Hi Jorgen,
Cody Holmes
11

Citing "Highlight[ing] the urgent need" certainly would prove your point if it weren't followed by the general proposals of "transform policing in America, to call for justice, transparency and accountability…"

But it also sounds like you want BLM to be a political think-tank rather than the social justice movement that it is. I'm sure it would be great to be able to fund a think-tank to provide various jurisdictions with specific, feasible proposals for change in the specifics places where those particular changes are needed, and some such think-tanks do just that, but that's not what BLM is.

As I said before, there are too many jurisdictions with too many different issues, so general proposals are all that can really be stated at a national level. Some jurisdictions need to hire more people of color and some need to retrain their police officers and some need leadership and policy changes and some need all of these. Some may need other solutions as well.

Saying that BLM is just complaining and not providing solutions is absurd because BLM isn't inside the system and can likely only suggest the results that they want rather than the exact changes that need to be implemented to achieve those results. The fact that BLM members are not in the system is a part of the problem because it signifies the often chasmic rift between police departments and the communities they're supposed to be protecting and serving.

As for the official BLM website, I can’t speak to the thoughts and practices of their web team, but the nature of the internet is that the discussions will happen where they happen, on different websites, on Facebook, on Snapchat, in the comment section of news articles online. I’ve seen players of MMOs use the social chat tool in-game to discuss issues related to BLM’s causes. It’s like Project Mayhem from Fight Club — you determine your own level of involvement. If you’re not finding these discussions, then you’re probably an outsider and not spending the time to get involved. In a similar vein, it’s the answer to why Fox News viewers think black people don’t speak out against black-on-black violence — because the only media they watch doesn’t report on it when it happens and they don’t go seeking it out.

I’m sorry BLM isn’t the campaign you would like it to be, but the Civil Rights Movement didn’t get organized overnight or really over just a few years. Being able to look at the BLM movement in retrospect like we can with the Civil Rights Movement is a luxury that we don’t have currently, so the comparison may well be premature and unfair. The Civil Rights Movement was about 15 years long and many will say all of its goals weren’t completely achieved and are still being pursued today. We’ll see in 10 years where BLM and related movements have gone and how much change has been achieved. It may take a non-BLM-specific event similar to Brown v. Board of Education to actually see real progress on this front.