The official BlackLivesMatter DC chapter recently tweeted their disappointment in response to a mural stating “Black Lives Matter” painted on the street in front of the White House calling it “counter organizing” to their demands.
“This is performative and a distraction from [Mayor Muriel Bowser’s] active counter organizing to our demands to decrease the police budget and invest in the community. Black Lives Matter means Defund the police,” they replied to a tweet by Rachel Chason, a Washington Post reporter.
This is performative and a distraction from her active counter organizing to our demands to decrease the police budget and invest in the community. Black Lives Matter means Defund the police. @FenitN @wusa9 @ABC7News @IGD_News @news https://t.co/8VUnHOBtsg
— BlackLivesMatter DC (@DMVBlackLives) June 5, 2020
Mayor Bowser, according to NBC4 Washington, renamed the street “Black Lives Matter Plaza” shortly after D.C. Department of Public Works crews and muralists completed the painting, which stretches across 16th Street.
“We want to call attention today to making sure our nation is more fair and more just and that black lives and that black humanity matter in our nation,” Bowser said.
In a reply to a different tweet by New York Times writer Emily Badger, BLM DC called the mural painting a “distraction from real policy changes,” claiming Bowser just wants to “appease white liberals.”
“This is a performative distraction from real policy changes,” they said. “Bowser has consistently been on the wrong side of BLMDC history. This is to appease white liberals while ignoring our demands. Black Lives Matter means defund the police.”
This is a performative distraction from real policy changes. Bowser has consistently been on the wrong side of BLMDC history. This is to appease white liberals while ignoring our demands. Black Lives Matter means defund the police. @emilymbadger say it with us https://t.co/w0ekwSG1ip
— BlackLivesMatter DC (@DMVBlackLives) June 5, 2020
Defunding the police is just one of the demands named by the official Black Lives Matter organization in response to George Floyd’s murder. In addition to their new campaign, #DefundThePolice, BLM also called for “an end to the systemic racism that allows this culture of corruption to go unchecked and our lives to be taken” and “investment in our communities and the resources to ensure Black people not only survive, but thrive.”
Jordan Davidson is an intern for The Federalist and a recent graduate of Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.
https://thefederalist.com/2020/06/05/black-lives-matter-dc-chapter-condemns-mayor-bowsers-blm-mural-as-a-distraction/