Black Lives Matter (or BLM) has risen to be one of America's top deconstructionist postmodern movements. What began as a hashtag, which started after George Zimmerman was acquitted for the killing Trayvon Martin, has now exploded into an international movement. With the help of social media, BLM's influence has extended beyond America's borders into Europe, Canada, Australia and South Africa. Videos and news coverage of BLM protests can be seen constantly streaming from university campuses and cities. BLM has become a large, powerful, media-advertised movement, and has played a substantial role in social justice across the nations.
With its quick burst of popularity has come with a great deal of controversy, Black Lives Matter has been labeled by critics as dangerous, violent and guilty of using intimidation to achieve its goals. Opinions vary on both sides of the political spectrum, and while there is controversy, one of BLM's most enthusiastic supporters has achieved news popularity recently.
Yusra Khogali is a co-founder of BLM. Khogali first hit the news when she tweeted before a protest "Plz Allah give me strength to not cuss/kill these men and white folk out here today. Plz plz plz." Khogali soon deleted this tweet, but not until after it had made headlines. Since that incident on Feb. 9, 2016, Khogali has received a great deal of attention from both critics and supporters in the BLM community.
For Khogali, however, this spark of controversy would not be her last. Recently, she made media spotlight again when critics found a commentary written by her about white and black genetics. Within this commentary was the argument that "Whiteness is not humxness. In fact, white skin is sub-humxn. All phenotypes exist within the black family and white ppl are a genetic defect of blackness." The original commentary can be found in the link, and Khogali goes on to explain how, in her view, it is scientifically factual that whites are inferior to blacks.
What is interesting about Khogali is that, despite having received wrathful criticism from BLM opponents, no followers BLM have gone out of their way to condemn her. There has been no condemnation by other BLM founders of Khogali's statements.
What’s more troubling about this is that many of her statements and beliefs are not foreign to the agenda of BLM. A close study of BLM’s website reveals that Khogali is not a radical within a stable, moderate movement. Instead, she does little to contradict BLM’s agenda.
What exactly are the demands of BLM? There are many, but the most disturbing of BLM's demands involve what the movement states as “reparations”. "Reparations for the wealth extracted from our communities through environmental racism, slavery, food apartheid, housing discrimination and racialized capitalism in the form of corporate and government reparations." This demand seems to have some worth to it, but a quick look at where these "reparations" would go to quickly destroy any sense of goodwill. BLM demands that these funds be placed into "free access and open admissions to public community colleges and universities, technical education (technology, trade and agricultural), educational support programs, retroactive forgiveness of student loans, and support for lifetime learning programs..." which are based entirely on race.
Other demands include the end of privatization of police, and "independent Black political power and Black self-determination." The demands of BLM are radical not only in their demands for power, money, and destruction of law enforcement but because they are all entirely based on black power. All the demands for BLM are for the gain of black individuals. The demands that are fostered by BLM supporters are based on the assertion that there is a "war on black people." This is consistent with Khogali's comments. After Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated he would gladly take in all Muslims not allowed into the U.S. after Trump's election, Khogali commented that Trudeau is a liar, and that the history of Canada is based on the genocide and enslavement of blacks. Khogali, through multiple statements of intimidation and threats, has protested for many of BLM's demands listed on their website.
If Black Lives Matter wishes to have no involvement with Khogali, then all they have to do is decline any affiliation with her. Why this hasn’t happened is clear: she may be a more radical supporter of BLM (BLM fosters no belief in black superiority over whites), but many of her claims are consistent with their ideology. Critics across media platforms have consistently pointed this out, and, of course, with few replies from BLM leaders. What the future of BLM looks like and Khogali's role in it remains unclear, but one thing is certain: it makes sense to assert that Khogali plays an important representation of many of BLM’s demands and worldview.
