PCG's Joel Hilliker Once Again Demonizing African American Protesters

Pan-African flag.

PCG's Joel Hilliker has made yet another article demonizing African American protesters. (Joel Hilliker, A Most Menacing Attack on the United States Constitution, March 2, 2016.)

Once again PCG's writers chose to belittle and condemn and vilify a movement that arose in response to instances of police violence. Astoundingly PCG's leaders seem to view the protests and activism by African Americans as the problem instead of African Americans getting killed in encounters with police officers.

It is undeniable that some of the men who wrote the Constitution were stained with the sin of slavery. Divisions between those who demanded it and those who opposed it could not be resolved,

Meaning the slavers wanted wanted to keep African Americans trodden underfoot as slaves and they prevented attempts to end this oppression. And this effort succeeded until 1865.

and the “Three-Fifths Compromise” left the matter for future generations to contend with. But contend with it they did,

After a cataclysmic civil war. The slavers panicked that Lincoln would free the slaves. Instead of trying to employ the numerous political options they had available or even waiting to see what Lincoln would actually do in office the slavers and their allies in the legislature made the decision to secede to keep African Americans downtrodden as slaves and prevent any possibility that the federal government could change things.

It was the worse war to afflict the land of the United States in all history. Only after that cataclysm in which about 700,000 people died was slavery finally abolished and the slaves were finally freed from slavery.

and the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments provided the constitutionally guaranteed protections to black people previously denied them. To say that protecting the Constitution is protecting white supremacy and genocide is grotesque.

Then to make his predominantly white readers panic and get scared of African American protesters he cites an inflammatory but marginal article written by a student of the University of California and posted on the website of the Afrikan National Coalition, a student organization.

Blake Simons, a University of California–Berkeley student and Black Lives Matter activist, wrote a chilling article on November 4 peddling the same lies. 

Note how Hilliker immediately condemns Simons as a liar. Shouldn't he at least wait to present what he says before saying something so inflammatory?

If Hilliker had done some elementary research he could have learned that the article in question actually dates back to September 2015. The article was posted twice. Once in September 2015. That got taken down and then it was reposted on November 4, 2015. (For some reason Hilliker neglected to link to the article.)

One wonder where Hilliker got this article from. It seems quite unlikely he would go to the website of the Afrikan Black Coalition himself. Perhaps Hilliker learned of Blake Simons' article via GlennBack.com. It was mentioned by Glenn Beck on a radio broadcast on November 16, 2015.

Hilliker vilifies the protests against police brutality as an attempt to centralize power for the federal authorities.

Perhaps the Founders’ determination to keep law enforcement on the local level is the issue. They wanted to prevent the federal government from having centralized policing authority in order to curb potential abuses of power. Today, activist critics claim that local law enforcement is endemically racist and that the solution is federal intervention. There is no evidence to support this criticism or the notion that federal policing would solve anything. It really amounts to a federal power grab.

The slavers opposed attempts to free the slaves by saying it would give the federal government too much power. Those who supported racial segregation alleged that the federal government had no right to end segregation and claimed that it was a power grab by the federal government. It is shameful that Hilliker should use the same line of thinking to marginalize and belittle attempts to address racial inequality.

So what is this activist’s problem with the Constitution? He explains: “I have come to realize that the Constitution is the root of virtually all our problems in America” (emphasis added throughout).

This is cited to make PCG's readers panic and be scared of African American protesters. Personally I have to disagree with the opinion expressed in Simons' article. I would argue that racism exists independently of the Constitution and pre-dates it.

There is nothing wrong with criticizing an article such as that under discussion. But unfortunately Hilliker exploits this article to frighten people instead of informing them or helping people solve the present problems of police violence.

“Do we not have the right to abolish the laws that oppress us?” Simons asked. “It is time to claim the Declaration of Independence and apply it to our struggle as colonized black people in America. The United States has declared war against us; it is time we demand a new constitution or tell America that she will get the bullet.”

It is hard to conceive of someone sincerely believing that it is this sort of thinking that will solve the problems of the United States.

Personally I cannot agree with such heated rhetoric. What are people going to think when someone says, This and that needs to happen "or it will be the bullet"? Of course people will not approve.

But it is intriguing that Hilliker chooses to make his readers scared of some student in California when there is a dangerous subculture of white supremacists such as the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis in which vile ideologies of racism are propagated and promoted. Recently one young man influenced by this subculture of white supremacist racism went into a church of murdered nine African Americans. In another incident five Black Lives Matter protesters were shot by racists. Thankfully they survived. There is a violent and dangerous subculture of extremism out there but Hilliker seems uninterested in informing his readers of such things. And unfortunately Hilliker's fear mongering against this student has the potential to fuel that subculture.

“It is our human right to overthrow a government that has been destructive to our people,” Simons continued. “This is why we must rise up and let all people come together and write new constitution to serve all people.”

What sort of constitution is he talking about? He continues: “The idea for a new constitution is not a new idea, rather an old one that was developed by the Black Panther Party.” He wrote about the “Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention” convened by the Black Panthers in 1970. The project never materialized, he said, but, “We must pick up where the Black Panthers left off and declare a new constitution or it will be the bullet. …”

Do you want to live in an America with a Constitution written by the Black Panther Party?

The student did not say that. That last sentence makes no sense in context. That Black Panther Party has long ago dissolved. He was suggesting making a new Constitution.

Also note how he calls for a Convention to create a new Constitution. This indicates that what he is really interested in is changing society to prevent acts of violence against African Americans instead of launching some sort of violent insurgency.

Hilliker then says he hopes this thinking is merely on the fringe but then he says he does not know and he worries that it is becoming more mainstream.

I hope that the thinking reflected in these particular activists’ comments remain as far on the fringe as possible. But looking at what is happening in America today, I fear that it actually gives us a glimpse into the kind of thinking that is pushing its way more and more into the American mainstream.

It is not possible for me to discern Hilliker's intent but looking at the effect of these words it seems they are designed to scare not inform. This is a way of trying to make this one student's words be used to slur African American protesters in general.

And so Hilliker's fear mongering condemnation of the Black Lives Matter protesters comes to an end.

It should be remembered that he who murdered the nine in Charleston thought there a "race war" and he justified what he did by saying that African American are violent and hate whites. What Hilliker says here is quite dangerous as it might incite an extremist into taking violent action against African Americans. I dearly hope that never happens but Hilliker has failed to protect himself from that possibility. We need to be careful about these things.

If PCG wants these protests to stop the answer is simple: call for an end to police violence. Solve that problem and so many other things be be solved.

But considering PCG's long and shameful history of promoting their false prophecy of "race war" such an inflammatory article is perfectly to be expected from PCG.