with the Black Lives Matter organization and what it became. While everybody I know truly believes that Black Lives do indeed matter the organization itself deteriorated into a mostly fund raising group that too often used intimidation, violence and political rhetoric to raise vast amounts if money. Most of us waited to see the “good” being done with this money within the “Black” community only to find little or no life enriching programs or even charitable work demonstrated in any meaningful way. Instead we found the leaders of the organizations moving into mansions and “hiring” friends and family members into grossly overpaid positions while most of the millions (billions?) of dollars raised seem to just vanish.
This article by/about Mark Fisher by Matt McGregor in Epoch times I find thoughtful and a new path being laid out by Mark Fisher that I can endorse and support. While I may not agree with him 100% in all that he says, I find his desire and goals a potential “new beginning” for an organization I believe most any of us could support. The entire article is lengthy and you can find it on the Epoch Times but I am sharing below some excerpts which I feel show his “heart” and his vision for a “New Path” for a reformed Black Lives Matter organization worthy of widespread support. You may agree or not agree but will find what he has to say thoughtful and worthy of sincere consideration. The excerpts follow:
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Black Lives Matter Leader Stands Behind J6 Prisoners, Endorses Trump
The founder of a Black Lives Matter (BLM) organization is voicing his support of Jan. 6 prisoners and not shying away from endorsing former President Donald Trump as “the best candidate we have.”
Mark Fisher—who stepped down from his leadership position at BLM Rhode Island, which he co-founded, and is now founder and executive director of the Maryland-based BLM Incorporated—has stood in solidarity with leaders of the Proud Boys and led vigils of prayer for the people he believes to be political prisoners.
“They’re lambs led to slaughter to be sacrificed as an example for all who might want to dissent in the future,” Mr. Fisher told The Epoch Times. “This is what the government does to those who express independent thought and want to stand up for what they believe.”
What he sees in the vindictive treatment of the J6 prisoners are similarities to how black people have been treated, he said, and his aspiration in establishing that connection is to find common ground.
“Antifa had a lot to do with the riots of 2020, and there were a lot of anarchist groups who just wanted to take advantage of the moment and were out for destruction,” he said.
Black Lives Matter had been around years before George Floyd died while in police custody in Minneapolis in 2020, Mr. Fisher said. Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder in the case.
“That’s when it became a political movement and the national and global center of attention,” Mr. Fisher said. “The media made us its darling, which it loves to do, and it was able to make us its scapegoat when things started to go south.”
Mr. Fisher, a Christian who has a degree in theology with a background in being a pastor, expressed contempt for both the government and the media.
“I don’t trust the federal or state government as far as I can throw them, and the media is trying to stop us from uniting,” he said. “It’s the same media that caused the division between all of these marginalized groups in the first place to keep us at each other’s throats.”
The name of the organization itself has led to anger.
“It’s not black lives are better,” he said. “It’s not black lives are greater or black lives matter more. It’s just simply black lives matter. That statement itself is so loaded that people have processed it differently through their own lens and experience.”
To not see the significance of the statement from the perspective of a black person is to fail to see it through a lens of compassion, he said.
Mr. Fisher denied the framing of BLM as a Marxist organization.
“Black people want the same thing that white people want,” he said. “We want life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We want to make money and have a family. Do those sound like Marxist principles? To me, those are fundamentally American, entrepreneurial, and capitalist principles. We want to acquire wealth and leave something—as the Bible teaches us—for our children.” …….
“It’s a racist party with racist policies that negatively impact black families,” he said. “Black people are stuck on that plantation, mentally. They’re slaves in their own minds because they refuse to see the big picture and how we’ve been used and abused by the Democratic Party with policies that are absolutely antithetical to what black people yearn for in this country, which is life, liberty, freedom, the pursuit of happiness, and a family to raise.”
Mr. Fisher equally distrusts the Republican Party, which he said is its own corrupt institution.
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The above are only excerpts admittedly taken from the total context but the complete article is too long for this forum and the above excerpts are meant to give a flavor for his thoughtful and well documented plans for a reformed BLM organization. Clearly an article worth careful consideration and discussion. You may want to read the entire article which you can find at The Epoch Times site for the date given above.
Something to think about.
Bob Bandy – October 2023
Bob,
1For once I have little to say and we’ll all be better off for it.
Sam