.@lisburnccc is debating @allianceparty @dhoneyford's motion for council to stand in solidarity with #BlackLivesMatters. 
.@dhoneyford warns racism could be a "second blight" on NI (sectarianism being the first).
Former mayor Alan Givan says BLM is Marxist and "anti-family": It doesn’t matter whether you're black, white or yellow or red or whatever ... and the quantity of melanin in our bodies has no bearing on how precious any individual is."
Sinn Féin's @RyanCarlin says Cllr Givan's comments were 'insulting': I’m somewhat in disbelief. All lives are not currently under threat ... that is why the slogan is important. We don’t need to say all lives matter. We understand that already.
UUP Cllr Hazel Legge has moved for the reference to BLM to be removed @dhoneyford's motion.
DUP's Caleb McCready says violence has "tarnished" BLM. He says his best friend is black, and recalls growing up in Papua New Guinea, and being a "buddy" for students from overseas when he went back to school in NI.
Alliance's Owen Gawith says he doesn't understand how the original wording could be a problem for any member. He says sectarianism "pales into insignificance compared to the amount of abuse suffered racially."
UUP Cllr Jim Dillon is also invoking #AllLivesMatter: 'Of course black lives matter, white lives matter, yellow lives matter, Chinese lives matter, Indian lives matter.'
Still Ald Dillon: Why I cannot support BLM is to see the hatred in their faces, in their demonstrations, when they attack our national monuments, when they attack the statues of Queen Victoria who put the ‘Great’ into GB.
Ald Dillon again: 'What about the slaves who built the Colosseum in Rome? Have we not moved on a lot from then? Of course we have.' He's also brought up attacks on white farmers in Zimbabwe 'when the black people had control'.
DUP Cllr Nathan Anderson: We’re all one blood, doesn’t matter the tinge of your melanin. We are all precious and sacred made in God's image.
Cllr Anderson says #BlackLivesMatter has been "infiltrated by the extreme far left" and seeks to attack police.
.@smartin123 says some cllrs have put "their own spin on history', & says Cllr Anderson 'produced a litany of things that weren’t relevant. I respect your right to stand on principle, I don’t respect your right to come forward with a list of things that aren't relevant'.
Cllr Martin again: Some of the comments are very much along the lines of ‘we’re all hospitable so therefore it must all be alright’. We do not experience what they have experienced.
UUP's @StuartHughes12 says the meeting has become a farce ...
Cllr Hughes: I think most people are on the same page on this and instead we’ve just diluted any message we’ve sent this evening ...
I’m quite frankly rather depressed by what has happened.
I’m quite frankly rather depressed by what has happened.
DUP Cllr Jonathan Craig says #blacklivesmatter is associated with violence ... unlike his personal hero Martin Luther King Jr: 'Never once did he advocate or even allow violence to come into that movement'
➡️➡️Can I get a fact check?
➡️➡️Can I get a fact check?
Cllr Craig: 'It is being associated with attacks on police officers, police officers of all colours. Is there anyone in this chamber advocating that we should hang the police out to dry on the hearsay of others?
... It [racism] goes way beyond just black people and I’ve witnessed it firsthand.'
.@dhoneyford gets his chance to respond after a debate which has, at separate points, referenced abortion rights, Marxism, 'red lives', black friends, aunts, MELANIN, Rome ...
... white South African farmers, 'yellow lives', Martin Luther King Jr, Queens Victoria & Anne ...
He says: If you can’t agree with this it’s beyond belief. BLM is the concept - to remove that is to deny the problem, that somehow we know better how to frame people’s pain, and people's inequality, better than they do.
Honeyford on Ald Dillon: “I don’t know where to start with Ald Dillon”
We also reach back in time to a tweet by Cllr Honeyford, which Cllr Nathan Anderson has asked he apologise for. In 2017 Cllr H stood down from the Allianc Exec for an "anti-unionist tweet".
Cllr Honeyford: 'I won’t be taking any lessons for Cllr Anderson whose arrogance is outstanding … Racism is not what he wants to debate. It doesn’t suit.'
Councillors have voted in favour (26:14) for the amended motion, which takes out reference to BLM.
DUP Cllr Caleb McCready has withdrawn his own motion, which condemned the murder of George Floyd and proposed Lagan Valley be lit up in red in solidarity against racism. If carried, the motion would have also condemned BLM protestors for breaking Covid restrictions.
Just to clarify, that was 14 voted FOR the motion in its original wording, ie against the amendment. The amended motion then passed.
Here's former Lisburn and Castlereagh mayor Alan Givan's comment in full 👇👇
G: The movement as it is pointed out in the motion is 'we stand with the #blacklivesmatter'. The organisation is questionable whenever you look at it and you examine it closely. There are things that I cannot agree with.
G: They basically were founded by Marxist philosophy. They have a position which is very anti-family in their BLM manifesto. (Here is BLM 'About us' on their website: bit.ly/2VulrwX)
G: They support the extended family of villages and community to bring up children which is a very abstract form of bringing up and raising children.
They’re particularly not very favourable towards fathers and they look towards the family as something that should be attacked.
They’re particularly not very favourable towards fathers and they look towards the family as something that should be attacked.
NB: 'It takes a village to raise a child' is an African proverb. @NPR tried to pin down its origin here: n.pr/2Z50UzN. Hillary Clinton (QUB Chancellor) wrote 'It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us' as First Lady.
Givan goes on:
"And the second one (in BLM 'About Us') is they say clearly they 'foster a queer-affirming network, we seek to free oursleves from the grip of heteronormative thinking’.
"I fail to see how these really help black people at all."
"And the second one (in BLM 'About Us') is they say clearly they 'foster a queer-affirming network, we seek to free oursleves from the grip of heteronormative thinking’.
"I fail to see how these really help black people at all."
He's referring to this:
'We foster a queer‐affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise).'
'We foster a queer‐affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise).'
Givan again: The breakup of the family to me, it would really be a form of nuclear fusion for civilisation.
What is nuclear fusion? Here's BBC's 'bite size' definition but basically, it's when two atomic nuclei combine to make one heavy nucleus. bbc.in/2VfvSUN
I don't know if that's a ref to preference for the nuclear family. I don't know. (this is me)
Givan again: 'The family is the bedrock of any society and it brings with it that great stability.
'I feel and to think that children should be brought up in some kind of village setup, some kind of community type relationship, would be a very poor way to bring up a family.'
'I feel and to think that children should be brought up in some kind of village setup, some kind of community type relationship, would be a very poor way to bring up a family.'
Givan: 'They want to abolish the police which has now become another thing of their agenda, they seem to want to promote some form of community police which is nothing to do with community policing which is what we subscribe to.'
NB: I can't find reference to defunding police in the BLM 'What We Believe' tab, which has been quoted from up to this point. Here it is again: bit.ly/2Zj0c2f
Here we go into creationism v evolution:
Givan: I personally am totally opposed to racism. I believe in one human family, and that is the reality of mankind, that is how our history commenced.
Givan: I personally am totally opposed to racism. I believe in one human family, and that is the reality of mankind, that is how our history commenced.
G: Creationists believe it and now by and large evolutionists also believe it, we are virtually on the same page.
We are all really one family and that would be my real position on it, that we should treat ourselves as one and we should work with all people.
We are all really one family and that would be my real position on it, that we should treat ourselves as one and we should work with all people.
The motion, by Alliance Cllr David Honeyford, also called on council to 'express disappointment in the delay of a Racial Quality Strategy and will write to the Exec & express our desire to ensure it is not further delayed'. This was kept in the amended motion & passed.
Givan appears to reference it here, and query its cost & purpose: 'The Racial Equality Agenda, I read it and it’s very long and wordy and will cost probably a fortune to implement and really, if the very first principle that we look upon ourselves as one family ... 1/2
2/2 '... it would be a much simpler and a much cheaper option and it does work. Justification for the belief that someone is inferior or subnormal is absolutely completely wrong. There is no way that can be ever justified.'
In full: bit.ly/2B9Aa9g
