Speaking of BLM and parades... Is it true that BLM protesters shut down the Pride Parade for half an hour today?

Here it is 7:12 PM on gay pride day and not a single post about it from a Slog staffer. Not even a silly tweet.

@1: Yes: KING5:

The parade had a few interruptions. A few protesters carrying signs with bible verses and "you are a great sinner" disrupted the pre-parade celebration, but police officers kept things moving. Later, a group of Black Lives Matter protesters sat in the middle of the street at Westlake Park, delaying the parade for about 30 minutes.

BLM getting trolled like a motherfucker. @2 It's a shame they would protest the pride parade and insert their own message into an event that already has such a clear one.

Identity politics canabilizing itself is hard to watch because people that value things like justice and equality agree with the core message of these groups and want to see these virtues enacted. Its gotta happen before a coalition of the reasonable gets fed up with all the "me first" these issues and politics have created and either integrates the values into an inclusive, core message, or expels them to radical themselves out of existence.

Either way or otherwise, it can't happen soon enough. When you're protesting an allies events, you're hurting your cause more than helping.

#BLM...losing support every single day

A sad reality is that the African American community has a very long history of homophobia.

BLM has a knack for interrupting other group's events because they can't accomplish anything on their own. Notice that they never go up against anyone who might challenge them. A lot of help they would have been at the Edmund Pettus Bridge (or at an ACT-UP protest, for that matter). But they take the gold in the Oppression Olympics.

Make no mistake, I support the idea behind Black Lives Matter. But I think BLM is full of shit. And I thought that long before they decided to throw a glamor fit at the pride parade.

And it's not as if BLM didn't already have a presence in the parade, both as organized groups and as individuals marching with other groups holding BLM placards. The sad thing is that by the end of the so-called 30 minutes of silence, many onlookers had already begun to leave the parade route, robbing the remaining two-thirds of the marchers of their audience. BLM usurps the free speech rights of others to impose their own speech upon a captive crowd. Such arrogance will not win them friends.

You all need to do your research before making comments. The group that interrupted corporate pride to hold space for black lives and honor Charleenna Lyles was QUEER and TRANS people. Pride belongs to black folks as much as anyone else. Also if you're straight and whining about this, so not your place. Also this puppet is a disgusting display of seattle racism and putting a blk sign with it is horribly gross and mocking.

I was at Westlake when shit went sideways.
The moment of silence was moving.
Powerful.
It should have ended there.
We were all together.
Then the 30-minute decree was called and everyone ducked into the shade to wait out the bullshit speeches. It became a nuisance. THIS is why the left can't get anything done. Everybody wants to be heard. And the spectators just rolled their eyes.
A lady and her kid walked south to see what was happening. She said everyone there assumed it was bigots stopping the parade. We had to tell her "No, they're on our side, but....

"The group that interrupted corporate pride to hold space for black lives and honor Charleenna Lyles was QUEER and TRANS people. "

Oh, my stars and garters, there's CORPORATE influence at the Pride Parade? Here, all these years I thought those people marching under the banner of Alaska Airlines or Key Bank were just employees of those companies, and that there were certainly were no QUEER and TRANS people among them. Thanks for clearing that up. It's amazing that the issue of corporate sponsorship has never come up in a Pride Parade before. How clever of you to notice it!

"Pride belongs to black folks as much as anyone else."

Agreed! See, isn't it nice when we all agree???

"Also if you're straight and whining about this, so not your place."

What is the defining line for "straight" these days? and what is the definition of "whining"? Who here among the commenters is straight, and how do you know this? Was there some sort of medical test? And how nice it is of you to be able to tell anyone what their "place" is.

"Also this puppet is a disgusting display of seattle racism and putting a blk sign with it is horribly gross and mocking."

I agree that it is is disgusting, but what is special about Seattle racism? Is it a puppet-centric thing, or was it the sign?

@2, I loved that everyone saw those guys with the Jesus signs, and everybody just ignored them. I watched them get bored and move on when they didn't get a response. Perfect.

Does this fellow Ryan show a lack of seriousness by taking a snapshot instead of dumpstering the thing? Does Charles show a lack of seriousness by not taking directed action to get it removed?

Can a puppet really hold a sign?

First of all why are all you anti-BLM commentators acting like there is a central authority that plans every BLM event and dispatches volunteers like they were employee assets? What a group of people decided to do and in what name they chose to do it does not somehow make the the entire movement responsible for what you see as a bad choice. Instead of making sweeping statements about BLM as if it was some entity that made the decision to protest at the parade, why don't you instead address the comments to the people who decided to do it by referencing the protesters instead of the movement. Furthermore, as was pointed out already, there were a number of "interruptions" yet it doesn't seem like anyone is commenting on those--especially the clearly religious or otherwise homophobic themed protesters. Lastly, unless you spoke to the protesters, then don't make any assumptions why there were there or whether the parade was the appropriate venue for their demonstration. The whole point behind BLM is to bring to light the specific issues affecting that community and how the rest of us ignore it and sweep it under the rug. So instead of bitching about their protesting, recognize why they did it and what you can do to help so that way they don't have a reason to protest anymore.

And do you think the fact the stranger posts an article about a racist puppet that is clearly NOT OKAY, yet everyone uses this space to comment on how they think BLM did something bad proof of the systemic racism inherent in our society? Perhaps the fact everyone jumped to bitching about BLM and dismissing whether they have a valid issue and wondering how you can help not demonstrate there is clearly a need for this movement? I don'really see any comments on here outraged about the puppet. Instead I just see a bunch of people bitching about an anti-racism movement on a post about racism directed at the black community. Yeah, I'm unsure how people still claim BLM doesn't have a valid reason to exist.

Thank god Mudede is here to always be on the scene of breaking puppet related news.

I guess it is fitting that he is on the Sesame Street beat.

@16,17: Many minority groups have trouble getting their voices heard in America due to our focus on black/white and nothing else. BLM's habit of interrupting other group's messages to forcibly insert their own is a symptom of this long history, and people have every right to be tired of having their events and messages hijacked.

Maybe you should check your privilege and wonder why you think the message YOU want broadcasted should supersede all others.

"Maybe you should check your privilege and wonder why you think the message YOU want broadcasted should supersede all others."

Manipulative phrasing, to be sure, but maybe because that's what the post is about.

@18 Sesame Street has muppets, NOT puppets.

You fucking muppetphobe!!!

Oh.. I'm sure that #BLM will shut down the SeaFair Parade too....right?

@20: Someone needs to brush up on their taxonomy.

Clearly "Puppet" is the Genus, and "Muppet" is the Species, both under the Family of "Animated Object."

@22 - Which all inherit from type Object.

@16, BLM has a central authority, official chapters, and structured personnel such as treasurers.

http://blacklivesmatter.com/who-we-are/

@24: If that's the case, nothing on the website supplies that information.

@24:

We've been through all this with you before. You lost the argument that time too, if you recall. And from what I can see on that web site, nothing has changed since then.

As for the protest yesterday, once we found out why we weren't moving, everyone in my vicinity seemed okay with it. And it didn't seem like anyone took the action as a protest AGAINST the parade, its organizers, sponsors, or participants. it was simply a direct action undertaken by BLM when there was an opportunity to be present in the media and to roughly 200,000 fellow citizens, most of whom I would presume recognized the validity of their grievances. They made their statement, we got out of the sun, and otherwise things went pretty smoothly all-around.

what @16/17 said. What a huge fake-progressive circlejerk this place has become.

@1 yes it is true BLM shut down ( for 30 min ) the Toronto Pride parade a year ago 2016. They participated without shutting down the parade this year.

@9
I wouldn't call Seattle racism "special". Just different.
If you don't know what I mean, check out this old Seattle restaurant and club.
http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/coon_…
They even had delivery.

There's such a profound overlap between the people tut-tutting BLM and the people who fervently supported Hillary. They're also all middle/upper middle class white people who have their gay marriage and legal weed and seem to have stopped caring.

Adam dear, I didn't call Seattle racism "special". Our Dear owlwingsfemme did.

Seattle racism was, and is, essentially midwestern racism with more anti-Asian sentiment added into the mix. There's nothing special about it. It's a little less overt than Minneapolis, Chicago or Omaha, for example, but that's about it.

And, unfortunately, establishments like Coon Chicken were not at all unique to Seattle.

@17. Have you not seen the other blog posts and comment sections concerning this God damn puppet? There's 2? Possibly 3? Too tired to actually check.

Yeah it's foul. That's been established. Unacceptable. Most definitely. Symptomatic of an even deeper racism still lurking in seattle's collective psyche. That charge was leveled as well.

People just have outrage fatigue on this one. So they picked something else to be outraged about to freshen the pot. That's where the sit in by BLM at pride and the lack of the strangers coverage on it came to the rescue.

@26, you already humiliated yourself with your lack of BLM knowledge. If the website doesn't change your mind you either didn't scroll to the bottom of the page or you're intentionally being obtuse.

@33:

The disclaimer at the bottom of the page does nothing to refute or otherwise negate the FACT that BLM is not run by a central organizing authority, and that its chapters are self-identifying, self-actualizing, and completely autonomous from any oversight, as has been stated by the movement's founders on numerous occasions. Just because you BELIEVE it's otherwise, doesn't make it so.

For a clearer understanding of BLM's non-centralized structure, I would refer you to Matt Pierce's excellent 2015 breakdown in the Los Angeles Times.

@34, your tired "Nuh uh!" is evidence of nothing. As far as autonomy levels of each chapter is concerned, elsewhere on the official site that is addressed. You really are just being intentionally obtuse at this point. Cherry picking media outlets is pretty pathetic.

http://blacklivesmatter.com/find-chapter…

@35:

Yes, the site lists chapters; chapters created and run by individuals in those cities without any direct interaction from the founders of BLM, who very clearly state (among other places, in the disclaimer on the very page to which you link) they don't set the rules for what constitutes a chapter, nor do they impose any kind of internal structure or policy vis-a-vis how a chapter is run, how it conducts actions, or who may join. So If you won't take their own words (additionally, see the link in my previous comment) then really, there's nothing more to discuss, because it's pretty apparent that your desperate need to prove a point literally no one else disputes is the veritable definition of "obtuse", not to mention a textbook example of psychological projection.

I love how the statement is steeped in irony: the two ideas crashing into each other. Like two waves creating one larger wave; I find the contrast strengthens the "Black Lives Matter" message.

@36, you come across as illiterate. The disclaimer clearly states that BLM chapters have autonomy only in membership practices and individual participation levels. That's it. Your claim of no direct information from the founders is demonstrably false, as the official website directs messages to each chapter (forcing interaction). They also clearly set rules for each chapter, as there is a list of official chapters (no rules would mean there would be no such thing as an official chapter). They clearly mandate an internal structure for the same reasons.

Your link to an LA Times article does not Trump BLM's own words about themselves. Your argumentum ad populum is a logical fallacy. Have you ever spoken to a member of BLM, or are you talking out your backside?

@ ALL BITCHING ABOUT BLM: The revolution will be inconvenient. Fucking deal with it. Maybe when we see tens of thousands of people on the sidelines for BLM marches or maybe when we see more people marching for a group to which they do not belong, we'll feel we've achieved a small goal. I'm white and straight and I march for all others because my group is pretty well spoken for. I fight for the people who are still being beaten down, killed and incarcerated because few have the wherewithal to fight for themselves. I was in the courtroom when SEXUAL ORIENTATION was being added to the Bill of Rights and I marched in the streets of Atlanta against the KKK and for adding MLK to the calendar as a national holiday. If you are only concerned with your own people, only standing up when YOU feel offended or oppressed, when YOUR GROUP needs attention, well, shut the fuck up. If you have to wait A WHOLE 30 MINUTES for people to remind you that after 300 fucking years, they're still having to interrupt your day to make a point that is obviosly not being heard, you're group is doing pretty fucking good. Next time... move through your selfishness and learn to accept that THIS IS HOW IT'S GOING TO BE for as long as black people are being murdered by our police. Want to talk INCONVENIENT?

@38:

Again, we've been over this with you several times already, and you keep insisting your "interpretation" is tantamount to actuality when there is literally no evidence, statement, policy, or procedure you can point to to back up your spurious assertion, and which (as must also be pointed out - again) is in direct contradiction to statements made by BLM's founders, who have very publicly and very consistently pointed out they DO NOT LEAD OR DIRECT THE MOVEMENT. They believe everyone involved is a leader, hence their use of the term "leaderfull", which is a core principal of BLM. In point of fact, it is the decentralization of BLM into independent, autonomous groups (AKA "chapters") that makes them unique in the social justice milieu; all of has been reported on occasions too numerous to mention. In short: the chapters exist because people in those particular cities created them on their own initiative, setting their own rules for conduct and membership, and directing their actions based on their own mandate, with no imposition of structure or authority from above; their listing on the BLM web site is a simple acknowledgement of their existence, nothing more.

I don't know why you feel so irrationally compelled to continue clutching to this as if your very life depended on it, but I can only surmise you must derive some sort of self-gratification over flogging this particular dead horse, so I guess we'll just leave you to pulverizing this one into red mist.

@39
The "revolution" will be "inconvenient."

Bu-ha-ha-hahahahahaha...

The 'revolution' is an intermittent temper tantrum. And the soft, doughy kids out front, plump from the bounties of capitalism, rested by casualness of campus, and comforted by community through previously un-dream-able technologies, certainly aren't doing anything (meaningful) to inconvenience anyone.

The system they're trying to 'tear-down' -- while imperfect -- generally provides more certainty, justice, opportunity, safety, care, food, space and knowledge than any, in sum, throughout the history of humankind.

@41, just because

"Please note that #BlackLivesMatter is a network predicated on Black self-determination, and BLM Chapters reserve the right to limit participation based on this principle.
Please be aware that BLM Chapters have varying membership policies, and may or may not be accepting new members at this time. Also note that membership requirements vary by chapter."

is somehow incomprehensible to you does not mean it is magically not evidence. You're digging your oubliette sized pit even deeper. Please educate yourself before embarrassing yourself even further.

You've never spoken to a member of BLM, have you? This is all pulled out of thin air for you, isn't it? Admitting the truth is the first step to unlearning your bad behavior.

I'm irrationally compelled? You're talking sideways about things you know nothing of. Talk to an actual BLM member before you continue to play your "I know better than POCs!" line. It's tired, and quite frankly racist.

@41, your "article" has no quotes from any BKM Founders, and actually talks about groups being not officially affiliated with BLM. Your own proof disagrees with you.

Pride is literally a commemoration of people saying no to being oppressed by the police.

39: read 42's fantastic comment then take several seats

Oh I don't know...maybe people aren't perfect, but they *do* know they're tired of being afraid all the time and sh*t on by everybody?

And seriously...to the folks arguing that contemporary social dynamics are somehow "better" than historical ones, well...you're quite simply ignorant. And I can't help but surmise you have average analytical skills (at best). Things can *always* be better. People should *always* strive for better. That's called progress.

Decent human beings don't stop at "good enough".

That's why in my tribes language, some groups aren't described as "humans". They're described as the "greedy/entitled/bad ones". They don't care about progress; they care about power and self-gratification at others cost. In fact, they build and promote entire philosophical ideals around master/slave dynamics, convincing themselves this is the "natural" way of the world.

So primitive...

If you think being LGBT erases implicit bias towards blacks (or other groups) let this Native tell you something; all of you (americans) are more petty and divisive than you're probably even capable of realizing. All of you. Because you're all supposedly unique "individuals", intent on preserving your "individual" identities.

I can promise you, individuality is not the way *my* people continuously survive the BS the rest of you throw at us constantly. Black folks are more than welcome to come have their say at our public events; So long as they let the elders speak first, they'd get all the floor time they need to speak their truths and vent their hurts.

Because that's how true allies work...

So a parade got delayed for a half hour.

Let's just all use it as an excuse to let our inner bigot shine!!

Because you know, raising awareness for uncomfortable realities can *only* ever be done the exact way oppressors prefer...

"First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;" who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season."

Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."

...

MLK

Oh, to be young and idealistic again. Every generation thinks they are going to be the revolutionaries that change everything, but it never works out that way. We get bogged down by things like mortgages and car payments, marriages and careers, children and creature comforts, until finally there comes the beckoning fingers of disease and death that we all succumb to eventually. And it is only in death that we find true equality, because we're all equally dead.

You want to change the world? Start by acknowledging that there is no utopia, and no instant solution. Stop using academic jargon and polemics that you may not fully understand, and accept that it's not about you. Civil disobedience, while fun and attention getting, is only part of the work it takes to affect real change.

BLM can disrupt Bernie Sanders rallies and Seattle City Council meetings and gay pride parades until the cows come home (The parade is notoriously unorganized, so there's a lot of people who probably have no idea that the protest happened) but if they really want to "afflict the comfortable" they've got to move beyond the comfort zone of the Seattle liberal establishment, just like we all move out of mom and dad's house eventually.