I view "black lives matter" and "BLM" separately for several reasons.
For one thing, BLM the trademarked organization only popped up in 2013, that's nine years ago.
The CONCEPT that "black lives matter" is four hundred years old, so who really believes that Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tameti really INVENTED anything at all?
Of COURSE the hashtag #blacklivesmatter resonated...why wouldn't it?
I don't believe that the movement that says that black lives matter only began in 2013 when a "trained marxist" saw the Trayvon Martin story on the news in a bar in Oakland.
I think it started a few hundred years earlier and I think it's been ever-present in the lives of generations of people from all corners of the political spectrum, Left, Right, and in between.
And I don't think 95% of the people who gather together to MARCH and PROTEST in the name of equality know or care about marxism.
They're not there for Karl Marx, they're there to protest inequality and bigotry.
Likewise when I HEAR the slogan "Defund the Police" I instinctively understand the true meaning of the phrase and I "get" that it means
that we MUST rethink how law enforcement does their jobs.
But after forty years in the film and TV industry it is difficult for me to IGNORE the MARKETING aspects of how images and slogans get interpreted
by the general public.
I made a living making compelling images on screen, which means I had to LEARN HOW to SELL the ideas on the screen to viewers.
When you sell an electronic dog collar to pet owners, you don't say that you're selling a battery operated electroshock unit, you
say that you're selling a device that enhances your dog's safety, yes?
Likewise, when you want to SELL the idea of police reform, you don't spew out phrases that sound like "let's get RID OF police"....
which IS what "Defund the Police" SOUNDS like to too many ears.
And instead of blaming the people who hear these defective slogans, try thinking about the shit job of selling you're doing by insisting
YOU are right and MILLIONS of other people are wrong.
You will not have any luck telling millions of people THEY ARE WRONG.
That's self evident by the mere fact that millions of people still think Trump is a successful businessman and not a con artist.