Nurse’s Anti-BLM Posts Raise Important Questions About the Safety of Black Lives

In a video posted by ABC7 on June 26, 2020, protesters can be seen outside of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland California hospital, demanding the termination of Allison Cook, an ICU nurse who posted anti-BLM remarks on social media.  In one post, Cook can be seen holding up her middle finger in a crude gesture of disrespect, while in another post she writes "F**k #BLM".

It remains to be determined if Cook was expressing repudiation of Black Lives Matter as a organization or as a movement. Does she really believe that the existence, well-being, and lives of Black people don't matter?  Clearly her posts were taken to mean this by the group of protesters.

There is, undoubtedly, a difference between the organization that is called Black Lives Matter, which for the purposes of this article, will be referred to as "The Organization", and the civil rights movement that is called Black Lives Matter, which for the purposes of this article, will be referred to as "The Movement".  The Organization is the now formally organized group whose noble mission is to create "a world free of anti-Blackness, where every Black person has the social, economic, and political power to thrive".  The Movement is the simple, affirmation that the lives of Black people should matter. But it is also the