Free Republic

University of Buffalo student Therese Purcell joined 'Fox & Friends First' to discuss the incident.

Officer Jakhary Jackson has experienced the vitriol of Portland's white woke protesters, who engage in white saviorism and destroy minority communities while claiming to champion racial equality. In one black Portland police officer’s frontline experience, the Black Lives Matter protests in his city are not about helping black people attain better lives. What this officer sees is privileged white kids infiltrating communities that don’t belong to them to burn stuff, break things, cause trouble, incite violence, and tell black people what they should do.This officer, Jakhary Jackson, is a nine-year veteran of the Portland Bureau of Police. After working for...

Last week I wrote about how we’re in a cultural civil war and it’s time for conservatives—and really, anyone who’s not on board with the radical anti-American agenda of Black Lives Matter and the rest of the woke left—to fight back.But how? I was light on specifics, and subsequently heard from a number of readers who wanted to know what they could do, personally, to push back against the leftward lurch of the culture. Many said they feel powerless and overwhelmed, and with good reason.Silicon Valley, Hollywood, academia, the mainstream media, corporate America, and the entire Democratic Party (along...

To 'pay' for their own sins, the zealots of the Woke Left's new religion are on a mission to sacrifice the reputations and livelihoods of others.> Much has been made of the similarities the “woke” left’s political program resembles a new religion. Columbia University linguist John McWhorter made the point in his discussion with evolutionary biologist Bret Weinstein, James Lindsay describes how “wokeness” resembles a cult, and Hans Fiene wrote a satirical article in The Federalist describing the religious program in the “Cathedral of Blessed Wokery.”The woke Left’s program does seem to resemble a religion. This should not, however, be...

The Black Lives Matter movement is not a majority. It’s radical agenda can be resisted and defeated. But not if ordinary Americans stay silent. The daily spectacle of angry mobs pulling down statues, taunting police, attacking passersby, and taking over entire city blocks makes it seem like Black Lives Matter is a mass movement, that pretty much everyone except knuckle-dragging Trump supporters is on board with its radical agenda, and that the new national consensus is that you’re either anti-racist or racist.Under these conditions, many ordinary Americans feel disoriented and discouraged. Confusion abounds. When did it become racist to like...

Rarified conservative arguments that we should remove Confederate monuments is tantamount to accepting the left’s vision of America as irredeemably racist. Last week, as statues of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson—among many others—were pulled down by angry mobs, conservative writers Rich Lowry and Philip Klein were penning throat-clearing columns explaining how it’s wrong to pull down monuments to the Founders but okay to remove Confederate statues, because you see, Confederates were traitors who fought for slavery.Which, of course they were. But at this point it would be hard to imagine an argument more detached from reality. Lowry and Klein—and all...

The left has moved beyond indoctrination through biased textbooks and false narratives. Now, our kids are being taught to channel their anger in protest. For years, conservatives have been sounding the alarm about anti-American indoctrination in public schools. TheyÂ’ve pointed out the dangers of mainstreaming of Howard ZinnÂ’s A PeopleÂ’s History of the United States. TheyÂ’ve exposed the racialism of the 1619 Project. Unfortunately, however, the situation in public schools is far worse than the mere presence of propaganda.Theoretically, parents can resist the dominant paradigm by explaining that itÂ’s just the teacherÂ’s opinion, and providing a counter-narrative at home. But...

They Hate America The mobs defacing and pulling down monuments across America have no limiting principle because their target is America itself. Angry mobs are tearing down and defacing monuments across America. They make no distinction between Confederate and Union, abolitionist and pro-slavery, 15th-century figures and 20th. They don’t care when a monument was erected, who built it, or why. They have not come to debate or persuade their fellow citizens to relocate these statues to museums or private property. They believe the debate is over and that they have won.The Confederacy Isn’t the Target Their target is not the...

Black Lives Matter isn’t interested in fighting actual racism. But it is interested in whether you support its agenda—and getting you fired if you don’t. There will be no opting out of the Black Lives Matter movement. You’re either for BLM or against it—and if you’re against it, you’re a racist. You will either support BLM publicly and enthusiastically, or you will be harassed, shunned, and shamed out of mainstream America. If you dare to speak a word against BLM, you will be targeted, mobbed, and probably fired.That’s the message coming through loud and clear, not just from protesters but...

All decent Americans stand against racism. But if weÂ’re to live as brothers, we must stop indicting all those who share a skin tone for the sins of others. I was nowhere near the intersection of Chicago Avenue and 38th Street when George Floyd tragically lost his life. I wasnÂ’t in Minnesota. I was more than 500 miles away. With the exception of the officers at that heartbreaking scene, there are more than 329 million additional Americans who had no part in that terrible evening.So why are so many people acting as if it were their knee, not Derek ChauvinÂ’s,...