Black Lives Matter Releases Policy Agenda

[Yukari Yakumo]

Please tell me this came from the Onion or some RW rag...

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/black-lives-matter-releases-policy-agenda-n620966

"Our grievances and solutions extend beyond the police killing of our people; state violence includes failing schools that criminalize our children, dwindling earning opportunities, wars on our trans and queer family that deny them of their humanity, and so much more," Montague Simmons of Organization for Black Struggle and the Movement for Black Lives Policy Table, said in a statement. "That's why we united, with a renewed energy and purpose, to put forth a shared vision of the world we want to live in."

The six platform demands are:

1. End the war on black people.

2. Reparations for past and continuing harms.

3. Divestment from the institutions that criminalize, cage and harm black people; and investment in the education, health and safety of black people.

4. Economic justice for all and a reconstruction of the economy to ensure our communities have collective ownership, not merely access.

5. Community control of the laws, institutions and policies that most impact us.

6. Independent black political power and black self-determination in all areas of society.

To achieve those demands the group offered a set of solutions that include the demilitarization of police and an end to systemic attacks on black youth, including black members of the LGBTQ community. They call for the passing of state and federal laws that acknowledge and address the impacts of slavery and the passage of H.R. 40 to form a commission to study reparations proposals. Another of the recommendations calls for the "retroactive decriminalization and immediate release of all people convicted of drug offenses, sex work-related offenses and youth offenses."

Words... fail me. If it hasn't happened already, this will turn BLM into a laughingstock.

[Skittles]

1. it certainly won't help

[SickOfTheOnePct]

2. +1 n/t

[JustinL]

3. sounds good to me

I'm not sure exactly what about this you find amusing, and frankly I don't really care. Welcome to my ignore list.

[guillaumeb]

4. How does the US end the war on black people when it cannot

admit that the war continues?

Capitalism needs racism. The 1% need capitalism.

What do you mean "laughingstock"? Do you disagree with the diagnosis, or the proposed solutions.

[Uponthegears]

5. Out of curiosity

Which of these proposals tickle your funny bone?

Was it the suggestion that a war is being waged on black people?

Even setting aside the fact that the 4th Circuit just found that the State of North Carolina was waging war on black people, one would think the pile of dead unarmed black bodies stacking up at the business end of cop guns would be nothing to laugh at.

I also see little humor in the fact that 60 trillion dollars of slave-created wealth is being held by the beneficiaries of the plantation culture.

I'm also not laughing at the use of educational institutions as a tool of early criminalization.

I'm just wondering what is so funny.

[oberliner]

13. "retroactive decriminalization and immediate release of all people convicted of drug offenses"

That seems a little ridiculous.

[Uponthegears]

19. At first blush

it might seem that way, but the decriminalization of drugs is a near-mainstream idea.

If, indeed, that idea is near-mainstream, I can't think of a reason why any drug offender (assuming they were not also convicted of a violent crime) should not be immediately released.

Given that, BLM's strong interest in preventing the subjugation, imprisonment, disenfranchisement, and execution (both judicial and non-judicial), and the disparate impact of drug convictions on the black community, I can't say this isn't a reasonable policy position.

[oberliner]

20. With respect to marijuana, yes, it's a mainstream idea

But not with respect to other drugs.

Can you show me a poll that suggests otherwise?

[Uponthegears]

21. It is or was in the Libertarian Party Platform

And, yes, I laugh at Libertarians so maybe that isn't the best example.

But,

I would be hard-pressed to say that, when their presidential candidate has 10% support according to 538, the fact that someone with my insufferable ego laughs at them actually makes them laughable.

[oberliner]

23. OK

It is true that we have come a long way in the last decade or so in terms of the perception of marijuana.

Maybe things will change with respect to other drugs as well.

[Eleanors38]

40. Actually, this is reasonable. The WOD was all about putting blacks in jail in the first place.

Politically, the retroactive aspect is shaky, but release of non-violent drug offenders seems reasonable.

[Warpy]

6. Some of them are poorly stated. Two are pure fantasy.

It's not a well thought out list.

An earlier one was much better.

[uponit7771]

8. +1, I wonder if NBC is being punked

[Warpy]

10. Yes, it was written by a child or a troll.

This is the real deal: https://policy.m4bl.org/economic-justice/

While I do have quibbles with it here and there, they are extremely minor ones.

However, the list in the OP just doesn't mesh with the well developed and articulate things I've read elsewhere.

[kcr]

16. It may seem like pure fantasy, but it doesn't mean you don't fight for it.

This is the problem with those who think you need to be reasonable. You don't start from the middle and sound reasonable. If you do, you won't get anything.

[Warpy]

17. Fantasy doesn't just mean "snowball in hell chance,"

it also means it is unworkable and you wouldn't like it if you got it. Fighting for such things just discredits you.

[kcr]

18. Well, I'm sure they would disagree with you

and there's a reason you're not with them.

[uponit7771]

7. This looks nothing like the BLM request I read about a week or two ago.

[gg4usa]

9. The racists are already making fun of BLM

Seems like a fairly reasonable list, although this: "retroactive decriminalization and immediate release of all people convicted of drug offenses, sex work-related offenses and youth offenses" seems to be too extreme - not sure I can agree with decriminalizing sexual harassment and some drug offenses, and not sure what they mean by youth offenses.

[Uponthegears]

11. I think that

last point is about ending the criminalization of sex workers.

I am almost positive the youth offenses refers to the way people of color are ushered into the criminal justice system beginning with the dramatically harsher treatment black children receive in terms of school discipline coupled with the increasing criminalization of school misbehavior which puts black children into the criminal justice system at an early age. This, in turn, saddles them with more extensive criminal records which are in turn used to justify harsher sentences. In turn, these more extensive criminal records are then paraded out as the "reason" that PoC are overepresented in the criminal justice system . . . as opposed to, say, the fact that the system is intrinsically racist.

[gg4usa]

42. Thanks for explaining that - seems things should be equal under the law

Heaven forbid that we should actually point out that police/the system is racially bias. Seems some police officers choose their profession just so they can beat some black A_ _.

[Iggo]

22. Yes. They are.

[geek tragedy]

12. Seems like what a radical protest group would demand.

What did people expect, requests for micro loans and small business tax breaks?

[glennward]

14. Most of what they want can be achieved by simply VOTING and holding their representatives

state, local, and national, responsible or vote them out next time.

[Glassunion]

31. With gerrymandering and bullshit voter ID laws. It makes it kind of hard for all of us to vote.

[kcr]

15. What's the problem?

I don't get it.

[Iggo]

24. Black lives matter. (n/t)

[romanic]

25. 3, 4 & 5 are the only ones that make true sense and acheivable.

Reparations will never happen, the time for that has long since passed. Number 6 is very vague; an independent black political party? Number 1 is just pure emotion and could mean anything.

Again, what will BLM do to achieve any of this. The ball is in their court.

[Glassunion]

32. Folks make a lot of assumptions on what "reparations" exactly are.

It does not equal cash payouts.

[Agnosticsherbet]

26. Here is a link to their policy agenda, with more detsils.

https://policy.m4bl.org/platform/

[Archae]

27. This reminds me of the old "Lil Abner" comic strip in one way...

He had a caricature of radical "students" called "S W I N E."
Students Wildly Indignant about Nearly Everything.

They'd make stupid demands, and even after the demands were met, they'd riot anyway.

It wasn't until they made demands on the Mob, (who had taken over their college,) and got the patooties pounded out of them that they laid off.

Now while this was a silly comic strip, it still sound like this in this BLM "policy agenda."
It's unworkable, unfair, racist, (oh you god damn right it is!) and simply stupid.

It's one thing to demand accountablity of the cops, or banks, Wall Street or the US government.

But reparations?
From who? And for what?

And this "policy agenda" is gold to the right wing.
They want to stop blacks from voting, or moving into *THEIR* neighborhoods, etc.
This radical "agenda" is gold for their propaganda machine.

[Agnosticsherbet]

29. I would support some form of reparations for slavery.

Because the vast majority have lived in perpetual poverty.

The problem is that it is likely to be thrown out by SCOTUS as we're the vast majority of affirmative action programs.

[Archae]

35. Oh?

Who would the money come from?

Who would hand the money out?

Who would actually get the money?

Far too many outdated and vague chances for claims.

[Agnosticsherbet]

36. The US government would handle 1 and 2.

If structured like affirmative action, we could make it available to the poor to the poor and middle class.

Having a permanent underclass based on race while claiming everyone is equal has failed.

Outdated and vague claims is no reason continue perpetual poverty based on race, and deserve as much consideration as claims of voter fraud and welfare queens, which is to say none.

[Archae]

38. Except there is no such thing as "perpetual poverty based on race."

Not anymore.

People are poor for many reasons, but no longer due to race.

If good jobs are being unfairly given to whites, find and expose the bad bosses.
It's not that hard, and investigative reporters used to do it rather often.

Same for bad banks, etc.

[Agnosticsherbet]

41. Systemic racism does not happen because of a few bad actors.

I do not agree with your assumption.

[melman]

28. Meanwhile

All the idiots howling about JPR are totally ignoring this. lol

[Buckeye_Democrat]

30. Reparations?

How's that supposed to work?

[Glassunion]

34. Click on "Reparations"

It's laid out here: https://policy.m4bl.org/platform/

[TipTok]

33. Conveniently vague enough that no matter what happens...

... they can still claim to be wronged now and forever.

[Starry Messenger]

37. Nice hit and run.

[JI7]

39. yup