Black Lives Matter Utah chapter president steps down after death threats for comments about US flag

The founder of Black Lives Matter Utah, Lex Scott, announced to social media on Sunday that she would be stepping down as both president of the BLM Utah chapter and Utah Black History Museum.

This comes more than a month after a controversial post she shared on social media about the American flag went viral and sparked an eruption of death threats.

“The only new thing was when someone attempted to climb over my fence and instead of defending myself, I relaxed my body and told myself that I wished they would hurry and get it over with. I did not even want to fight back,” Scott wrote in a Facebook post on the BLM Utah chapter’s page.

“The exhaustion of being on defense had worn on me. So prepared to die that I welcomed death and that is not living. I also was not prepared to have someone hurt my family. They are amazing. They do not deserve this life. This life of staying in hotels all the time when a death threat come in. The massive security procedures that became a part of daily life. This is not life. And my family should not have to live that.”

In July, Scott drew national attention for remarks she made in a social media post calling the American flag a “symbol of hatred.”

“When we Black Americans see this flag we know the person flying it is not safe to be around,” the Black Lives Matter Utah Chapter wrote in the post on its webpage Sunday. “When we see this flag we know the person flying it is a racist. When we see this flag we know that the person flying it lives in a different America than we do. When we see this flag, we question your intelligence. We know to avoid you. It is a symbol of hatred,” Scott wrote.

Scott’s statement appalled many, including Republican U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens, who is the only person of color to represent Utah in Congress.

“According to BLM Utah, flying the American flag is now racist and hateful. What an insult to those who have fought, served and died for our freedoms,” Owens released in a public statement.

Fox News contributor and former Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz tweeted “More divisive, and flat out wrong.”

As the outrage continued to pour in, Scott doubled down on her initial statement.

“I stand by my words,” Scott wrote. “You show up for a protest and hundreds of armed white men show up. They have guns, they yell racial slurs at you, they are carrying and wearing American flags. I run over 50 Facebook groups. We receive hate messages daily. When you click on the profiles of the people sending these messages their profiles are filled with American Flags.” 

The new location of Scott and her family is unknown, but she did, however, address her heightened level of comfort and safety in her new neighborhood.

“I moved to a city which is all Black,” Scott said on the BLM Utah chapter Facebook group page. “We blend in. No one cares about Lex Scott. No one stares. I am a normal person.”

Rae Duckworth, a Utah advocate, will replace Scott as lead for the state’s Black Lives Matter chapter. Duckworth is related to 26-year-old Bobby Duckworth who was killed by Wellington police in September 2019 for carrying a knife.

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