Black Lives Matter eliminated its “What We Believe” page that called for the disruption of the nuclear family and the end of heteronormative privilege, among other causes, and former NFL defensive lineman Marcellus Wiley, who previously criticized the organization’s radical stance, wants to know what happened.
“Heard too many people tell me that I was wrong for misinterpreting BLM’s mission statement and I took their words out of context,” Wiley tweeted on Monday. “You were saying???”
Heard too many people tell me that I was wrong for misinterpreting BLM’s mission statement and I took their words out of context🤦🏿♂️
You were saying??? #factsoverfeelings #apologyaccepted😉🤫https://t.co/uuqJdM0BBW… https://t.co/9hSU0Ad39M pic.twitter.com/B3LUiEjqGM
— Marcellus Wiley 🧢 (@marcelluswiley) September 22, 2020
This past July, Wiley raised a few eyebrows when he scolded Black Lives Matter for its radical anti-family stance, arguing that the nuclear family makes life better for black people:
I don’t know how many people really look into the mission statement of Black Lives Matter. But I did, and when you look into it, there’s a couple things that jump out at me. And I’m a black man who’s been black and my life has mattered since 1974, and this organization was founded in 2013. I’m proud of you, but I’ve been fighting this fight for me and for others a lot longer.
Two things: my family structure is so vital, important to me. Not only the one I grew up in but the one I’m trying to create right now. Being a father and a husband, that’s my mission in life right now. How do I reconcile that, what I just told you, with this mission statement that says, “We dismantle the patriarchal practice, we disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement.”
When I know statistics, when I know my reality, forget statistics, I knew this before I even went to Columbia and saw these same statistics that I’m going to read to you right now. That children from single parent homes versus two-parent homes, the children from the single-parent homes — this is in 1995 I was reading this — five times more likely to commit suicide, six times more likely to be in poverty, nine times more likely to drop out of high school, ten times more likely to abuse chemical substances, 14 times more likely to commit rape, 20 times more likely to end up in prison, 32 times more likely to run away from home.
Wiley added, “I knew that. You know why I knew it? Because a lot of my friends didn’t have family structures that were nuclear like mine and they found themselves outside of their dreams and goals and aspirations. So when I see that, or as a mission statement for Black Lives Matter, it makes me scratch my head. When I also see their mission is to eradicate white supremacy, in 2020 white supremacy is the mission? Woo, that’s a lot of digging through minutiae right there.”
He concluded, “I am on a show that I am hosting along with another black guy who is hosting with me who replaced another black guy. And that’s just one example of it. So I understand. I respect your space. I respect what you’re protesting for. But will you respect others who don’t support that same protest?”