An image claiming to show a Black Lives Matter protester in the United States carried a poster which said 'We are not Arabs to kill us and keep silent', is photoshopped and fake.
After the custodial death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by a white policeman in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25, 2020, Black Lives Matter protests had erupted all over the United States. The protest has drawn solidarity with people in cities over the world staging their own protest to condemn racial injustice and custodial killings in the US.
The morphed image showing Black Lives Matter protester with the 'We are not Arabs to kill us and keep silent' placard alongside another protester carrying a 'Black Lives Matter' poster has been shared widely by Arab social media users, who were enraged with the image.
The tweet seems to be viral on Arab social media, with Saadon Aldlimi, member of Iraqi Parliament tweeting it. When translated it reads, "Among the slogans raised by protesters in America, which caused pain: We are not Arabs to kill us and keep silent." The archive of the tweet is available here.
Another Facebook user put up the tampered photo with the caption, 'the banner shown here of the protests happening in America is a slap on the face of not only Arabs but the whole of Islam. It states that we are not Arabs to kill us and keep silent.'
Fact Check
BOOM did a reverse image search on the photo and found that it had been tampered with.
The original photo is by a Reuters photojournalist Jousha who captured the 2016 Black Lives Matter protests that had erupted in Washington DC. It can be found here.
The protests were against the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, who were shot by the police. Philando Castile, a black man was shot and killed in his car by a police officer on 7 July 2016 for a traffic violation in Minnesota. This came on the heels of the death of Alton Sterling, who was shot by the police in Louisiana on 5 July 2016. Black Lives Matter protests had erupted all over the USA, including Washington DC.
The morphed image also seemed to be doing the rounds on the internet for some time. With the help of reverse image search, BOOM also found an Arab news website Goud Ma, debunking the morphed photo back in in 2016 a few days after the original photo was released.
The article, published on 14 July 2016, when translated states that the photo has been tampered with, and links it back to the original photo of the protest.
The original photo can be found here: