On The Dennis Marks Racist Claim That The Black Lives Matters Movement's Slogan Is "Only Black Lives Matter"

This racist comment concerning the Black Lives Matter movement from the racially-biased blogger Dennis Marks (AKA dmarks).

This started with a post on the Contra O'Reilly blog from fellow racist Willis Hart about the killing of Eric Garner. According to Willis the "fat asthmatic" was (at least partially) to blame for his own death. Then Willis asked "what about the African-American merchants whose rights were being infringed upon by Garner?" (he was taking away their cigarette sales, presumably).

Which prompted the following response from Dennis...

Dennis Marks: ...why bring race into it at all? It's a meme injected into these discussions by the very racist protesters. The ones that argue that only black lives matter. This meme has been at play despite the fact that race wasn't a factor at all in any of these incidents. (12/26/2014 AT 4:15am).

Later, Dennis authored this comment bashing the NAACP.

Dennis Marks: In recent months, the NAACP has embraceed the supremacist slogan that only lives of those of one race matter. (5/23/2015 AT 12:02pm).

That the Black Live Matter movement or NAACP is saying "only lives of those of one race matter" is pure bullshit. This is the racially-biased Dennis interpretation of what they're saying, but the racially-biased Mr. Marks is wrong.

Of course "all lives matter", but the reason the BLM movement (and slogan) exist is because our system is obviously biased against African Americans. According to a 4/8/2015 RawStory article, more African Americans were killed by the police in 2014 than in the 9/11 attacks.

The Rightwing pushback to this (police killing Black people) is to say more Whites than Blacks are killed by the police. A talking point that, of course, Dennis goes with.

Dennis Marks: More whites are killed overall by cops. (8/29/2015 AT 11:59:00 AM EDT).

According to PoltiFact, over the past decade 2,151 Whites and 1,130 Blacks were killed by the police.

However...

Brian Forst, a professor in the Department of Justice, Law and Criminology at American University, said this difference is predictable. "More whites are killed by the police than blacks primarily because whites outnumber blacks in the general population by more than five to one", Forst said. The country is about 63 percent white and 12 percent black. Rather than comparing the raw numbers, you can look at the likelihood that a person will die due to "legal intervention" [statistically. And] When you do that, the numbers flip. A 2002 study in the American Journal of Public Health found that the death rate due to legal intervention was more than three times higher for blacks than for whites in the period from 1988 to 1997. (Police kill more whites than blacks. Response to statement by Conservative pundit Michael Medved. 8/21/2014 Politifact article by Jon Greenberg).

A Black person is 300 percent more likely to be killed by a police officer than a White person, Dennis! Yet Dennis uses the fact that the US is approximately 63 percent White and 12 percent Black to LIE about Blacks being more likely to be shot and killed by the police. He ignores this fact and, instead misrepresents the truth by pointing out that more Whites are shot by cops. Shameful.

But Dennis' "evidence" against the BLM movement doesn't end there! After stating that "All Lives Matter is beautiful" Dennis cites a recent Rasmussen poll that says Black people prefer the term "all lives matter" to "black lives matter". Dennis sez "even black people strongly prefer all lives matter".

Bullshit, Dennis. As it turns out the reason Rasmussen got that response is because they asked the question designed to get the answer they wanted. An answer that discredits the BLM movement. Even Black people don't identify with BLM, is what Dennis is saying (by pointing to the Rasmussen poll).

The Rasmussen flawed question was "yes, black lives matter, but don't all lives matter? That seems to be the subject of some political dispute".

But there is ZERO dispute! NONE. The BLM movement isn't saying that all lives don't matter. But Rasmussen implies that they are. Then they ask which statement is closest to their own views, "Black Lives Matter" or "All Lives Matter". Unsurprisingly, even Black people said "All Lives Matter" (63%).

But notice that Rasmussen didn't ask if the respondent supports the BLM movement. Why? Because (I strongly suspect) there would have been a lot of overlap, in that people could say "all lives matter" but still support BLM.

The Conservative response of "All Lives Matter" is, as David Bedrick points out (in an 8/24/2015 HuffPo article) "a form of willful colorblindness [and] ignorance of America's racist past and present".

This is why Conservatives like Dennis say the BLM movement is "racist" and that "all lives matter" is "beautiful". Racists like Dennis support the status quo and do NOT want anything done to address the VERY REAL problem of the police killing African Americans at a three times greater rate than White Americans.

According to Dennis "we are not clueless here" (he's speaking of people who prefer "all lives matter" over "black lives matter")... but, YES, Dennis is totally clueless. In regards to the BLM movement, and in regards to his own racism.

Turns out that Dennis is the most common type of racist... the one that doesn't realize that he is one.

IMO Dennis Marks absolutely is this kind of racist... one who vehemently denies he is racist, but takes positions that clearly show he is quite racist. His opposition to the BLM movement being just one more example of how racist Dennis is.

Supporting Document
Only Black Lives Matter Ugly Racist Protesters Don't Say, DSD #16.

TADM #80. See also SWTD #311.