Is Rakem Balogun a "black identity extremist?"

Mic Dispatch | Aired July 17, 2018

Reporting by Aaron Morrison | Cinematography by Tarek Turkey

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Texas-based community organizer Rakem Balogun says he exercised his constitutional right to free speech when he publicly praised Micah Johnson, the lone gunman who killed five Dallas police officers in July 2016.

Balogun later learned the FBI was surveilling him as a potential domestic terrorist. He was arrested in December 2017 for an unrelated charge and spent five months in prison. But he believes his prosecution was politically motivated.

In the debut episode of Mic Dispatch, Mic’s newsmagazine on Facebook Watch, Balogun, whose legal name is Christopher Daniels, explains how his Facebook posts praising Johnson led to an FBI raid on his Dallas home, where he lived with his 15-year-old son. Balogun also reveals details of the belief system at the foundation of his activism in exclusive on-camera interviews.

Additional written coverage:

FBI’s hunt for “black identity extremists” echoes civil rights movement-era war on black activists
FBI’s “black identity extremists” label is ill-advised, the nation’s largest black police group says
Black Lives Matter activist calls “bullshit” on the FBI’s “black identity extremist” label