Jeers to Chicago Church for Backing Down on "Black Lives Matter"
September 14, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
The Beverly Unitarian Church in a mainly white middle-class neighborhood in southwest Chicago recently put up a “Black Lives Matter” message on the electronic sign in front of the church—and then took it down a few days later. The church said that they decided to take the step after receiving some hostile responses to the message on their Facebook page, including physical threats, from those attacking the church for being anti-police.
This is a time when police, their supporters, raving fascists, and right-wing ruling class voices are pushing the myth that cops are increasingly in danger because of what they claim are “hate speech” by those protesting murders by police and insisting that “Black lives matter.” This is a reactionary ideological offensive aimed at shutting down people who speak out and act against police terror—the murder after murder of Black and Latino people by the cops and their exoneration by the prosecutors, courts, and government officials. In this situation, all people of conscience face a critical choice: Cower and backtrack in the face of the threats and attacks by the brutal, racist police and their supporters—or take a principled stand to say NO MORE and act to STOP to the unjust and immoral targeting of Black and Brown people by pigs acting under the color of law.
Black lives do matter—and Black lives are under a deadly threat. And what the Beverly Unitarian Church did amounts to saying Black lives don't matter. Standing with the oppressed inevitably means facing hostility, taking on risks and often making real sacrifices. But to do anything LESS, to waver in the face of that challenge, is morally unacceptable to those who love justice and oppose oppression.
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