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The root of black rage: A reflection on the heart of the Black Lives Matter movement
The Daily Pennsylvanian's The Vision Blog ^ | January 26, 2015 | Nikki Hardison

Posted on 02/07/2015 10:54:11 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

Last fall was yet another defining moment in America’s long history of contentious race relations. A movement that began in the small city of Ferguson quickly awakened nationwide protests from Oakland, Calif., to Staten Island, N.Y. News broadcasts’ lust for controversy was met as shocking images of protest flooded the media. In the span of six months, any shred of hope that we had finally reached a utopian “post-racial” America was tossed aside as visuals of Ferguson protests surfaced.

As protesters expressed their outrage over the murder of 18-year-old Michael Brown, they were met with virulent backlash and suppression from law enforcement. What began as peaceful demonstrations ended in tear gas, riot gear and arrests. The violence of the civil rights movement had now arrived in 2014, and yet no lessons had been learned.

Despite the understandable outrage and confusion over the St. Louis Police Department’s handling of the case and demonstrations, it was the community members and activists who were demonized in national conversation. At a time when law enforcement were escalating tensions through excessive force, politicians and officials instead focused their attention on protesters. An 18-year-old was shot at least six times for dubious reasons and left bleeding in the street for four and a half hours. Yet, according to officials this was a time for “calm” and “healing.”

In a nation born out of protest, the population that has endured the most injustice was silenced once more to satisfy the country’s desire for “peace.” The American citizens who stood undeterred in their anger against a failing legal system were now lumped together as “unreasonable” and “violent.” For another cause, maybe they would have been called patriots.

But when you are fighting for the rights of the marginalized and minority, your demands are not deemed worthy of merit. The media feasts on images of angered communities, extensive mass protests and civil disobedience but has not taken the time to acknowledge the humanity lying at the core of the movement.

Revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara stated, “At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.”

If one truly seeks to understand the heart of the #BlackLivesMatter protests, they must first realize that all of this anger, this pain, this “Black Rage” is rooted deeply in love. One does not risk their time and safety fighting for the life of a person they have never met without love. Nor can students abandon their classes and the approval of their peers to join nationwide protests without love. Nor do average citizens dedicate their time to marches and die-ins during Black Friday shopping or Thanksgiving Day parades or holiday parties without a deep and abiding love for others.

In the Excelano Project’s fall 2014 poetry show, I experienced personally the emotion of the #BlackLivesMatter movement as senior Victoria Ford recited her “Eulogy” piece. In her poem she read off 97 names of those killed by police violence and lynchings over the course of America’s history. As each brief story was read, the audience learned how the murder was either deemed “justified” or warranted only a slap on the wrist. As we sat listening to the stories of those lost, many of us — considered to be campus leaders, activists, even “radicals” — broke down into tears. Yes, we are angry, furious and passionate about these issues, but at the end of the day we are heartbroken.

There is a South African philosophy of “Ubuntu” popularized by Nelson Mandela that reflects the idea of “collective humanity” or “I am because we are.” It is this same belief undercurrent in all justice demonstrations from the civil rights movement to the present. I will never have the chance to meet Michael Brown or Renisha McBride or Trayvon Martin or Aiyana Stanley-Jones or the hundreds of others who will die from police or state-sanctioned violence. Still, I will continue to fight for them as if their lives were my own. No matter how unpopular, my rage is the greatest manifestation of love.

*****

NIKKI HARDISON is a Wharton senior from Buford, Ga. Her email address is chardi@wharton.upenn.edu

“The Vision” appears every Tuesday.


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Education; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: blacks; ferguson; michaelbrown; trayvon; whitelivesmatter
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1 posted on 02/07/2015 10:54:11 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

That woman is a filth liar. Those protest were never peaceful.


2 posted on 02/07/2015 11:22:29 PM PST by Bodleian_Girl
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Well, that’s nice!


3 posted on 02/07/2015 11:27:29 PM PST by gogeo (If you are Tea Party, the eGOP does not want you.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
What began as peaceful demonstrations ended in tear gas, riot gear and arrests.

That's when I stopped reading.

4 posted on 02/07/2015 11:28:00 PM PST by Veggie Todd (The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. TJ)
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To: gogeo
Another African American Studies major, blended nicely with fiction writing and a poli-sci minor.

All a waste of our money which is paying for her education and the teargas and bullets.

5 posted on 02/07/2015 11:33:42 PM PST by blackdog (There is no such thing as healing, only a balance between destructive and constructive forces.)
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To: gogeo
"An 18-year-old was shot at least six times for dubious reasons and left bleeding in the street for four and a half hours."

What is the ideal age to shoot someone?, What's the best reasons to do so? and what's the maximum time period should one leave them laying in the street to document the crime scene? (or as she would say, bleed out?)

I mean she seems to imply a command of these protocols? It's one thing to complain, another to offer answers!

6 posted on 02/07/2015 11:38:50 PM PST by blackdog (There is no such thing as healing, only a balance between destructive and constructive forces.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
they were met with virulent backlash and suppression from law enforcement

I must have missed those111

7 posted on 02/07/2015 11:41:02 PM PST by Robert DeLong (u)
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To: Bodleian_Girl

understandable outrage??? I think not. Love? No way.


8 posted on 02/07/2015 11:43:57 PM PST by Shimmer1 (Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. MLK)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
In my 72 years I've had some decent jobs, kept my family warm and fed, but never broke into that land of easy and plentiful.

In rough times I've shoveled up behind 85,000 chicken, fished for Red Snapper, dug foundations, and driven taxis. I've driven nails, turned wrenches, dredged for clams and oysters and rigged sailing ships.

Never was unemployed, I refused to be.

What I didn't know how to do, I learned how to do it.

What do these people want?

9 posted on 02/07/2015 11:51:18 PM PST by SWAMPSNIPER (The Second Amendment, a Matter of Fact, Not A Matter of Opinion)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Another token at a prestigious school. How many qualified candidates are denied spots at America’s top schools just to satisfy someone’s misguided desire for diversity? Also, how much has tuition been increased on normal students to pay for the education of these imbeciles?


10 posted on 02/07/2015 11:53:23 PM PST by Cowboy Bob (Isn't it funny that Socialists never want to share their own money?)
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To: Bodleian_Girl
Her hero also said,

“Mexicans are a rabble of illiterate indians.” Ernesto “Che” Guevara, June 1956

No telling what he would say about her.

11 posted on 02/07/2015 11:58:40 PM PST by SWAMPSNIPER (The Second Amendment, a Matter of Fact, Not A Matter of Opinion)
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To: SWAMPSNIPER

Wasn’t he an Argentinian physician, not a Cubano?


12 posted on 02/08/2015 12:06:25 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.)
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To: SWAMPSNIPER

Everything. And for free. You haven’t got that message yet?


13 posted on 02/08/2015 12:07:27 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.)
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To: SWAMPSNIPER

“What do these people want?”

Apparently they still haven’t figured it out.


14 posted on 02/08/2015 12:14:00 AM PST by CorporateStepsister (I am NOT going to force a man to make my dreams come true)
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To: blackdog

“What is the ideal age to shoot someone?, What’s the best reasons to do so? and what’s the maximum time period should one leave them laying in the street to document the crime scene? (or as she would say, bleed out?)”

There’s something tragicomic in how funny these questions are.


15 posted on 02/08/2015 12:15:01 AM PST by CorporateStepsister (I am NOT going to force a man to make my dreams come true)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It seems to me that the frustration we express about the author’ blithe indifference to the facts of Ferguson and elsewhere is fully justified but it is more important to consider what it is that motivates this fool to live and write in a world so grotesquely distorted from reality.

She obviously is influenced by a belief system or a psychic condition which prompts her to distort reality as it exists on the ground for any fair minded observer to see.

Consider the author’s bizarre notion that rioting equates to love. Here is reality stood on its head. The psychic rationalization? Not “love” that is the feeling released by submission to a cult. The cult? The whole black victim hood fiction but the point is she is motivated by the emotional release one gains by immersion into a cult.


16 posted on 02/08/2015 12:31:55 AM PST by nathanbedford ("Attack, repeat, attack!" Bull Halsey)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
... or state-sanctioned violence

It is called abortion and it is killing off a lot of Black folks.

17 posted on 02/08/2015 12:51:01 AM PST by Slyfox (To put on the mind of George Washington read ALL of Deuteronomy 28, then read his Farewell Address)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
[Art.] In a nation born out of protest, the population that has endured the most injustice was silenced once more to satisfy the country’s desire for “peace.” The American citizens who stood undeterred in their anger against a failing legal system were now lumped together as “unreasonable” and “violent.” For another cause, maybe they would have been called Patriots....,

DING! Okay, good enough place to shut it down right there. Even before, or should I say better before, getting to the "Che" Guevara quote about love.

Who prints this sopping Red rag?

18 posted on 02/08/2015 12:51:35 AM PST by lentulusgracchus ("If America was a thouse, the Left would root for the termites." - Greg Gutfeld)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
[Art.]

There is a South African philosophy of “Ubuntu” popularized by Nelson Mandela that reflects the idea of “collective humanity” or “I am because we are.”

Better check in for the update, Nikki. That's been changed to "One settler, one bullet."

Check it out: South African white farmers being murdered back in the veldt, just like in Zimbabwe 25 years ago.

19 posted on 02/08/2015 12:54:38 AM PST by lentulusgracchus ("If America was a thouse, the Left would root for the termites." - Greg Gutfeld)
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To: SWAMPSNIPER

They want to take over the country, run it into the ground and then blame it on someone else. Until then, it’s all about the $$$.


20 posted on 02/08/2015 12:56:32 AM PST by Trillian
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