OPINION

Don't bend the knee to the BLM

Kallie Kriel says those who stand tall will find that they are not alone

Stand tall against intimidation to bend the knee before the #BLM

How is it possible that a relatively small group of radical leftists could succeed in convincing even people who should know better to go out of their way in bending the knee before the #BLM’s outspoken Marxist agenda? An agenda that persistently aims to undermine family values, social institutions and Western culture and history?

Although black lives do indeed matter, facts prove that the majority of black lives do not really matter to the #BLM movement. Why else would #BLM keep quiet about the vast majority of murders on black people, i.e. those committed by other black people? They focus only on a very small minority of murders on black people, namely those committed by white people. The agenda behind this is for the #BLM movement to achieve their goal of subjugating communities with a Western culture by labelling white people as scapegoats and making them feel guilty.

The leftists currently succeed in getting people to bend the knee by creating the illusion that their viewpoints represent the all-absorbing public opinion, one that everyone should buy into. They succeed in this by using intolerant and intimidating strategies to falsely label anyone who dare think differently from them as racists and villians, declaring them personae non gratae. For this reason, we even see certain sport heroes floating like dead fish downstream towards the waterfall from fear of being 'cancelled' out of society; trying to protect their own positions.

The leftists’ fixing of the public agenda is made possible by the fact that they dominate the media – quite disproportionate to their numbers. Think of how you have to listen ad nauseam to the same few leftist voices. Winston Churchill did not warn for nothing that one should not mistake published opinions with public opinion.

When leftists continuously say or write the same things in the media, it surely does not mean that this what everyone thinks. And if leftists label you and try to 'cancel' you, it surely does not mean that you are alone. For example, the harder this relatively small group of leftist people has tried to falsely label AfriForum as racist, the faster our support grew. The fact that literally hundreds of black people – despite these misplaced attacks – have already approached AfriForum for help, shows that reasonable people do not fall for the leftists’ intolerance and misrepresentations.

Given the above, it is easier than what many people think to oppose the leftist fixing of the public agenda and their intimidation strategies. Each of us have a role to play – you can help in the following ways.

Stand tall and without fear, because you are not alone

The leftist media and political elite’s only power lies in people’s fear of being marginalised. This fear is based on an illusion, because there is a fast-growing critical number of people who no longer succumb to threadbare intimidation strategies and the 'cancel culture' of the left. You can fearlessly stand tall without being an outsider, because there is a sea of people who feel the same way. You are definitely not alone.

Maintain the moral high ground and promote mutual respect and recognition

The #BLM movement’s racist agenda cannot and must not be opposed by a racist counter-agenda. The right thing to do is to oppose #BLM’s polarising actions by consistently promoting mutual recognition and respect between communities. Self-respect is a prerequisite for mutual respect.

By respecting ourselves, we may and should therefore refuse to bend the knee before those who want to subject us and our descendants to their leftist agenda. Self-respect also offers us a healthy base from which to treat people from all communities with respect. If you do not expect people to bend the knee before you, there is no reason why you should bend the knee before anyone else.

Know the facts – facts are victorious

Leftist radicals do not hesitate to make misrepresentations to create feelings of guilt in Western communities. It is therefore important to assure yourself of the facts to be able to stand your ground in the public debate.

Some opinion shapers, for example, try to ridicule people who point to the #BLM’s Marxist agenda as being obsessed with the “rooi gevaar" (red danger). Rather than falling for this, familiarise yourself of the #BLM’s own documents – these clearly show their agenda to be anything but noble.

The #BLM is very selective in terms of murder statistics. They do this to create the impression that police violence and white people are the greatest threats to black lives. In the US, Dr Regina Nuzzo, a statistician from the American Statistical Association, was quoted recently by Reuters as saying that the chance for a black person to be murdered by another black person is about 56 in one million; against this, a black person’s chance to be killed by a white person is but five in a million.

By remaining silent on this, #BLM is saying that not all black lives matter. Truth is: The violence, murder and plundering which accompany many #BLM demonstrations show that no-one and nothing matters for #BLM except their own ideology.

According to the Washington Post, 14 black and 25 white unarmed people were shot dead by police in 2019. Although it may seem at face value that a black person’s chances – proportionate to their population figures – of being shot dead by the police is greater, research by Prof. Roland Fryer – a black academic from Harvard – tells a different story. He found that, in cases where it is acceptable for the police to use deadly violence, the chance for a black person to be shot is 24,2% smaller compared to people who are not black.

The perception that black people are being killed disproportionately by white people is not based on fact but is by and large the result of the selective reporting on murders. In South Africa the few white-on-black cases of violence on farms receive on average 16 times more exposure than black-on-white cases. For example, three cases in which white people were the accused received more media coverage than 150 farm murders committed by black people received in total.

Build a better future with self-confidence

Any community that loses self-confidence is on the road to ruin. It is for this reason that we should build a better future for us and our descendants with diligence and self-confidence, despite #BLM’s attempts to create feelings of guilt. This can be achieved by protecting the same value-driven community institutions which #BLM so desperately wants to destroy, and establishing these even stronger in our local communities.

We can, despite what happens on national and international level, strengthen local communities by developing our churches, schools, neighbourhood watches, social institutions, community businesses, clubs and healthy community living. Our communities are our lifeboats in these tempestuous times.

This is why AfriForum and the Solidarity Movement will strengthen our communities on an even larger scale through our anchor community strategy, which we are developing further. We invite you to stand tall and stand together with self-confidence to help us reach this ideal.