ANTIFA Is A Sad Joke; Portland’s Black BLM Activists Say They’re Done With ‘White’ Antifa, Want ‘Separation’

Oregon Public Broadcasting reports Wednesday that black members of Portland’s Black Lives Matter movement are tired of their anti-racism demonstrations being hijacked by the mostly white “Antifa” anarchists and are working to separate the two movements as protests continue.

“Tensions between Black activists fighting for racial justice and anti-establishment protesters have bubbled beneath the surface for months,” the outlet says, noting that many of the anti-racism protests, now in their sixth month, began as peaceful demonstrations but became violent after nightfall, when anarchist groups, who organized on social media, appeared.

The riots, which made national headlines, tainted the Black Lives Matter protests, activists say, and confused commentators who often assumed the violence developed from the demonstrations. Instead, they say, the unrest was wholly separate — and now they want the groups to disentangle.

“This week marks six months since Floyd’s death, and protests continue in Portland,” OPB reports. “But now, activists in the city are divided as to whether they are still fighting in a racial justice movement centered on Black lives, or if an unfocused, anti-establishment fight against capitalism and state power has usurped the initial cause that brought thousands of Portlanders into the streets.”
​
BLM activists also contend that the largely white “Antifa” group is “privileged,” noting that many of those arrested during the protests are middle- or upper-class, are quickly free on bail, and often escape prosecution — luxuries not often afforded to people of color who tangle with the same justice system.

“Most Black people in our community don’t feel like they have the privilege to go straight to the police and yell in their face,” one activist told OPB.  “If you’re privileged, if you’re white, you care less about whether or not a protest is going to result in reforms that might save even just one life. And you have the ability to be a purist in a way that Black and brown communities really do not.”

The privilege gap becomes an even bigger problem, BLM activists say, when the Anarchists push back against peaceful protesters who suggest less violent tactics might be more effective at achieving protest goals. In Portland, especially, the notorious, Antifa-aligned Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front excoriated more peaceful groups for “pacifying the nightly justice center action,” calling members of BLM “police collaborators.”

The breakup does go deeper. Antifa-aligned groups tried to “cancel” social justice organizers, dredging up old Tweets, accusing key BLM protest leaders of sexism and “being disrespectful to women.” Read more