Terrorism labeling expands opportunistically to discredit domestic protest movements

Evidence

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) hashtag and movement, begun in 2013 after the murder of Trayvon Martin, has been called “terrorist.” In her book When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir, BLM co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors outlines not only how the rhetoric of terrorism is used to discredit the Movement for Black Lives but also how it normalizes violence against black and brown people. Terrorism as a category is fluid and opportunistic and can be expanded to include new and emerging threats. In the context of the mass multiracial BLM uprisings against police violence in the summer of 2020, Trump declared his intention to designate the anti-fascist political movement Antifa as a terrorist organization. This should not surprise anyone since measures used to control Communists and later the New Left, anti-war, and civil rights activists like COINTELPRO were applied to Arab Americans and later Iranian Americans. The McCarran–Walter Act originally designed to target leftists was expanded to include supporters of Palestinian rights. Whether during the Cold War and the “red scare” or the war on terror and the ”green scare,” the imperial state is ever vigilant, seeking to quell insurgency before it can threaten the system. Those seeking justice and equity have nothing to gain from supporting the war on terror. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 643 (#expands, via linked claim)

The BLM protests, for whites observing from afar with fear, embodied that very sword. This is why they, and their mouthpieces in mainstream media, castigated the protesters as “looters” and “thugs” and “terrorists,” seeking to strip the legitimacy of their grievances with the dulling edge of the sword they had swung for so long. But what unfolded in Minneapolis and other cities across the world was no sword seeking retribution or vengeance. … What unfolded in the summer of 2020 after Floyd’s murder was indeed a new season. Whites, in fact, marched alongside protestors of all hues who were collectively conspiring to erode the most harmful invention of its era, white supremacy. And once and for all, to topple it, like they did the statues erected to glorify its myth and the misery it spread. — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1142 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

In the context of the mass multiracial BLM uprisings against police violence in the summer of 2020, Trump declared his intention to designate the anti-fascist political movement Antifa as a terrorist organization. This should not surprise anyone since measures used to control Communists and later the New Left, anti-war, and civil rights activists like COINTELPRO were applied to Arab Americans and later Iranian Americans. The McCarran–Walter Act originally designed to target leftists was expanded to include supporters of Palestinian rights. Whether during the Cold War and the “red scare” or the war on terror and the “green scare,” the imperial state is ever vigilant, seeking to quell insurgency before it can threaten the system. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 643 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Lawmakers and the public label any non-accepted protest as violent — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2596; The terrorist label flexibly expands to smear domestic dissenters and protesters — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 91; Labeling BLM protesters terrorists is a weapon to strip legitimacy from grievances — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1142 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Labeling BLM protesters terrorists is a weapon to strip legitimacy from grievances #exemplifies (0.95) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1142
• The terrorism label applies fluidly to domestic movements, expanding the war on terror’s targets. #expands (0.95) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 643
• The terrorism label is a trans-ideological tool for suppressing dissent, not Muslim-specific #expands (0.90) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 643
• Anti-war activism was prosecuted as material support for terrorism #exemplifies (0.90)
• Terrorism labeling follows political allegiance, not acts of violence #expands (0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 413
• Clash rhetoric shifted domestic targeting to suppress pro-Palestinian activism #exemplifies (0.85) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 704