The terrorism label applies fluidly to domestic movements, expanding the war on terror’s targets.

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

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The terrorist label flexibly expands to smear domestic dissenters and protesters — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 91; Terrorism labeling expands opportunistically to discredit domestic protest movements; The enemy-combatant label expanded to cover any nearby Muslims. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 1366 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• The flexible terrorist category is repurposed against domestic movements threatening empire #corroborates (0.95)
• The enemy-combatant label expanded to cover any nearby Muslims. #expands (0.78) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 1366