Sunday evening, Atlanta rapper Killer Mike (don’t let the name fool you. He’s well known in Atlanta and in the music industry as a solid and good guy, a loving and dedicated father, and a warrior for community activism) apologized for an interview he gave to NRA TV and NRA spokesman Colion Noir a week ago in which he talked about being a supporter of the 2nd Amendment and how gun rights were important to the black community.
The NRA released the interview Saturday, very likely to coincide with the student-led gun reform march #MarchforOurLives that took place in DC and cities around the world. The video, embedded below, is an interesting perspective from a man who admits to being basically a community organizer on behalf of the black community in the vein of his hero, Martin Luther King Jr., as well as being an avowed supporter of the 2nd Amendment as a protection for that same community.
"I told my kids on the school walkout, I love you, if you walkout that school, walkout my house…we are not a family that jumps on every single thing an ally of ours does because some stuff we just don’t agree with.” –@KillerMike #MarchForOurLives pic.twitter.com/Gx8JLntmZ8
— NRATV (@NRATV) March 24, 2018
Sunday evening, Killer Mike — without retracting the statements he made in the interview and while facing backlash from all corners of the angry social media-armed left — issued an apology to the students and marchers because he said he felt the NRA had held the interview so they could use it against a march and a cause he actually supports.
I hope this clears some stuff up. Love and Respect to all. Part 1 pic.twitter.com/pq977HEG7A
— Killer Mike (@KillerMike) March 25, 2018
— Killer Mike (@KillerMike) March 25, 2018
Now, while I personally take issue with the messaging out of the NRA sometimes — the reality is that the black community does fault them for their initial silence on the death of Philando Castile, a licensed gun owner murdered in cold blood by a police officer; and they tend to be perceived as dismissive of the concerns of people who have faced gun-related tragedy — what happened with Killer Mike is the same thing that happened to Marco Rubio Saturday.
These two high-profile individuals, both exceedingly sympathetic to the cause of the gun-reform marchers and with the ability to help them effect change, were bullied online by left-leaning gun reform activists to the degree that one had his name smeared as a child killer and the other felt compelled to clarify his opinions to avoid any further backlash.
And the bullying they both received came from the left, from the very people they could help, and — if they are men of their word — would very much like to help.
While the NRA has a messaging problem, the left, whether they want to admit it or not, has a worse one.
Great work everyone. Bully that successful independent black man for thinking for himself https://t.co/jTOJFNi8MB
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 26, 2018
What’s more, every time the left engages in this kind of vicious bullying someone who could actually be an ally to them (a word Killer Mike is fond of using to describe someone who may not think exactly the same about policy issues, but can see the side of their opponent and work to find common ground), is forced to adjust their own message to accommodate the bullying. And the left exposes themselves for the partisan, dogmatic, borderline tyrannical, wannabe revolutionaries they are.
And the result of attempting to make those who would help them look like fools or hateful sellouts or, at the very least, careless with their words, is a decided failure to make themselves look like serious people who want to improve cultural circumstances. Which makes their marches and protestations look like little more than tantrums in the street.
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