Corey Robin: Against those who say #MuslimLivesMatter is an illegitimate appropriation of #BlackLivesMatter, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor has a very smart response, which goes beyond the immediate issue and articulates what politics at its best is all about:
“The casual invocation of ‘appropriation’ threatens to reduce politics and solidarity to questions of property and ownership. The Black movement has always been a source of inspiration and a framework for the oppressed around the world and especially to the oppressed in this country. The Black Power movement inspired the Chicano Power Movement among others and the Civil Rights Movement inspired the Irish Civil Rights Movement among many others. When Black Americans in the 1960s viewed their struggles as part of a global rebellion against colonialism, the Panthers, DRUM, and other black revolutionaries weren’t simply aping anti-colonial struggles, but breaking through the isolation and marginalization imposed through capitalism and imperialism. These expressions of solidarity weren’t viewed as questions of proprietorship but as opportunities to understand the connections, intersections and overlaps in oppression and racial exploitation as a way to build, broaden and strengthen the movement. We need more of that and less politics as property.”