Allen West: A Black Man’s Response to BLM

“If you are someone that has escaped the left’s 21st century economic plantation, it’s something that’s wrong with you, mentally,” West, a former Florida congressman, told “The Brian Kilmeade Show” while discussing criticism of black Republicans and conservatives. “Something is wrong with you as far as how you think.”

West similarly accused the “Black Lives Matter” movement of overseeing Democrats’ “plantation” in an op-ed published Tuesday.

“All lives matter, but this radical organization, Black Lives Matter, is the ultimate Trojan [h]orse,” he wrote in the Canada Free Press. “The consistent purveyors of systemic racism in America is [sic] the Democrat Party.

“They have smartly devised this organization to enable their ends, the proliferation of the 21st century economic plantation. Black Lives Matter serves as overseers on this plantation, stoking the irrational emotionalism and angst to support their agenda, their purpose.”

During his interview with Kilmeade, West specifically called out former Vice President Joe Biden, whom he said promoted a mentality that detracted from the ideas promoted by Martin Luther King Jr.

“Just the same as Joe Biden said not too long ago, ‘If you’re having problems deciding between me or Trump, you ain’t black.’ That’s the mentality that has been permeating all throughout the United States of America,” West said, “and that is the exact opposite of what Dr. Martin Luther King talked about when he said he wanted this country to get to a point where people were judged by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin.

In an interview on “Fox & Friends Weekend” with hosts Jedediah Bila, Pete Hegseth, and Griff Jenkins, the former Florida congressman advised that angry desecration of longstanding monuments to racist historical figures was not the path to take.

“The right thing is for everyone to understand those — and George Santayana once said — those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” he urged.

“History is not there for you to like or dislike, Jedediah. It is there for you to learn from,” he told Bila…

Many make the argument that removing the statues and names themselves would not erase the history — nor could it erase racism — but that it would relieve the pain felt by the families of those slaughtered in the 400 years since African slaves were first brought to America every time they looked at these representations.

West explained that as a young officer in the U.S. Army he had served at places like Fort Bragg — named after Confederate General Braxton Bragg — and commanded a battalion at Fort Hood in Texas which was named after Confederate General John Bell Hood.

“I did not think about them as Confederate generals. I thought about the honor of being able to serve on those military installations,” he remarked.

“And, one of the things that has me absolutely incensed right now is the fact that you had these individuals [who] went up and defaced the monument, the memorial to the 54th Massachusetts regiment there in Boston,” added West.

The Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment Memorial was reportedly defaced 123 years to the day it was dedicated: May 31, 1897. The tribute held Colonel Shaw’s sword. Shaw had been killed alongside his men — African-American soldiers — fighting for their freedom in a battle at Fort Wagner.

According to WBUR, a $3 million dollar restoration project for the sculpture was just granted clearance at the beginning of the month.

That said, the city rallied quickly to carefully clean up the damage.

“That was the first Black organized unit to wear the uniform of the United States of America and fought in the Civil War. And, their history was depicted in the movie ‘Glory,'” West pointed out. “And, I would challenge people this weekend to go back and look at that movie and understand: these were former slaves. These were freedmen [who] stood up and fought for this country.”

“And now, here we are not even 200 years from that moment when they stood up to that challenge,” he noted. “We destroyed their monument.”

The calls for the removal of the statues and monuments come during a public reckoning over the country’s past treatment of African American and other minorities.

Trump made the comment speaking with “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade in Washington, D.C. on Monday as part of a special on the history of the White House that will air on Sunday.

A clip of that interview aired on “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday. Before the clip aired, Kilmeade noted that more than 100 monuments and plaques have been taken down since May 25.

“Everything from George Washington … [to] Teddy Roosevelt,” he said.