Black Lies Matter
I ain’t trying to hold you family, but we gotta rap real quick. This is between me and you. And by you, I mean chapter members, so called “global members,” grassroots activists and organizers, and every Black supporter out there.
Are y’all going to continue to let them play y’all like this? I’ve read every statement, press release, article, and Twitter thread about what they (BLM Leadership) are doing to y’all at the bottom. We stopped having that problem years ago here in Ferguson. Shoutout to Mike Hassell, Chrystal, and King D Seals (rip) for banning them and the devil in a blue vest from the city. We decided a long time ago we couldn’t allow them to do our local movement like that. Let me break it down for you, and you let me know if this sounds familiar.
Police kill somebody. We organize the response. You look on the news and it says big as day: “Black Lives Matter” marches in *insert city here. Our response every time was IKYFL. And if that wasn’t it, then you (supporters) probably received a text or email saying “we are in the streets, so support us.” We!? They weren’t even out there. They get that bag. Just like Debo, rest in peace Tiny Lester, they tell the local chapters: “let me hold the bag for BLM, and when you need to use it, just hit us up.” And when it’s time to get yo bike back, well…, I mean you can’t even call your leaders on the phone family. One is laid up with a non Black person, the other is hobnobbing with Hollywood, while the last one is trying to get the stench of living a lie for years off them.
Oh that’s right, we are in a movement with no leaders. I hate to break it to you, but that just means all responsibility goes to the people, and all the fame goes to them. Is this movement a leaderfull one or just leading fools? BLM’s secret leadership got Big Colonizer Energy!
They came here first on that same Shell non-profit stuff. Like Nas was talking about in “Ether,” is it Black Lives Matter, is it the Movement For Black Lives or is it the Global Foundation? These are just a few of the many satellites they go by, but all of them report to them. This is a classic Wizard of Oz type story. BLM makes their supporters believe that BLM is this vast multi faceted movement. Why? Not to just get every bag possible, but so they could become the new gatekeepers to all the negro philanthropic money. They do this while the real ones are holding this whole thing up. If, or better yet, when y’all leave their House of Cards, it’s a wrap; but I think y’all starting to figure this out already.
We can’t let the “not so talented tenth” do our movement like this for another second. That’s why I propose everyone leave it altogether.
I know what you’re thinking too: “But wHat abOuT thE naMe wE bUiLt aNd alL tHe woRk wE’Ve dOne?”
To the people, everything and everybody associated with BLM looks faker than a $3 bill. Like a Rolex that ticks, you can hear the phony in BLM from a mile away. And I ask, do you really want to willingly be associated with them knowing all this? Does that little name mean more to you than the love of the people?
Leave that funky name right there and go build the very thing you know will get us free. A real grassroots Black Movement. Leave them over there begging they daddy for a White House invitation. I mean Black Lives Matter ain’t even a hot name. It’s a five at best. It was cool in the beginning, but we all know that Black Lives Matter was the beginning of a sentence that must end in Black Liberation.
Remember the spirit of Ferguson gave birth to this movement. Ferguson gave BLM life. Some of you came to Ferguson and felt that energy. But I’m here to tell you, that spirit that moved you to join the struggle was already inside you. All we did was awaken it. Just like I did in 2016, the time has come to leave BLM as a philosophy, organizing structure and movement, for something that cultivates that energy for good. Now is the time for all of us to join forces and give that life, love and revolutionary spirit to the people in a new and fulfilling way. In a new global Black Liberation Movement that works from the bottom up.
For me that was joining/creating a new organization, The International Black Freedom Alliance. We are working on creating that global Black Freedom Movement with brothers and sisters from all over: North America, the Caribbean, Africa and beyond. We out here. From hoods to universities, to breakfast programs and protests. If it produces Black Love, Black Unity, and Black Power, we are organizing it.
We are guided by this philosophy, theory without practice is empty and we don’t want to be empty negroes.
And always remember that your big brother from Ferguson where it all started is just a call or dm away.
Peace
Tory Russell was a lead organizer of the Ferguson Rebellion, former founding member of the Black Lives Matter Policy and Strategy team and currently serves as the Mission Director of TheIBFA.org. A global organization dedicated to bring forth freedom for Black people in our lifetime. This is an excerpt from his upcoming book Ferguson Taught Me: Lessons from a 21st Century Black Uprising