As an American why does the" black lives matter" offend you ? I'm just curious as non African American ....or black , ...curious white Canadian beeach ;)

Dear Jaimie JT,

I just looked at Hippie's link...it's excellent...

I myself was with the FELLOWSHIP OF RECONCILIATION for a time, and here is a story that came out of their 1960's Civil Rights activism:

A little African American girl, maybe six, was trained in her church and sent to be the one to integrate a school...well the FOR advisors were there, and they heard the angry white crowd outside give a HUGE roar!

Well the FOR folks rushed out, terrified for the little girl, but the angry crowd was dispersing! They all went home...here is what had happened:

The little girl had turned to the raging crowd and said, "I forgive you, because you don't know what you are doing."

* * *

No more trouble integrating THAT school...I don't know much about BLM,     I suspect violent people are just using their name as an excuse to rampage. But one thing violence has proved, it does not work, it alienates people, including me.

Here's a GREAT article written by Barbara Reynolds who states:

I was a civil rights activist in the 1960s. But it’s hard for me to get behind Black Lives Matter.https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/08/24/i-was-a-civil-rights-activist-in-the-1960s-but-its-hard-for-me-to-get-behind-black-lives-matter/?utm_term=.e0a30bd0960a

So swag ;)

I'm not offend by BLM and I see the Black Lives Matter groups and movement as a very good and positive action. There're saying what Colin is saying by his kneeling and  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. started the same way with non-violence. America's Race/Ethnic/Minority relationship need to change and all Americans need to be treated with dignity and respect.

I believe at the core the group was started with good intentions. Unfortunately it has attracted a number of extremist that want to riot, or attack people who are white.

I was born in New York state and lived there for the first eight years of my life. It was the sixties and the time of Woodstock and peace and love. I am the descendent of men who fought to free the slaves. I was exposed to people of different races, ethnicities, and religions. I was always taught we are all equal.

We moved south to Florida in 1971. I found some of the black kids didn't want to play with me. Those who did were not originally from the south. I didn't understand. The one day in high school, a black girl told my chemistry teacher, "You are white. You are prejudice." He was one of the most fair, most color blind teachers in the school. When I talked to one of my black friends about it later, she told me most black people felt that way. I was floored! While I still think everyone is equal, I do question how any black person I meet feels.

A lot of blacks still feel that way and many assume most whites are decedents of slave owners. Which of course is not true. Most white Americans  are only third generation Americans. Their ancestors arrived after the civil war.

The rioting and the stopping of traffic on freeways is not doing their cause any good. In fact it is hurting their cause. And I understand what they are trying to accomplish. But they also need to talk to their own kind about the songs and the videos that glorify the thug life. That would help.

Can't really say much due to my limited knowledge, but it did really annoy me when they tried to justify burning down homes...

It doesn't offend me. But it disappoints me. The start of BLM was as positive as it should've been. But slowly with time, the concept changed. We must scare of this BLM more than we must fear of ISIS. BLM is destroying us here at home instead of making things better.

The attitude of BLM today is a shame of everything that Martin Luther King Jr built and worked on. Black Lives Matters is a source to spread hatred more and spread violence and tension. It's no longer about defending black's equality, it's about slaughtering white and repeating history twisted and taking revenge.

Today is a generation of super spoiled blacks. You must even be careful how you look at a black person, if your eyes be at a wrong angle you quickly will be labeled as racist.

And today's story is like: People make riot actions and create tension and start blowing everywhere and firing up places, and they expect police don't do anything. But so police make an action, they get more riot. Then someone get shot or killed. Everyone point fingers at police. Brutal brutal brutal Booooo! MEH! You become riot and you want police just stand there and watch you ? Not gonna work.

My question is - why aren't the black people up in arms about black-on-black killings? Why has it been whittled down to white cops versus black people? BLM has enflamed the masses instead of uniting them.

It's hard for me to get behind this because I abhor the violence directed at anyone who is not black. How does burning cars and businesses and looting have to do with your cause? I agree with the senselessness of the killings by police officers, however, this is not the way to go.

Those businesses that have been burned to the ground had nothing to do with the killing, so why are they being punished?

Fix the black on black killings. Make sure there are programs in place to address the needs in the minority neighborhoods. Get the neighborhoods involved with the police to help unite them instead of dividing them.

Maybe a good idea in principle, but it can go bad pretty quick.

Here's the general problem with such things.  It may sound worthwhile when it starts out, but various types of people tend to join in and things tend to degenerate.

This is a quote from GK Chesterton, in Heretics.  It might be necessary to remove a particular lamppost, but it doesn't remain that simple for long:

Suppose that a great commotion arises in the street about something, let us say a lamppost, which many influential persons desire to pull down. A grey-clad monk, who is the spirit of the Middle Ages, is approached upon the matter, and begins to say, in the arid manner of the Schoolmen, “Let us first of all consider, my brethren, the value of Light. If Light be in itself good—” At this point he is somewhat excusably knocked down. All the people make a rush for the lamp-post, the lamp-post is down in ten minutes, and they go about congratulating each other on their unmediaeval practicality. But as things go on they do not work out so easily. Some people have pulled the lamp-post down because they wanted the electric light; some because they wanted old iron; some because they wanted darkness, because their deeds were evil. Some thought it not enough of a lamp-post, some too much; some acted because they wanted to smash municipal machinery; some because they wanted to smash something. And there is war in the night, no man knowing whom he strikes. So, gradually and inevitably, to-day, to-morrow, or the next day, there comes back the conviction that the monk was right after all, and that all depends on what is the philosophy of Light. Only what we might have discussed under the gas-lamp, we now must discuss in the dark.

Sort of describes your general riot, doesn't it?

(And Heretics was published in 1905.)

Protesting is one thing rioting and tearing stuff up is is another. What im sick of is these federal hate laws some black kid can beat the snot out of me he will get some jailtime, now if i beatup some punk thug black guy thats a hate crime and a federal charge. The laws are f$$! Up sorry im not politically correct you act like one u get called one

Personally, I grow increasingly confused about the message the supporters want to send. Granted there are varying levels of members that support the cause with some logically justified  .. However the group is contaminated with those who are fueled with hate and have every intention on doing as much damage as  they can .. Because they can, because they are being enabled by the very group they have infiltrated. THEY don't seem to have the same intentions as the originating protesters .. THEY  have a clear and entirely different agenda...to cause mayhem, to loot, to make their statement as destructively as they can. THEY seem to believe that the best way to protest violence is with a heightened level of violence .. It's a monumentally flawed logic that even the protesters that are trying to get their justified message across to raise awareness can't battle themselves. The degeneration of the cause by these few clearly undermines any good and justified intent of the many.