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Black Lives Matter Tag

You remember Mizzou Prof. Melissa Click, don't you? She's the world's most famous red-headed social warrior professor who gained internet fame for seeking "some muscle" to keep a student journalist away from a Black Lives Matter protest. https://youtu.be/xRlRAyulN4o?t=6m19s Click claimed this was an aberration and that she's not really the wacko she appears to be on the video. The Columbian Missourian reports on the consequences, or lack thereof:
She acknowledged that ordering Schierbecker away from inside a human wall around the camp and calling for “some muscle” was poor judgment.
But Click, who also had joined student protesters during MU's Homecoming parade, didn't rule out protesting with them again; nor did she rule out filing a lawsuit against the UM System Board of Curators, MU or Schierbecker. She said she would not join students in protest if she felt it would endanger others or disrupt an event.

Oberlin College is an institution in turmoil over the past several years, and anti-Israel activism is part of the problem. Now, over 200 alumni are claiming the anti-Israel activism has created a hostile environment for Jews, and the alumni are demanding the college take action to address the problem. The issue of when anti-Israelism crosses into anti-Semitism is a hot topic on campuses recently because of the very aggressive tactics of anti-Israel campus groups, and the intense demonization of Israel. "Intersectionality" analysis is used by anti-Israel activists to try to co-opt the Black Lives Matter movement and other similar movements:
Every real or perceived problem is either blamed on or connected to Israel. The concerted effort to turn the Black Lives Matter movement into an anti-Israel movement has at its core the claim that Israel is the root of problems of non-whites in the United States. Thus, if a police chief somewhere attended a one-week anti-terrorism seminar in Israel years ago, every act of brutality by a cop on the beat is blamed on Israel.
When City University of New York Students for Justice in Palestine, for example, tried to turn the Million Student March into an anti-Israel event and blamed high tuition on Zionists, the CUNY Vice Chancellor called it “thinly-veiled bigotry, prejudice, anti-Semitism.” At Vassar College, SJP circulated a Nazi cartoon after weeks of anti-Israel activism that included picketing a course which involved travel to Israel. Prof. Miriam Elman laid out the history and analysis in Fighting The Hate: When Does Anti-Israel Become Anti-Semitic? As described below, it appears Oberlin may need to go through a similar self-evaluation.

The trend for the BDS movement is to make demonization of Israel the center of the progressive universe through the theory of "intersectionality." Israel is placed at the center of all evil in the world, the unifying focus regardless of the issue:
Every real or perceived problem is either blamed on or connected to Israel. The concerted effort to turn the Black Lives Matter movement into an anti-Israel movement has at its core the claim that Israel is the root of problems of non-whites in the United States. Thus, if a police chief somewhere attended a one-week anti-terrorism seminar in Israel years ago, every act of brutality by a cop on the beat is blamed on Israel. So too, Students for Justice in Palestine protesters in New York City even blamed high tuition on Zionists, leading to rebukes by administrators against such thinly-veiled anti-Semitism. The Jew once again is made the source of all evil, the conspiratorial puppet-master controlling all and responsible for all. And Israel alone receives such treatment and is used as the link to connect all injustices in the world.
This anti-Semitic use of "intersectionality" theory flourishes because a generation of students -- many of whom now are faculty -- have been schooled based on lies about the creation of Israel and the Arab refugees created in the civil war and invasion by Arab armies. In that false narrative, the Jews are wholly evil and the Arabs are wholly innocent.

A rally is planned in Ithaca, NY, for January 9, 2016, against allegedly racist violence by police, specifically the non-indictments in the deaths of Sandra Bland and Tamir Rice, and the deaths of Betty Jones and Quintonio LeGrier. The event is taking place at the Ithaca Commons, a public space in the center of town. Here's part of the description from the public Facebook Event Page:
On December 23rd a grand jury decided not to indict the jailers involed in the death of Sandra Bland. On December 28th a grand jury decided not to indict officer Timothy Leohmman in the extra judical killing of 12-year old Tamir Rice. On December 26th 55 year-old Betty Jones was mistakingly shot and killed by police as she opened her door. Her neighbor 19-year old Quintonio LeGrier was also killed. This is a rally in response to these events and the increasing violence and general terror administered by police towards people of color. The purpose of this rally is as follows: Agitation Mobilization Information
Ithaca Protest Sandra Bland FB Page banner

The Mall of America has gone to court seeking an injunction against Black Lives Matter protesters disrupting shopping at the mall on Christmas Eve day. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports on the hearing held in court today:
With a planned demonstration by Black Lives Matter at the Mall of America less than two days away, a Hennepin County judge on Monday heard arguments over whether the shopping complex has the right to a restraining order against protesters. In its request, the mall named four alleged leaders of Black Lives Matter and asked Judge Karen Janisch to prevent them from encouraging people to demonstrate Wednesday and to take down any social media messages about the event. The mall also wanted Black Lives Matter to post a social-media message canceling the demonstration and to post a copy of the judge’s restraining order, if one is issued.
I'll admit that I'm not up to speed on how 1st Amendment protections apply on a private property that nonetheless operates as a public space, a replacement for Main Street. So I express no opinion on the legalities.

The phrase "All evil in the world must be traced to Israel" is how researcher Nurit Baytch perceptively characterized the propaganda tactics of anti-Israel activist Max Blumenthal. It's a phrase that increasingly characterizes the anti-Israel campus movement. Every real or perceived problem is either blamed on or connected to Israel. The concerted effort to turn the Black Lives Matter movement into an anti-Israel movement has at its core the claim that Israel is the root of problems of non-whites in the United States. Thus, if a police chief somewhere attended a one-week anti-terrorism seminar in Israel years ago, every act of brutality by a cop on the beat is blamed on Israel. So too, Students for Justice in Palestine protesters in New York City even blamed high tuition on Zionists, leading to rebukes by administrators against such thinly-veiled anti-Semitism. The Jew once again is made the source of all evil, the conspiratorial puppet-master controlling all and responsible for all. And Israel alone receives such treatment and is used as the link to connect all injustices in the world. That some of the worst perpetrators are Jewish progressives doesn't change the nature of the attack. Jay Michaelson in The Forward looks to the concept of "intersectionality" to understand why the students behind these seemingly attenuated connections view Israel as tied to everything:

A controversy brewing in St. Louis progressive activist circles sheds light on how the anti-Israel movement’s effort to demonize Israel by hijacking the Black Lives Matter agenda is intensifying. At issue is an offensive poster and cartoon featuring the image of a prominent St. Louis Rabbi Susan Talve. Both were circulated last week on social media by HandsUp United, a “social justice organization” based in Ferguson, Missouri. The anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace is supporting the effort to demonize Rabbi Talve, and the vile anti-Israel cartoonist Carlos Latuff has created a cartoon meme that is spreading. This is all part of an effort to turn Black Lives Matters into an anti-Israel movement, an increasing focus of anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists.

Targeting St. Louis Rabbi Susan Talve

Rabbi Susan Talve, who leads St. Louis’ Central Reform Congregation, is a well-known and nationally respected figure in St. Louis’ interfaith community and in the Ferguson protest movement. Last year, she was named one of America’s most inspiring rabbis by the Forward. For years she’s taken a leading progressive position on racial issues in the United States. Since the Michael Brown fatal shooting in Ferguson, just outside St. Louis, in August 2014, she’s also voiced opposition to racial profiling and policing policies at numerous public events.

Many campuses are seeing sets of "Demands" issued by students to administrations, often seeking to suppress speech the students deem offensive and to increase faculty and student affirmative action policies and programs. It's not surprising that the Demand movement has come to my alma mater, Hamilton College, in upstate New York. Hamilton at one time focused on the study of core subjects and Western Civilization. Over the course of the 1980s and 1990s, multiculturalism took hold of the curriculum as leftist faculty from Kirkland College (which merged with Hamilton when I was a sophomore in the late 1970s) maneuvered into positions of power. The story of how Hamilton was transformed was detailed in my post in December 2012, Western Civilization driven off campus at Hamilton College:

RebelPundit has newly released video footage from deep within the Black Friday protest in Chicago that provides new insight into the character of, and reception in the grassroots black community to college-based "Black Lives Matter" and other organized groups vying for control of their community. Here is the explanation from Rebel Pundit:
When protesters took to Chicago’s Michigan Avenue last week, grassroots activists at the Black Friday boycott had no interest in sharing the Magnificent Mile with “Black Lives Matter” activists from the University of Chicago, forcing protesters associated with the group off the street. While media coverage from the periphery of the march showed images of protesters lined up in front of the high-end stores and reported on a unified movement for “justice” in the police killing of Laquan McDonald, it was anything but. Our footage from the core of the march reveals the contentious and disunited elements vying for control.

Dartmouth College students who are part of the Black Lives Matter movement recently staged a protest which invaded a school library. As we reported yesterday at College Insurrection, some students who were trying to study allege physical assault. Campus Reform has the details:
Dartmouth students lead profane Black Lives Matter protest Black-clad protesters gathered in front of Dartmouth Hall Thursday night, forming a crowd roughly one hundred fifty strong. Ostensibly there to denounce the removal of shirts from a display in Collis, Dartmouth's student center the Black Lives Matter collective began to sing songs and chant their eponymous catchphrase. The band then marched into Baker-Berry Library. “F*** you, you filthy white f***s!” “F*** you and your comfort!” “F*** you, you racist s***!”

Students for Justice in Palestine is a national organization with dozens of campus chapters, and growing. SJP has been the subject of numerous posts here because of its highly aggressive, sometimes blatantly anti-Semitic, antics, such as when Vassar SJP spread a Nazi cartoon and UC-Davis SJP taunted Jewish students with chants of "Allahu Akbar." We also have noted how SJP groups are at the forefront of attempting to hijack Black Lives Matter groups and to inject anti-Zionism into the Black Lives Matters movement by co-opting protests, such as in Ferguson, Baltimore, and New York City. Those two elements -- hijacking protest movements and trying to redirect them against Israel -- came together this week when a coalition of New York City area SJP groups taunted the administration of the City University of New York with claims that tuition increases were tied to the "Zionist administration" of CUNY and investment in Israel. The Tower and Tablet Magazine have extensive reports. The call was issued on a Facebook page for the anti-Zionist protest in the name of and endorsed by: NYC Students for Justice in Palestine Students for Justice in Palestine at Hunter College Students for Justice in Palestine at Brooklyn College Students for Justice in Palestine- St. Joseph's College Students for Justice in Palestine at College of Staten Island Students for Justice in Palestine at John Jay College CUNY School of Law Students for Justice in Palestine Students for Justice in Palestine at Pace University - Pleasantville NYU Students for Justice in Palestine Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine Here is the page:

As a result of protests that included a hunger strike by a graduate student and the pressure of a threatened boycott by members of the football team, President Tim Wolfe and Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin of the University of Missouri announced their resignations yesterday. The protests occurred after a series of alleged racial incidents at the university. Here's a quick summary of the events leading up to their departures:
The protests began after the student government president, who is black, said in September that people in a passing pickup truck shouted racial slurs at him. In early October, members of a black student organization said slurs were hurled at them by an apparently drunken white student. Frustrations flared again during a homecoming parade, when black protesters blocked Wolfe's car, and he did not get out and talk to them. They were removed by police. Also, a swastika drawn in feces was found recently in a dormitory bathroom. The university did take some steps to ease tensions. At Loftin's request, the school announced plans to offer diversity training to all new students starting in January, as well as faculty and staff.

When it comes to social justice, no one is immune to the warriors' tactics of persuasion---not even Hillary Clinton. Yesterday, Black Lives Matter protesters interrupted an "African-Americans For Hillary" event with chants of "BLACK LIVES MATTER" and various hymns. Clinton was forced to pause her speech to address the interruption---and of course went into full pander mode. Watch:

At a White House forum on criminal justice reform Thursday, President Obama offered an unsolicited defense of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Janell Ross of the Washington Post:
President Obama defended ‘Black Lives Matter.’ But why did he have to? Obama chose to weigh in on the simmering controversy over the phrase "Black Lives Matter." More specifically, he gave his take on the idea that the phrase is a threat, a verbal affront or some kind of intentional effort to devalue the lives of others. This idea seems to have started with a few not-exactly disinterested police union heads and law enforcement officials, boiled over on a number of conservative blogs and has reverberated with a certain share of the white American public...

Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is really not having a good year. Her candidates, her colleagues, even the friendly media at MSNBC have all turned on her over the strict limitations she has elected to put on the primary cycle's debate schedule. Her response to this criticism has been crystal clear: I will not sanction any additional debates. Then came the Black Lives Matter movement with one simple request: add a racial justice-themed debate to the schedule! Whether this is sincere (and I think it is) or the world's greatest troll remains to be seen; but anyone who has been watching the news cycle over the past few years knows that her response to this request is going to haunt the DNC for a long time. She said no. Of course she said no---she had to. The DNC sent a very nice letter back to the group, saying, "We believe that your organization would be an ideal host for a presidential candidate forum — where all of the Democratic candidates can showcase their ideas and policy positions that will expand opportunity for all, strengthen the middle class and address racism in America... The DNC would be happy to help promote the event."

A Wesleyan University student named Bryan Stascavage who writes for the student paper, the Wesleyan Argus, recently penned an op-ed which was critical of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Since then, all hell has broken loose. Here's a sample of Stascavage's column:
Why Black Lives Matter Isn’t What You Think A 20-year-old man walks into a church and massacres nine people, claiming that he was afraid that America was being taken over by Black Americans, citing American race relations as evidence. About a month later, a man wears a GoPro, tapes himself walking up to a local reporter and a cameraman, and shoots them both on camera, proclaiming racial injustice in this country as his motive. Police officers are looking over their shoulders as several cops have been targeted and gunned down. The week before classes started, seven officers were killed in the line of duty; a few were execution-style targeted killings. An officer I talked to put it succinctly: “If they want to come after me, fine. Just come at me head on. Don’t shoot me in the back of my head. I’d rather go down with a fighting chance.” Is this an atmosphere created by the police officers and racist elements in society itself? Many, including individuals in the Black Lives Matter movement, believe so.

In early September 1972, Palestinian "Black September" terrorists seized the Israeli Olympic team at the Olympic Village in Munich, West Germany. By the time it was over, 11 Israeli athletes and one German policeman would be dead. Before the deadly conclusion, Black September demanded the release of the notorious German "Red Army Faction" terrorists Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhoff as well as 234 prisoners held in Israeli prisons. Included on that list was a name that probably meant little to people outside Israel - Rasmieh Odeh. The name Rasmieh (Rasmea) Odeh meant a lot to Israelis because Rasmea and her co-conspirators were convicted in 1970 of the 1969 bombing of the SuperSol Supermarket in Jerusalem, which killed university students Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner. A second bomb placed in the SuperSol supermarket timed to go off when first responders arrived, was disarmed moments before it was to explode. As I reported when I met the families of Edward and Leon in Israel, the SuperSol bombing was scorched into the memories of Israelis because it was the first major post-1967 attack on Israeli civilians, and the funeral was a national event. Rasmea also was convicted of the attempted bombing of the British Consulate.