The blacklash continues in response to a positive Facebook post that went viral by Steven Hildreth Jr. about an encounter with Tucson Police officers. After Hildreth’s post went viral, the blachlash took all forms and came from across the globe.
Hildreth, who describes himself as an author, veteran, occasional essayist, and firearms enthusiast wrote about an encounter with Tucson Police officers on his Facebook page, as a black man. In his post, Hildreth detailed the stop and concluded with a statement that is now perceived as highly controversial:
I’m a black man wearing a hoodie and strapped. According to certain social movements, I shouldn’t be alive right now because the police are allegedly out to kill minorities.
Maybe…just maybe…that notion is bunk.
Maybe if you treat police officers with respect, they will do the same to you.
Police officers are people, too. By far and large, most are good people and they’re not out to get you.
#BlueLivesMatter #AllLivesMatter
In response to his “inflammatory” post, Hildreth has been subjected to vitriol and insanity. The attacks range from being called an “Uncle Tom,” to being accused of working for the government. One internet troll went so far as to cite an apparent physical similarity of Hildreth and the “tv anchor shooter,” in an attempt to discredit Hildreth.
While the blacklash initially took the form of mostly Uncle Tom-type responses on Facebook, it wasn’t until the post had gone global that Hildreth saw the extent to which the media would protect the #blacklivesmatter narrative fueling those responses.
On October 27, Hildreth wrote his initial post, by October 30, he was appearing on BBC radio. In that interview, Hildreth barely got out his brief explanation of his encounter of the cop kind, before the interviewer invited Professor Frank Leon Roberts to weigh-in an on Hildreth. Roberts, who is currently teaching Black Lives Matter: Race, Resistance and Popular Protest, at NYU Gallatin challenged Hildreth’s conclusion that “if you treat police officers with respect, they will do the same to you.”
Roberts Tweeted after the interview:
Frank Leon Roberts @FRANKLEONROBERT Oct 30 Manhattan, NY
Just got done appearing on @BBCBreaking (BBC News) to discuss black lives matter & recent story about Arizona police encounter. Heated.
Steven Hildreth, Jr. @StevenHildreth Oct 30
The past 72 hours have reinforced my belief that “Uncle Tom” is code for “adhere to our hive mentality.”
The term blacklash has several definitions according to the Urban Dictionary. Implied in Hildreth’s Tweet, is the one in which blacks who adopt beliefs that are contrary to those supposedly widely accepted in popular black culture, are chastised by those people who have. In other words, the stereotype that portrays all blacks as members of – or adherents to – radical or liberal thought is enforced by blacks, who hold those beliefs, and demand that others do as well. That is precisely what Hildreth means when he Tweeted “our hive mentality.”
On Friday, Hildreth sat down with Tucson radio show host, James T. Harris, who himself was a victim of global blacklash for his comments to then-presidential candidate Senator John McCain. Harris had the gall, during a CNN town hall, to urge McCain to run a serious campaign against then-Senator Barack Obama.
Harris was called everything from sellout to Sambo for his anti-hive behavior. The blacklash has not subsided for Harris, whose conservative talk radio show is listened to around the country. As a result, Harris reached out to Hildreth more as a survivor than interviewer.
Hildreth told Harris that he was surprised by the blacklash. He had only intended to share some good news because the mainstream media only wants to share the bad. “A large part of it, is that people want to hear about the positive stories, they don’t want to just hear the negative stories all the time. It’s proof now that, yeah negative news is always sold. That’s not news. But now people are showing that they want to hear the positive too. They don’t want to just hear what is spoonfed to them in the mainstream media. They want to hear the whole picture, they want to see the whole picture.”
Hildreth said that he had difficult time “biting his tongue” on the #blacklivesmatter subject. He explained that he felt the need to write his piece to ensure that people heard his voice not only on the #blacklivesmatter subject, but open and concealed carry firearms laws.
Hildreth, a member of the National Guard, hoped to educate others on Arizona’s gun laws and those laws across the country. “It really bleeds into how I like to teach things about firearms. I’m very passionate about firearms, and I like to instruct people on both techniques and what they need to know as far as the laws and such. I think part of that probably comes from being an NCO. I like to teach people,” Hildreth expanded, “I like to teach my soldiers. I like to teach people that are not familiar with guns, or may not be familiar with laws, and try to give them a nudge in the right direction and let them know – not so much what you need to think – but more here’s how to think. Here’s the method of how you should approach it and determine what’s best for you.”
The hive has questioned whether Hildreth qualifies as a black man. Hildreth’s mother is a black and his father is white. His mother is an immigrant from the island of Saint Kitts and Nevis and his father, is a white former military man. Hidlreth is a self-described “military brat.”
Because of this lineage, the hive determined that he could not speak with authority as a black man. “I’ve already seen comments in there (internet) like, oh you’re just a mixed breed. Yada yada yada,” he told Harris. “They’ve already clung onto that. I saw one person that was paying attention and caught onto that and started trying to dog me over that. Well now that I’ve put that over the air now I know they’re gonna be coming in droves.” Listen to the interview here
Hildreth described the droves later in another Facebook post. He wrote:
The first category consists of people who are glad the stop went well, but that insist that I must have gotten lucky, or that I seem to be dismissing instances of criminal activity under color of authority.
These people are generally respectful and level headed. I don’t mind them, as I don’t mind civil disagreement. Given the sheer volume of comment traffic, I can’t respond to them all, but I try my best to engage them in discussion where I can.
The second group is far more vitriolic.
These are the people that are shouting that all or most law enforcement officers are corrupt, that they target minorities who are doing nothing wrong.
They lump cases that are clear cut and dry against the suspect and cases that are generally bad situations all around with cases of legitimate abuse of authority, diluting their own cause.
They perpetuate the statistical lie that police seek to execute minorities with impunity.
They accuse me of not being black because I have dared to question their hive mentality. In a fashion imitating slave masters of days past, they use derogatory terms in an attempt to beat me into submission to the collective.
In the past few days, I have probably been called a “nigger” more times by black people than I have by white people in the past twenty years COMBINED.
Let that sink in for a moment.
Worst of all, this second group are the ones telling me to kill myself, saying they hope a cop kills me, and calling for the death of law enforcement.
This second group applauded the death of NYPD Officer Randolph Holder, a black man.
Clearly, this demonstrates that to that second group, not all black lives matter. Only the ones that forward their anti-LE narrative matter to them.
Some in the reasonable first group have distanced themselves from the bigoted second group, and I applaud them for it. Yet, too many remain silent.
I stand for facts. I stand for the truth. I stand for critical, individual thought.
I belong to nobody’s collective. I belong to no hive.
Hildreth acknowledged that the hive is not the only source of criticism. Hildreth wrote on Facebook: “I’ve had anarcho-capitalist/libertarian types accuse me of capitulating to a Big Brother police state. Of course, if you see how they fare at traffic stops, you see their supposed “knowledge” of the law actually gets them in trouble. That is the result of cherry-picking parts of the law that confirm their beliefs rather than reading it as a whole.”
Hildreth told Harris that he might bite his tongue in the future. That would be a loss. In this day and age, in a world of shout downs and shut ups #allvoicesmatter.
Editor’s Note – Hildreth has authored two books: The Sovereigns, and The First Bayonet