Black Lives Matter is calling for the NRA to take down the chilling ad they say is a call for “inciting violence against people who are constitutionally fighting for their lives.”
And they published a video of their own.
“We demand that the NRA immediately remove their dangerous propaganda videos narrated by conservative radio hosts Dana Loesch and Grant Stinchfield,” a Black Lives Matter spokeswoman says in the video.
The one-minute NRA ad features conservative personality Dana Loesh uttering a dramatic us-vs.-them narrative overlaid with images of anti-Trump protesters she labels “the resistance.”
It’s been assailed as “an open call to violence” and “barely a whisper shy of a call for full civil war.”
This NRA ad is an open call to violence to protect white supremacy. If I made a video like this, I’d be in jail. pic.twitter.com/LD65yMUMVn
— deray mckesson (@deray) June 29, 2017
This new NRA ad is barely a whisper shy of a call for full civil war. https://t.co/N33s2KyvVz
— Jeff Sharlet (@JeffSharlet) June 28, 2017
It was even denounced by conservative columnist Anne Applebaum, who said it called on Americans “to arm themselves to fight liberals.”
Watch this NRA recruitment video: calls on real Americans to arm themselves to fight liberals. Violence is coming. https://t.co/qA9rz1qeUO
— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) June 29, 2017
Black Lives Matter’s two-and-a-half-minute video begins in the same fashion as the NRA clip — a lone woman speaking forcefully over video of protesters clashing with police.
“They use their guns to assassinate black people, they use their schools to funnel black students through a school to prison pipeline. They use their state institutions, bought politicians, business conglomerates, and white supremacist domestic terrorist, to incite violence over and over again,” the narrator says, mimicking Loesch’s style in the NRA video.
But as the video hits the one-minute mark, the narrator drops the act.
“Wait, hold up,” the spokeswoman says. “What’s with the aggressive fear-mongering video tactics? Someone cut the music and bring up the lights.”
She condemns the NRA video but says the Black Lives Matter message will not be deterred.
“We will continue to produce media, teach students, march and protest to not only protect the First Amendment as fiercely as the NRA protects the Second, but to protect our lives from gun-toting racists,” she says.
The video ends with a montage of family members of black citizens killed by police and a phone number for the NRA, which it urges viewers to call to demand the NRA remove its “dangerous” videos.
NRA video narrator Loesch defended her video on Periscope last month, saying, “The language of the left is violence, and it has been because they think it’s an acceptable form of protest,” she said.
