The Hypocrisy of Anti-BLMers
Packs Shipment No. 5
Note: Ayo, so I try to keep Packs on schedule every Friday. But this week’s drop had a sensitive subject, so I took day to baby it a bit. My bad.
Country-wide, Black Lives Matter protests have been slowly ushered out of the 24/7 news cycle despite protests never stopping and becoming more violent than they were when CNN and Fox couldn’t keep their cameras off the action. But action begets conversation, and the extended life of the protests has evolved the debate about Black Lives Matter into a war of values and morality. Anti-BLMers, however, have only been inconsistent throughout their rhetoric about Black Lives Matter, losing sight of the movement and what their support looks like.
Photo Credit: Victoria Pickering
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio stood with an extended paint roller amidst a crowd of people, thickening the bright shade of yellow inside the Black Lives Matter mural in front of Trump Tower, a move that quickly angered the president. Trump called the slogan and its painting on 5th avenue in New York City “A symbol of hate.” Later, his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani called BLM a “domestic terrorist organization.” Those are the nicest descriptions Trump and his supporters have given the Black Lives Matter organization.
Vice President Mike Pence won’t even utter the words Black Lives Matter, even in a context separated from the official movement. But in July, a group of Proud Boys— a far-right extremist group who are “known for anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric” with leaders who “regularly spout white nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists”—showed up at a Pence event in Philadelphia and were allowed to go to the event’s after-party.
There's also the Boogaloo Bois, an extreme far-right group known for wearing Hawaiian shirts under their bulletproof vests. Some of their members were arrested on domestic terrorism charges during the George Floyd protests for inciting violence. Anti-BLMers have vehemently called BLM violent agitators at the same demonstrations, but seem to disregard the violent, predominately white hate groups.
It’s a typical bout of hypocrisy when it comes to Trump’s relationship with hate groups that have evolved to domestic terrorists.
Other detractors of Black Lives Matter believe the organization is an attack on core American values, mainly the nuclear family. That idea is cherry-picked from one of the official mission statements on the Black Lives Matter website. The statement says:
“We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.”
The quote is 12th on a list of 16 points. Some of the statements before it include:
“Every day, we recommit to healing ourselves and each other, and to co-creating alongside comrades, allies, and family a culture where each person feels seen, heard, and supported.”
“We see ourselves as part of the global Black family, and we are aware of the different ways we are impacted or privileged as Black people who exist in different parts of the world.”
“We make our spaces family-friendly and enable parents to fully participate with their children. We dismantle the patriarchal practice that requires mothers to work “double shifts” so that they can mother in private even as they participate in public justice work.”
With those quotes together, the Black Lives Matter statements sound like an attempt to redesign the idea of the family, not its destruction. It’s a concept similar to redesigning the police, not obliterating it, a concept politicians have also skewed to the public. There's evidence to support that the nuclear family is already a failed concept, but the argument against the nuclear family isn’t rooted in the destruction of America.
The final blow to Black Lives Matter is that it’s a Marxist group. The classification comes from a 2015 interview from one of BLM’s founders, Patrisse Cullors, who described herself and fellow founder Alicia Garza as “trained Marxists.” It’s a fair criticism. However, the criticism falls apart when Cullors follows her admission shortly after by stating, “We don’t necessarily want to be the vanguard of this movement.” That statement has become a reality.
The founders of the Black Lives Matter organization—Cullors, Garza, and Opal Tometi— are not the leaders of the movement that spans across the country; they do not represent and define every person's ideals who choose to march for systemic equality under the Black Lives Matter moniker. Attaching Cullors’ statement to the entire movement and its participants is a complete lack of understanding of how the Black Lives Matter organization is structured.
On a monologue for ESPN, sportswriter and tv personality Bomani Jones said, “One of the most important things about [the Black Lives Matter] movement is it’s lack of central leadership. It is represented by the people, not just one person.” The movement's openness outgrew the need for a founding hierarchy, but anti-BLMers cling to the assumption that BLM’s leaders strictly define its followers to solidify their preconceived opinions.
In a letter to WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, Kelly Loeffler—a Georgia republican senator and co-owner of the Atlanta Dream—ironically said politics should be removed from sports, disapproving of the league supporting the Black Lives Matter movement while also admitting “The lives of each and every African American matter.” The last point is an important one to remember.
She proposed that the league replace “divisive” Black Lives Matter signage on courts with American flag patches on jerseys as a “unifying rallying point for the American people.” Loeffler parroted the common critiques about Black Lives Matter, saying it’s “a very divisive organization based on Marxist principles” that “seeks to destroy American principles.”
In a powerful gesture to Loeffler’s comments, a large contingent of WNBA players chose to show support for Loeffler’s political opponent, Raphael Warnock, by wearing “Vote Warnock” shirts before the game. Loeffler responded to the gesture by saying she was being victimized by “cancel culture” and that “the league is more concerned with playing politics than playing basketball.”
It’s not hard to see the irony in a state senator who co-owns a basketball team preaching for less politics in sports. At the same time, she spews dismissive rhetoric that appeals to a particular voting base in an election year. To call her teams support for her political opponent as a showing of cancel culture is a sad attempt to vilify the women. The WNBA is fighting Loeffler's politics with politics, and now she's calling foul.
In an Op-ed for The Undefeated, New York Liberty point guard Layshia Clarendon commented on Loefflers stance and intentions:
“For Kelly to call our unity divisive is an old tactic. It’s also rooted in a deeply hypocritical and shallow assessment of what sports have been in American politics since their inception. Swapping the flag for Breonna Taylor’s name doesn’t remove politics, it inflames it. Here we are again, talking about the flag, instead of the victims of police brutality, harassment, mass incarceration, wrongful conviction, gun violence, and so much more.”
When someone like Loeffler can only summarize the Black Lives Matter organization as Marxist, anti-family, and anti-American, their real intentions are clear. The cherry-picked critiques of Black Lives Matter isn’t a new perspective hoping to better the message. The description is a suppression of the movement at large, a movement that they claim they agree with at its core.
Photo Credit: Guido van Nispen
But supporting the organization Black Lives Matter is not a necessary admission to support the movement. The organization is not immune to critique. They do not represent the values of every person who still chooses to fight against systemic racism under the Black Lives Matter umbrella. It’s the same for politicians; you don’t have to support every political stance to vote for a said politician.
If the support for Black lives were sincere, regardless of BLM’s existence, then people like Trump, Pence, and Loeffler would talk to BLM supporters and try to understand their feelings and ideas on how to better the movement. But they haven’t even tried to understand. Instead, they shoot back with “All Lives Matter,” another avenue to avoid recognizing that Black Lives Matter while feigning support for what it represents.
Loeffler represents a base that approves of the idea of Black Lives Matter but disapproves of the Black Lives Matter organization. Yet they offer no valuable middle-ground the two sides can to prove they care at all. The most energy they bring to the table is denigrating BLM into the ground. They pretend to be supporters of the movement when the real goal is to crush it under the safety of patriotism; it’s a deceiving play to revert the mentality to its oppressive normalcy.
Trump, Loeffler, and the hordes of Anti-BLMers they appeal to will continue to call the organization a domestic terror group that wants to destroy American values. Critiquing the organization is fair, but only when their critique is unbiased against all racial groups and backed by a proper attempt to understand the full scope of the movement. Anti-BLMers fail to do that at every turn.
Their hypocrisy is solidified when they pretend to have any capacity to support the movement. What they really want is to gag the voices that are crying out for change.
Heat Packs
Monjola
Monjola is so new to the scene that “Know You” is his first released single. A product of Ireland’s urban scene, Monjola’s debut seems anything but an initial foray into music.
With a shimmering synth, dusty drums, and somber bass strums, Monjola attacks the instrumental like a seasoned artist. He softly croons his audience into an air comfortability with lyrics about distant love that may or may not exist. Then he switches gears and expands those themes with a fast-paced rapping tempo that introduces story (“Are you okay? I know you up too late, talking’ about me to all your friends and the shit you hate”) and some character development (“I guess I know what’s best for me”).
“Know You” is a decent start for any artist; hopefully, he stays with it. With more time perfecting his pen and voice, he could be an international name to watch.
No Vacation
In the late hours at a local skatepark, pro skateboarder Evan Smith scooped up a glob of his throw-up off the ground and ate it—Grossest Thing Eaten: 50 points. Across town, while handcuffed to teammate Zion Wright, skateboarder Robbie Brockel climbed on a roof and took a shit in a friend's chimney—Take A Dump Down a Chimney: 50 points. Earlier in the day, at what seemed to be an empty school lot, Smith ollied over a rail about stomach high, landed on another stationary board below him, and rolled away with two boards beneath his feet—Ollie The Bar And Land On Another Board: 30 points.
Viceland’s skateboarding competition show King of the Road decided this was the scene to use Indie-pop trio No Vacation’s “Yam Yam,” which is how I found the song initially. (They changed the song in the clip I provided, so just trust me that they used “Yam Yam” on the full show). I think it could’ve fit with the chimney shit scene too, though.
No Vacation has perfected the flowery sensation of bedroom pop. On the mellow “Yam Yam,” singer Sabrina Mai’s gentle vocals shine behind a bed of beachy guitar melodies and dreamy synths. Somehow, “Yam Yam” still works as background music while a skateboarder slams his body against the pavement for a tv show. “Dream Girl” picks up the pace, offering a more up-tempo track with the same building blocks prominent on “Yam Yam.”
The group took a year-long break, but have reemerged and working on their new album. If you want to relax in the park, do some dangerous shit on a skateboard, or take a shit in a chimney, let No Vacation soundtrack some of it. I know I have.
Unbox No Vacation: Dream Girl; Really Truly; Days
Read Receipts
Alphonse Pierre—Just Another Day at the Office With Outrageous Rapping Mailman Bfb Da Packman
“Packman doesn’t care too much about who he offends anyway. ‘You think I give a fuck about that?’ he says while marking a cardboard box with a Sharpie. ‘I’m not one of these new age rappers. I’m talking about real shit, and if it doesn’t go over well, I’ll just go back to the post office.’”
Drew Magary—You Are Your Handwriting
“I am a writer who can’t write. If you ever saw my actual handwriting, the jig would be up. I’ve written books, and sometimes I inscribe them for people, and when I do, it looks like I’ve defaced my own work. One time, I made a mistake while signing a reader’s book and had to do that thing where you write a darker, thicker letter over the mistake letter to cover your tracks. My tracks were not covered. If anything, I made it worse.”
Briana Younger—The South Is Rap's Past, Present And Future
“There's a saying that history is written by the victors, and André 3000 foretold a million stories that night when, on enemy territory, he proudly issued a proclamation, or a prophecy: "It's like this, the South got something to say."
Shoutout the WNBA
I remember when Donald Trump called the NFL players who decided to kneel “Sons of bitches” that deserved to be fired. The statement caused a civil war between the league's black players, who felt offended by the president's name-calling, and the owners, whose loyalty lies to the president and veteran politics more than their players.
Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones said any players who “disrespected the flag” by kneeling during the anthem wouldn’t play. Most owners and coaches followed a similar sentiment, and players fell in line.
That was only three years ago. Now the NFL and other major sports leagues are being more vocal about social justice issues. Except for possibly the NBA, it all looks fake.
The WNBA has been the bravest group of athletes in sports. They have been staunch and unwavering in their fight for social justice for years. The league’s players have been the most vocal at every significant social justice moment in the past decade.
Star small forward Maya Moore even took a hiatus from the game to focus on helping criminal justice reform; she was a major factor in the freedom of Johnathan Irons, a Missouri man who was wrongfully serving a 50-year sentence.
In what is possibly the most prominent social justice movement in the new millennium, the women in the WNBA are the leaders.
Except for Trump, whose divisive reach has affected all leagues, Kelly Loeffler has been the biggest villain against BLM protests in any sport since games started again. The players have handled it with grace, tenacity, and wit. The “Vote Warnock” shirts were brilliant.
Now, the NFL and MLB are forced to play their hand. Other leagues are merely playing catch up. The Guardian wrote about it best: US sports are embracing social justice. The WNBA was doing it before it was cool.
To watch them navigate this arena is inspiring to see.
So Shoutout the WNBA.
Welp, hope y’all enjoyed this edition of Packs. We back next Friday with a new delivery.
Between Packs, follow me on all the socials: @Tribecalledni on damn-near everything.
Until next time, be cool.