Here’s what a real Black Lives Matter movement would sound like

A recent report on the impact of gun violence on black Americans is yet another reminder that the main problem with Black Lives Matter is its ideology, not its shady financial practices.

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence found that black people account for 61% of firearm homicide victims despite being 14% of the population. Homicide is the leading cause of death for young black men and second leading cause of incarceration among black inmates in state prisons, but BLM has consistently ignored both.

Here are 10 principles that would power a movement that is serious about the value of black lives.

Another fundamental problem with BLM is rarely addressed. A true Black Lives Matter movement would speak to — not about — black people. It would make the case for the value of black life to the people who most need to hear it today.

The slogans and signage of a true BLM movement would have been posted in neighborhoods where young black men are shot and killed by their peers. It would have been drawn in chalk in front of every Planned Parenthood location where black babies are aborted every day.

Here are 10 principles that would power a movement that is serious about the value of black lives.

1. Black people are created in the image of God and therefore have inherent dignity and worth. Like all human beings, our lives matter because of our Creator, not our skin color, income, political views, or history. We will never fully appreciate who we are until we acknowledge whose we are.

2. There are only two sexes: male and female. Switching is not allowed. We believe men and women are equal in dignity and worth but different in form and function. We need one another and refuse to give in to the temptation to vilify each other because of the current condition of our lives, relationships, families, and communities.

3. The family is the most important social unit in every culture, and marriage — one man joined to one woman for one lifetime — is its cornerstone. We reject any attempts to redefine sex or marriage based on political pressure or changing social norms.

4. Children have a right to the affection and protection of the man and woman who created them. The best environment for them to exercise that right is in a loving, low-conflict home with their married biological mother and father. When it comes to family formation, the needs of children should always trump the desires of adults.

5. We refuse to kill our offspring to achieve a twisted definition of “liberation.” We believe children are a gift from God, and we refuse to send them back to Him unopened and destroyed.

6. We do not promote, defend, or excuse any cultural content that glorifies violence between black men, degrades black women, or promotes drug abuse among black youth. The fact that a small number of black people profit from cultural pollution is not a valid excuse for allowing entertainers to promote ideas and lifestyles to our children that they wouldn’t to their own.

7. We honor our past by respecting our elders and refusing to appropriate their struggle for personal or political gain. We also endeavor to spend our time, talent, and treasure building families, communities, and institutions for our descendants.

8. We believe in redemption and mercy, but we refuse to treat criminals who inflict pain on innocent people as an oppressed group. We believe that the victims of violent crime, as well as their families, deserve far more sympathy and media coverage than the people who terrorize their own neighborhoods.

9. Political views are not a litmus test of racial authenticity or communal concern. We refuse to allow political parties to tell us we aren’t really “black” if we don’t vote for them. Like all other American citizens, our involvement in politics should begin with an assessment of our values, principles, and interests, not the candidates on the ballot.

10. We refuse to value the thoughts, words, and deeds of white people more than we value our own. We acknowledge that white people can’t be both the cause of all our problems and the source of our solutions. We reject the notion that carrying ourselves with dignity is an attempt to appeal to the “white gaze.”

It doesn’t take much effort to show how drastically different a true BLM movement would have been from the one founded by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Ayo (Opal) Tometi. Those three women want to destroy the nuclear family and believe black women are divine. They think men can become pregnant but didn’t mention the words “husband” or “father” a single time while talking about black families.

The women who started Black Lives Matter, much like the broader black leadership class, are obsessed with getting validated and affirmed by the people they think really matter. This is why they are typically nowhere to be found at murder scenes in the inner city. Activists in 2020 preferred to spend their time trying to get white diners to raise their fists in solidarity and parrot their slogans.

These acts of performative activism might help assuage the guilt of white liberals and pay for the homes of black radicals, but the black community will never progress as long as we demand that other people value our lives more than we do.