“One could not imagine a group of armed black men taking over an unoccupied federal building in our of nation’s cities as they have in Oregon,” said Maryland’s U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Donna Edwards.
Really though, one could imagine this. One should. Here’s how I’m visualizing it would go over. After the next questionable (a polite word, at best) shooting of an unarmed young black man—there’s probably one happening right now, only with no iPhone nearby—a group of Black Lives Matter protesters would unite to stop traffic, disrupt commerce, and march to raise awareness of civil-rights abuses. Some of them would go further by arming themselves and taking over a government building. And of course, they’d be denounced as thugs and criminals.
Would they be criminals? Probably. They’re breaking laws. That’s what criminals do. Would they be thugs? I don’t know. I’m not sure what you call demonstrators who’d wield weapons to advance their cause, no matter how just that cause may be.
What I do know is that were white men to behave similarly, many would call them “armed militia” or “occupiers.” I know this because that is exactly what is happening in Oregon’s Melheur Wildlife Refuge. A small bunch of anti-government white men are so upset that two local ranchers were convicted of arson that they decided to whip out their rifles to occupy a federal building.
All of which likely led Edwards to point out, “Our nation’s press has a long history of shining a light on tough truths and asking tough questions. At this moment, the media have a responsibility to avoid language that paints these armed militants in a positive light. They are breaking the law.”
Meanwhile, Edwards isn’t the only one drawing parallels between the Oregon militants and Black Lives Matter. A man who claimed to be a bodyguard for members of the anti-government thugs—yes, that—in Oregon claimed that his group is being treated worse than Black Lives Matters protesters.
Are you scratching your head?
“The Black Lives Matter movement, they can go and protest, close freeways down and all that stuff, and they don’t get any backlash, not on the level that we’re getting,” said “Fluffy Unicorn,” as he identified himself.
The reality is that the law enforcement is practically ignoring Unicorn and his compatriots. On the other hand, the National Guard and policemen have at times forcefully clashed with Black Lives Matters demonstrators. So yes, a double standard exists. It’s just not the one that Unicorn has in mind.
But the main point here is not to compare which group is treated worse, or even which has nobler aims. Rather, it’s to make all of us pause to ponder the words that we ascribe to various groups. Labels matter.
