For the Black Lives Matter campaign to be able to launch its destructive attacks on American cities, raise hundreds of millions of dollars in the process, and gain the support of a major political party for its actions, is a remarkable — even unthinkable — achievement. It was possible only because the campaign was driven by a moral argument so powerful that it touched the hearts of all Americans and intimidated critics from stepping forward to challenge it. That moral argument was framed by a series of capital crimes allegedly committed by a justice system that was “systemically racist,” regularly targeting black Americans because of their skin color. The litany of victims from minority communities outraged a majority of Americans who had believed — or wanted to believe — that America had overcome its racial past and had put such legal lynchings behind it.
The overwhelmingly sympathetic response to the slogan “Black Lives Matter” contained an irony, however, that was widely ignored: if Americans of all hues, including white, responded so eagerly and so generously to this cry for social justice, how could the indictment be anywhere close to true?
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