I wish it was simple, but that’s never the case.
Black people should be treated with respect and dignity, and shouldn’t be brutalized by cops. I find it asinine that this even needs to be said as I find it to be such an obvious thing to say.
But “Black Lives Matter” is problematic because it’s so much more than a simple three word statement. It’s a farce masquerading around as a statement about police on black brutality when it’s actually a political organization with a socialist political agenda and many demands. It’s part of the larger “Movement for Black Lives” which has published its policy platform on their website and should be read by all.
https://m4bl.org/policy-platforms/
Many of these demands are problematic to me at best, and offensive to me at worst.
Not arresting violent students at schools you’re forced to send your kids to, ending all deportations including criminals, lowering the voting age to 16, allowing criminals currently in prison to vote, ending police privatization, no police body cameras (yes, that’s right), universal health care, free abortion, paid parental leave, paid child care, ending privatization of education, free college and lifetime education, student loan forgiveness, guaranteed minimum livable income, community control over how resources are distributed, community control of food, housing, and land, community control of businesses in the community, community control of schools, curriculums, and staffing, a progressive restructuring of the tax code to ensure radical redistribution of wealth, public financing of elections, net neutrality, and many more.
It’s subsidies upon subsidies upon subsidies, regulations upon regulations upon regulations, and reparations upon reparations upon reparations.
It’s a platform that Marx would have supported, and one which I’m sure many of you don’t see as an issue, and support as well, and that’s fine, but I don’t. I believe in free association, free markets, and property rights, among other things.
I’m not a socialist.
My wish is that the people who want police brutality, in particular police brutality against blacks, to end (and it should end) would see how unacceptable this policy platform is to others, and divorce themselves from it, but I know they won’t.
So while I wish black people nothing but prosperity, the black lives matter movement, as with all socialist movements, is not for me.
I remain a free market capitalist.