The Progressives have painted themselves in a corner with the #BlackLivesMatter rhetoric.  I speak both of the sponsors like Soros, who have funded and supported the movement, and the true believers who are convinced that police are hunting down black males. 

The problem is that the counter-slogan, “all lives matter,” makes perfect sense and strikes everyone but a fanatic as a reasonable position.  It is “inclusive,” and that is the primary virtue preached by the left these days, usually meaning accepting someone who is not qualified into a responsible role.

One example of how not to persuade the public is supplied by a Canadian academic, Naila Keleta-Mae, whose scholarly specialty is described as “researches race, gender and performance.”  The good professor does not concede any goodwill or gray area to those who disagree with her:

Let’s be clear, “all lives matter” is a false claim that can only be made if you actively choose to ignore that anti-black racism has and continues to exist in the United States of America.

False.  Not mistaken.

Because racism.

What is most interesting, and unintentionally so by the author, is the history of the use of the hastage #BlackLivesMatter.  It turns out to have been created and then subsequently popularized by two incidents in which a false racial narrative was created and reinforced by the media.  The cases are the deaths of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla. and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.  In both cases, an angelic portrait of the deceased was created and propagated, as was a storyline of a racist killing an innocent youngster.  In neither case did the narrative withstand scrutiny from the judicial system and conservative publications.  But the good professor either does not know the facts or chooses to ignore them.

For those completely immersed in a psychology of victimization, no daylight can wash away the shadows.