07.05.2016 07:12 AM

Publicity matters

Right.

For what it’s worth, when some of us were conducting a comparatively low-visibility battle with actual neo-Nazis and white supremacists – who were, inter alia, circulating words and images like the ones below to tens of thousands of Toronto-area homes – here’s what the local chapter of Black Lives Matter were doing to help us:

Nothing.

We had a diverse group of people drawn from many faiths and skin hues. And Black Lives Matter did zero, zippo and zilch to assist us in fighting actual white supremacy. Anyway, no thanks to them, we won. The Trudeau government eventually agreed with us, and helped shut down the neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

Black Lives Matter a lot, to be sure. And, to some folks, so does publicity, apparently.

NaziRag

From top, clockwise: fascist salutes and imagery from ad promoting anti-Semitic political party; skinheads and white supremacists pictured in article promoting neo-Nazi Heritage Font and holocaust denial; image of Hitler from page praising his environmental record; from article accusing Jews of genocide.

6 Comments

  1. Peter says:

    Time to pop some corn, put our feet up and watch the activist left self-cannibalize for the umpteenth time.

    All together now, “Solidarity forever…”

  2. Steve T says:

    What the Black Lives Matter folks did at the Toronto Pride Parade was truly shameful. This is clearly all about them, and they don’t really care about any other groups.

    The idea that police would be banned from attending the Pride Parade is ridiculous. However, even if it were a reasonable request, the approach taken by Black Lives Matter was still shameful. Then again, so was the knee-jerk approval granted by the Pride Parade organizers, without even realizing what they were agreeing to. Their only goal was to remove the roadblock (literally), and keep the parade going.

    • Derek Pearce says:

      Except they agreed it to with their fingers fully crossed behind their backs– as Mathieu Chantelois stated “I only signed it to get the parade moving. The membership of Pride and the wider community gets to decide who’s in the parade.” Good on him. BLM has to realize that a demand that is agreed to under duress will of course be hollow and backfire.

  3. Adam Thompson says:

    Some questions: First, did you ask the organizers of Black Lives Matter for their support? Did they respond positively or negatively?

    Also, have you actually looked at their demands? Do you agree or disagree with them?

  4. Charlie says:

    So, my opinions on Black Lives Matter in Canada have been formed by a few years of observation and I should preface my coming comments by acknowledging my own background as a person of colour:

    The BLM movement in Canada is essentially one of complete pointlessness fuelled by an inexplicable need to express vociferous indignation over a very real problem that exists in the US; which is falsely being projected onto the Canadian landscape.

    To put it simply, BLM Canada is fighting a problem that by and large, doesn’t exist to the extent they perceive it to be. Thats not to dismiss their feelings of discrimination, but their imitated anger and frustration is illogical and unfounded here in Canada.

    Firstly, the American ethnic/social circumstances are *vastly* different from that of Canada’s. African Americans comprise somewhere near 14% of the American population (possibly a lower figure that in reality). Thats compared to 2.9% that Black Canadians comprise of the Canadian population. Just for contextual purposes: Asians (i.e. Indo-Canadian, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, etc.) comprise of nearly 15% of the population and is the largest minority group of Canada. Indo-Canadians make up 3.8% of the Canadian population alone (this too, is a 2011 figure, so it more than likely to have risen much higher).

    Statistics aside, the cultural dynamics that exist in the US are predicated on the long and tumultuous history America has had between its black and white citizens. This is not something that is replicated here in Canada, particularly with the black community. As we all know, African Americans undeniably encounter egregious discrimination and have faced deplorable injustice since the inception of the USA. Sadly, even till today, African Americans find themselves on the outside of equity in the face of the American legal system. Thus, the Black Lives Matter movement in America is one that is born out of great necessity and frustration that has been legitimized by regular incidents of inequality and second-classism.

    Secondly, looking at the Canadian environment, the only group that can be tangibly identified as disadvantaged on socio-economic issues are Indigenous Canadians who comprise of 5% of the Canadian population yet comprise of more than 50% of the inmates in the Manitoba and 23% of the federal inmate population. This massive overrepresentation in the criminal justice system in addition to the overwhelming statistics pointing at the alarming poverty levels in Aboriginal communities is the closest thing that can be found in Canada that is remotely relatable to the African American situation in the US.

    It would appear that the problems that BLM protestors in Canada lament are problems that are still completely dwarfed by the issues facing First Nations in Canada. It would also appear that neither the anecdotal evidence that BLM activists reference nor the statistical evidence available warrant the demonstrations and demands that are being made by BLM Canada. One could go as far as to argue that the BLM in Canada insults victims of systemic racism like missing and murdered indigenous women, for example, who are incomparably the recipients of injustice and law enforcement indifference motivated by racist undertones.

    As I prefaced, being a Canadian of colour, I take great exception to the notion that Black Canadians are the recipients of American-like discrimination when the demographical makeup of our country and the tangible statistics say otherwise. Its not to dismiss feelings of racist sentiments some may experience, but groups like BLM Canada and the action they took at the Pride event in Toronto as severely lacking thorough judgement and rational basis. In my opinion, I see overly zealous youth who are misdirecting their own frustrations in a completely ill-informed attempt to mimic the movement from the US.

    Ultimately, you don’t bring yourself up by knocking others down. Its apparent that BLM activists entirely missed the point of the Pride Parade and the powerful message behind police participation. If BLM activists actually cared to understand Canadian problems they wouldn’t have hijacked the Pride Parade and would’ve been busy actively promoting greater attention to MMIW.

    -30-

  5. Ridiculosity says:

    I was appalled by the Black Lives Matter demand that police be banned from Pride.

    As a heterosexual Caucasian, I know two things for certain: I will never truly understand what it’s like to be a person of colour OR a LGBT2Q member of a police force.

    Both deserve a fair and equal voice. One does not outrank the other.

    Both have been discriminated against for far too long.

    Time to march forward. Not backward.

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