No. Black Lives Matter Is Not Trying to Destroy Your Nuclear Family

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blackforest said:
Knowing full well that there’s a difference between BLM the movement and BLM the organization, here’s some clarification debunking the common notion that BLM will “destroy the nuclear family.”

PolitiFact | Ask PolitiFact: Does Black Lives Matter aim to destroy the nuclear family?
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I am not sure why we wouldn’t take them at their word.

Their leaders are, by their own admission, “trained Marxists”. Whatever reasoning they give for wishing to “disrupt” the Western -prescribed nuclear family, we must look at it through the lens of Marxism.

The article you linked to says, "“Across online materials that I’ve encountered, associated with Black Lives Matters and its chapters, I’ve never seen any statements that indicate Black Lives Matter is calling for the destruction of the nuclear family.” The problem with this statement is that it fails to take into account their ideology. Destruction of the nuclear family is a prime goal of Marxism, which sees the nuclear family as something that exists for the benefit of a capitalist society. They do not believe that it benefits society as a whole or the individual members of society. When BLM, run by Marxists, calls for the “disruption” of the nuclear family, what are we supposed to believe they mean?

Now, I happen to agree that we need to cultivate a society in which multi-generational living and extended family support systems are the norm. I think the isolation that families, particularly mothers and the elderly, experience in our society is extremely harmful. I really liked this article in particular. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin..._fO_DZlxiDgr7Yf9LcAUGa4vYmUm-A9ih-tX14CXeZUI0

The problem is, I don’t trust Marxists to mean the same thing that I mean when we talk about the role of the nuclear family in society. I trust Marxists to act and think as Marxists do, and Marxism is quite clear on the role of the nuclear family.
 
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blackforest said:
I did want to clarify that the organization isn’t trying to “destroy” the nuclear family.
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Seriously, how can you conclude this based on the fact that you read an article, which may or may not be the whole picture as it’s obviously trying to make BLM the organization look good?

Why do you even want to defend this BLM group? I can understand wanting to defend the idea of “Black Lives Matter” apart from the group or its other ideologies, but BLM based on its website is just another revolutionary collective that we’ve been seeing since at least the 1970s, with like I said, bad organization.

Why do we even care about defending it? No Catholic here is going to be joining the organization or supporting it, given its plethora of stated (on its website) positions that do not agree with Catholic teaching, even setting the “nuclear family” business aside. That doesn’t mean we can’t support the idea of Black Lives Mattering, and I myself marched with a poster that said “Black Lives Matter” in that sense of the term. But this “organization” is just the usual loose gaggle of revolutionary leftists. It’s not even worth having a thread to defend.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
This is also a good point. BLM doesn’t seem to do anything other than agitate and go on marches
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This is something that has come up in our city, which is a small enough city that people can actually be closely-involved with our city and county government, know their elected officials who live in neighborhoods, including “poor” and “dangerous” neighborhoods with all the rest of us, and are definitely NOT millionaires!

Many times over the last few months, our mayor and our alderpersons have encouraged the protesters to stop disrupting city events and instead, come to the city council meetings (every Monday evening at 7 p.m. at City Hall), sign up to make a presentation/speech, and MAKE that presentation/speech at the meeting.

Also, we are encouraged to write letters or email our alderpersons or the mayor and to get to know them through in -person meetings, forums, etc., and work with them to bring about positive changes in the city.

Finally, we are encouraged to get involved with LOCAL organizations that have been working for years to combat racism, meet needs, help educate (e.g., various literacy organizations), find jobs, build houses (e.g., Habitat for Humanity–very active in our city), stop sex trafficking, work with street gangs to prevent youth violence, various mental health organizations, various child advocacy programs, various programs where citizens and police work together, and of course, churches! This is just a partal list of organizations and programs that are available for all of us to get involved with or support with donations–I haven’t even mentioned our award-winning Park District and all of their neighborhood programs, the health care systems and clinics and all of THEIR health programs, and the schools, which have various programs and opportunities to help neighborhoods. The list goes on–there is PLENTY of opportunity to get involved and make a positive difference when it comes to racism and injustice!

But I get it–making a cardboard sign and marching with a group and shouting slogans is easier–takes less time, less prep, and less emotional/spiritual investment, and…you get to be on TV! Woo hoo!
 
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A lot of the people involved in BLM have already decided that all the existing systems are patriarchal, white-dominated and don’t work. They want to basically disrupt/ dismantle everything and have some foggy notion of replacing it with some structure of their own making. If they’ve already written off the existing system, they have no motivation to bother working with it, and they just go march and do Occupy-type things. As you note, marching feels good, getting up on a soapbox to talk and being covered by the news media feels good especially when you’re a person who’s usually marginalized and people aren’t paying much attention to you. Actually working with city council or whatever means you’re going to be compromising a significant amount of the time and getting told “No” a good bit of the time and they don’t want that.
 
VonDerTann said:
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LeafByNiggle:
The group that says that does not represent all of Black Lives Matter,
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–The “group” you refer to is BLM itself.
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Yes, the “group” you refer to is organization named Black Lives Matter, which has no authoritative control over the movement, which is also called Black Lives Matter, but which is not beholding to that organization.
 
All you’re saying is “BLM isn’t BLM.” That’s absurd. It also allows you the intellectual dishonesty of excusing all BLM’s bad behavior as “that’s not the real BLM, just some people that call themselves BLM but really aren’t.”
 
Yet BLM has conflated themselves for us,via their own documents saying what they want to do.
 
I think that there are a sizeable number of African Americans who do not trust our U.S. government or the local city/town governments because of the past history of this government. I’ve been watching one of the really good Civil War documentaties on PBS and also reading some really well-written histories of the U.S., and it’s obvious that from the beginning of this country that black people were considered “non-human” or in one statement, “animals that can talk” by the elected officals and the white population–even if they meant it in “kind way” (the way we would protect our pets and take care of them).

Many U.S. government policies over the years have had dreadful consequences for black people in this country, including the awful segregation policies that only ended in my lifetime (and are still entrenched in certain parts of this country).

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, our city was caught up in a massive desegregation lawsuit and was found GUILTY of many practices that systemically prevented black people from having the same opportunities as white people.

I’ve mentioned before here on CAF that in the 1970s, my dad was the first person in our city to rent an apartment to a black family, and he received death threats over the phone. My mother, who grew up in the South, fielded those threats and had no hesitation telling those people where to go.

My point is that it is understandable that the kind of government involvement that I described in my above post is something that many African Americans are wary of, do not trust, and do not believe will make any difference.

And that’s too bad, because our government, in spite of our sins and abuses, is a very good government and at this point in history, is possibly open to creating policies that would end racist practices and provide justice for those who have been harmed by racism.

Of course, the government cannot change the hearts of the people, and THAT’S where our churches need to step up even more than they already do.

And of course, we cannot blame “racism” for our personal failings–getting involved with an addiction, with crime, with violence (especially gun violence), with sex outside of marriage, with dropping out of school. Experiencing racism certainly causes pain and suffering that may lead us to seek solace in a substance, a sin, or in dangerous companions–but we still have the choice that many oppressed people make to do no harm and to seek to do good and live a noble life and answer to a Higher Calling.
 
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You’re arguing that there’s really no one BLM. There most certainly is, and it’s website says what it’s core values are - including disrupting the nuclear family.
The most tortured logic, more like suspension of reality, is required to decide - as you have - “well, many BLM members aren’t really members and the organization doesn’t really want what it’s website says it wants.”
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Seriously, how can you conclude this based on the fact that you read an article, which may or may not be the whole picture as it’s obviously trying to make BLM the organization look good?
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If you didn’t catch the point of the article, there’s really not much more I can say. That quote appears in context.
"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," it says on the page titled “What we believe.”
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So . . . they’ll use the it-takes-a-village approach only if that’s what you want, and you can tell them to stop when you’re uncomfortable.

That’s a far cry from, “We’re here to destroy your family, mwa ha ha!”

The “trained Marxist” thing is just silly and hard to take seriously. What the heck is a “trained Marxist,” anyway? Does espousing a particular philosophy require special certification and licensing? Did they graduate from one of Stalin’s gulags? It honestly sounds like they took a couple of classes at Brown and then thought, “Oooooooooo, edgy!”
Tis_Bearself said:
Why do we even care about defending it?
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Nobody has to like the BLM organization. But nobody should dishonestly misrepresent its positions, either.
 
Peeps said:
Finally, we are encouraged to get involved with LOCAL organizations that have been working for years to combat racism, meet needs, help educate (e.g., various literacy organizations), find jobs, build houses (e.g., Habitat for Humanity–very active in our city), stop sex trafficking, work with street gangs to prevent youth violence, various mental health organizations, various child advocacy programs, various programs where citizens and police work together, and of course, churches!
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I fully agree but want to mention the two-feet-of-love approach encouraged by the USCCB. One foot is for charity, addressing urgency, and the other is for lasting policy changes to prevent future urgency. Both are important, and both are necessary.
Peeps said:
But I get it–making a cardboard sign and marching with a group and shouting slogans is easier–takes less time, less prep, and less emotional/spiritual investment, and…you get to be on TV! Woo hoo!
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The same could be said of the March for Life. (Shrug).

Editing to add that I support MfL. It’s just that regardless of the cause, you’ll find activists of all stripes. I’ve met plenty of attention-mongering pro-lifers who get into it just for the martyrdom/savior complex but don’t do a lot of the nitty-gritty work for lasting change. And you’ll rarely, if ever, find them stocking diapers at pregnancy resource centers.
 
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Read about…what? Some Wikipedia site? Sorry leaf you’re the one with time for 22,000 posts. Tell us what you’d like us to take from the site.

OK, BLM is decentralized. There’s a stark difference between that and “BLM doesn’t really exist; there’s nothing in particular they believe, and if I don’t like what they advocate, hey, that’s Ok, they don’t really advocate it.”

—except that they do exist; their website says what they believe; and their leadership admits they’re Marxists.
 
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VonDerTann said:
Read about…what? Some Wikipedia site? Sorry leaf you’re the one with time for 22,000 posts. Tell us what you’d like us to take from the site.

OK, BLM is decentralized. There’s a stark difference between that and “BLM doesn’t really exist;
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And I never said that. BLM exists as an organization and as a movement. They are not the same thing.
 
Um, yes, they are, and your position just allows BLM to believe whatever you like, under the theory that somewhere there is some BLM member who perhaps believes as you do.
 
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