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‘Is that BS for real?’: Twitter reacts to Black Lives Matter’s nomination for Nobel peace prize

January 30, 2021 | | Print Article
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The nomination of the Black Lives Matter movement for a Nobel Peace Prize by a Norwegian lawmaker has led to a swift, negative response online.

In making the nomination, Norwegian MP Petter Eide claimed that the movement caused other countries besides the United States to confront alleged racism within their societies, The Guardian reported.



“I find that one of the key challenges we have seen in America, but also in Europe and Asia, is the kind of increasing conflict based on inequality,” Eide told the outlet. “Black Lives Matter has become a very important worldwide movement to fight racial injustice.

“They have had a tremendous achievement in raising global awareness and consciousness about racial injustice,” he added.

The parliamentarian said the BLM movement has “been able to mobilize people from all groups of society, not just African-Americans, not just oppressed people, it has been a broad movement, in a way which has been different from their predecessors.”

The movement itself was co-founded in 2013 by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi in response to the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Florida.

Garza has denounced the uniquely American economic system of capitalism and called for it to be abolished because she said it oppresses blacks. Cullors, meanwhile, has said she and Garza are “trained Marxists,” a political ideology that is often associated with authoritarian regimes.

Much of the reaction online to the nomination was a mixture of disbelief and outrage.

Many also point to statements made by BLM activists who have specifically called for violence in order to effect political change, which is the general definition of terrorism.

In June, the president of the Greater New York Black Lives Matter chapter, Hawk Newsome, told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum “if this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system.”

After the host challenged him to explain his statement, Newsome responded: “I said if this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it. I could be speaking figuratively. I could be speaking literally. It’s a matter of interpretation.”

The following month, Portland-based Tai Carpenter told supporters during a rally in the city, “There is no such thing as a f**king peaceful protest.”

“Black Lives Matter: F**k the peaceful protests! There’s no such thing as a f**king peaceful protest! That is an exercise in ‘All Lives Matter’ bulls**t! There is no peaceful protest! We don’t need more than statements! We need f**king change!” Carpenter yelled.

BLM advocates have also called for defunding and eliminating police departments, which many believe will lead to societal collapse.

In his interview with The Guardian, Eide said he did not want his nomination to be viewed as political in nature. He also pushed back against people who pointed out an obvious truth: That much of the violence, rioting, and destruction committed in major cities around the U.S. most of last year were linked to BLM activists.

“Studies have shown that most of the demonstrations organized by Black Lives Matter have been peaceful,” he said. “Of course there have been incidents, but most of them have been caused by the activities of either the police or counter-protestors.”

In fact, according to an analysis by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), hundreds of riots featuring BLM activists were violent last year, causing billions in damages, some estimate, as well as dozens of deaths.

“Buried inside the ACLED report, as enterprising journalist Joy Pullmann of the Federalist discovered, are numbers indicating that ‘of the 633 incidents coded [by the ACLED authors] as riots, 88 percent are recorded as involving Black Lives Matter activists. Data for 51 incidents lack information about the perpetrators’ identities. BLM activists were involved in 95 percent of the riots for which there is information about the perpetrators’ affiliation,” Heritage Foundation senior fellow Mike Gonzales wrote in November.

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Jon Dougherty
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