As an activist, Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors says that her home was first raided by Los Angeles police in 2013. “Surveillance tactics have been used against me,” Khan-Cullors told The Root.
While this raid was years before the FBI’s 12-page “Black Identity Extremist” report—which vilifies black activists—was leaked, it’s clear that members of the Black Lives Matter movement were seen as a threat. “What we’ve seen from the FBI is many of them have knocked on Black Lives Matter network doors,” Khan-Cullors said. “Many of them have showed up to our workplaces.”
But this scrutiny of black activists is nothing new. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and members of the Black Panther Party were intimidated and targeted under the FBI’s COINTELPRO. What we’ve seen (and are still seeing) is the FBI violating activists’ civil liberties and their basic freedoms, while the powers of the federal government are being expanded.
“White fear is at the center of the [BIE] report,” said Khan-Cullors. “White people created an entire identity that did not exist based off of their own fear of not just black activists ... but what they are more fearful of is black people being in power.”
See the entire video above.