Monday, March 20, 2017

Black Lives Matter in Chicago denounces antisemitic posters at University of Illinois at Chicago

Chicagoist reports that Black Lives Matter in Chicago has denounced the antisemitic posters and stated that they have nothing to do with them (even though some of them have the hashtag "Black Lives Matter" on them). I'm appreciative of this, and it confirms that the posters don't come from a left-wing source.
Kofi Ademola, an activist with Black Lives Matter Chicago, denounced the flyers as racist and said they misrepresent the BLM movement. "We’ve noticed a disturbing new trend where people have been using language from social justice circles to hide their racist agenda," Ademola said in part in a statement to sent to Chicagoist. "These posters placed all over UIC’s campus are just another example of such an occurrence... What their saying and how they’re framing their assertions are divisive, inflammatory and based in falsehoods."


The statement from Black Lives Matter reads in full:
"We’ve noticed a disturbing new trend where people have been using language from social justice circles to hide their racist agenda. These posters placed all over UIC’s campus are just another example of such an occurrence. These anonymous racist tactics are manipulative, and they’ve used logical fallacies in attempts to fool people into believing their rhetoric is valid. When we closely examine what they’re saying and implying, it’s easier to discern the flaws in their arguments. What their saying and how they’re framing their assertions are divisive, inflammatory and based in falsehoods. For example, by creating a false category and calling it “Jewish privilege” then comparing it to the familiar term “White privilege” they hope that this false association legitimizes their bigoted beliefs.
They’re also trying to use BLM to make their claims seem true. It is widely known that BLM supports Palestinians in their struggle for liberation. We often compare our similar situations dealing with police violence and State sanctioned oppression. However, being pro Palestine doesn’t make you anti-Semitic and we don’t condone or endorse any anti-Jewish ideology. We demand accountability to the specific governments, systems of oppression, and organizations that carry out injustices and human rights violations. We do not use broad sweeping generalizations to attack groups of people. After the election of Trump, America has seen a rise in hate crimes perpetrated against marginalized communities ranging from ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, religion and immigration status. What we’ve also seen develop is stronger alliances of intersectionality between these same marginalized communities. We stand in solidarity with folx who fight for justice and work towards freeing all people from the social constructs of oppression, including but not limited to anti-Blackness, heteronormative patriarchy, homophobia, transphobia, racism, colonialism, sexism, ableism, capitalism, and imperialism."
I would have also appreciated if they had included antisemitism/anti-Jewish ideology in their list of different kinds of oppression, but I guess they thought they had it covered earlier in the paragraph.

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