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Black Activists Fearful Over FBI Doc On ‘Black Identity Extremists’

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Amber Randall Civil Rights Reporter
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Black activists expressed concern over an FBI document about “black identity extremists,” worrying that it could lead to a blacklist of black organizers.

Black protest organizations and lawmakers have grown increasingly concerned about the contents of an FBI document called “Black Identity Extremists Likely Motivated to Target Law Enforcement Officers,” NBC News reported Thursday. The groups believe that the document, which warns of potential violence form black extremists, would paint black organizers as “boogie men.”

“The ‘Black Identity Extremists’ designation continues a long-standing intelligence community tradition of seeing a national security ‘boogie man’ every time black communities organize in their own interests,” Lawrence Grandpre, Director of Research at Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, told NBC News.

The Aug. 3 document discusses the rise of “black identity extremists,” linking its creation to the 2014 fatal police shooting of Michael Brown. The document reportedly not only warns of the potential violence from such extremists, but also argues that more law enforcement violence against black men fuels the group’s rage.

Lawmakers with the Congressional Black Caucus are concerned about the document and what seems to be a conflation between black activists and those who would do harm to law enforcement officers. The group is in talks to set up a meeting with FBI Director Christopher Wray to discuss the document, a spokesperson previously told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

“It’s the craziest report because it says that because you identify as black you are threat, which is outlandish and offensive and reminiscent of the FBI’s COINTELPRO operation, which targeted Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights leaders,” CBC Chairman Cedric Richmond told NBC News.

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