One of the great ironies of the Black Lives Matter movement is the fact that it is rooted in and promotes Marxism. BLM ostensibly claims to exist to fight against the injustice of racism against black Americans. Indeed, BLM justifies its radical calls to “defund the police” with dubious claims of America’s law enforcement being “systemically racist.”

However, if BLM’s cause was truly a fight against actual racism, then why has the movement not fully divested itself from one of history’s most prolific racists, Karl Marx? Marx and his contemporary and friend Friedrich Engles are, of course, the fathers of that most murderous of political philosophies, communism. Communist tyrants have murdered well over 100 million people.

But both Marx and, more significantly, Engles were also notorious for their racist ideas. Both men viewed blacks specifically as lesser humans and more closely related to “the animal kingdom” than other races. In fact, Marx and Engels believed that race was a primary determiner for one’s economic status and ability. Using this belief, they developed a system by which they “radicalized skin-color groups, ethnicities, nations, and social classes, while endowing them with innate superior and inferior character traits,” as noted by Erik van Ree of the Institute for East European Studies of the University of Amsterdam. “They regarded race as part of humanity’s natural conditions, upon which the production system rested. ‘Races’ endowed with superior qualities would boost economic development and productivity, while the less endowed ones would hold humanity back.”

And yet, despite this reality, BLM cofounders Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza are unapologetic in their embrace of Marxism. “The first thing, I think, is that we actually do have an ideological frame,” Cullors stated back in 2015. “Myself and Alicia in particular are trained organizers. We are trained Marxists.”

The actual reason behind the rioting and destruction and the tearing down of statues has very little to do with race. In reality, BLM Marxists are attacking the ideology of individual Liberty, which our Founding Fathers espoused, fought for, and established. In truth, race has almost nothing to do with the BLM movement; it just serves as a cover to deflect broad criticism for its anti-American revolution. But the irony and rank hypocrisy of blacks “fighting racism” by espousing the ideas of white racists isn’t lost on us.