In regards to you being White and not speaking up about this, I would agree. Please dont. The riots/protests you disagree with is doing a disservice to the people who are rightly angry. You are not being an ally, and I would recommend doing more research on that. And listening to Black voices. I think Lonnie Bunch III (and Frederick Douglas), someone I read a lot about in my studies and who is the current Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, says:
“Although it will be a monumental task, the past is replete with examples of ordinary people working together to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges. History is a guide to a better future and demonstrates that we can become a better society—but only if we collectively demand it from each other and from the institutions responsible for administering justice.
Frederick Douglass famously said, “Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground….The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle.” At this pivotal moment when the eyes of the nation and the world are upon Minneapolis, will we join the struggle to seek justice and equality? Will we heed the call of courageous figures throughout history who spoke out against slavery, marched on for voting rights, and sat in for basic equality? Will we challenge the nation to live up to its founding ideals? In the memory of those taken from us and for the good of the country, I hope that we do.”
“It is true that the police have exercised a degree of discipline in handling the demonstrators. In this sense they have conducted themselves rather “nonviolently” in public. But for what purpose? To preserve the evil system of segregation. Over the past few years I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends. Perhaps Mr. Connor and his policemen have been rather nonviolent in public, as was Chief Pritchett in Albany, Georgia, but they have used the moral means of nonviolence to maintain the immoral end of racial injustice. As T. S. Eliot has said: “The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason.”
So I want to emphasize, the immoral means line. First, peaceful protests are preferred, yes. Absolutely. But when a marginalized community goes up against a militarized hostile force (which the police are) it isnt always peaceful. And we cannot always use MORAL tactics in order to bring an end to IMMORAL systems. No revolution has ever been won that way. To be against that means you lack a basic understanding of how violent the system has been. Which is something someone who is white might not truly understand unless you’ve been there. THAT is why I as a POC say that sometimes white people should not speak on certain issues. Because you lack a core level of understanding, through your environment. But you can change this by listening, studying, and trying to understand the root causes of why these IMMORAL acts are happening against an IMMORAL system.
You say fighting fire with fire is bad, but not always. Again using MORAL tactics does not always win. Neither do IMMORAL ones. We must consider whatever tactics might work - be they MORAL or IMMORAL. Either way, it is going to be a STRUGGLE. Slaves did not simply ask to be freed. The LGBTQ community did not simply ask to be treated equally. Sometimes you have to get our voice heard and sadly it sometimes takes social unrest to get that done. To attack the very systems (aka capitalism) that created/keeps these issues in the first place.
You said earlier you dont even want to attend the protests bc of violence. However, that made it clear to me that you do not have an understanding of what it means to be POC at a protest. Because the threat of violence will always be there for us more than you. And like I said the majority of protests are peaceful but the police are not peaceful. A MORAL group going up against and IMMORAL group does not always end well.
Businesses might be hurt but they can rebuild. And have said so, the CEO of Target has said he proritizes people over his buildings. Gandhi Mahal put this best:
“Suddenly: realization. It becomes clearer to me than ever that the issue at hand is greater than Gandhi Mahal. We can rebuild a building, but we will never reclaim the life George Floyd didn’t get to live. For years, protesters tried peace. It didn’t work. If this is what it takes to get justice, then it will have been worth it.”
At the end of the day you are condeming the way people are reacting to years and years of oppression. A gucci bag is replaceble but not a human life. Also these stores have insurance! Most people dont even have that due to the pandemic. And instead of condeming the system for getting people here in the first place, you lay the blame on the same POC that you claim you want to support. Its like blaming the victim of rape rather than the rapist. Finally, in response to you saying we need to listen to George Floyd’s family, here is Tamika Mallory:
“We are in a state of emergency… The reason why buildings are burning is not just for our brother, George Floyd. They’re burning down because people here in Minnesota are saying to people in New York, to people in California, to people in Memphis, to people all across this nation: Enough is enough… I don’t give a damn if they burn down Target because Target should be on the streets with us, calling for the justice that our people deserve. Where was AutoZone at the time when Philando Castile was shot in a car?”
And I too do not like the violence, but I know that I cannot blame the violence completely on people. I cant blame people for being angry right now. I can only blame the systems that got them there. And yes we want racism to end but using the same methods the status quo wants us to use may not work (remember Kap? Look what happened to him).
And I dont know if it’ll work! Although history has shown differently, but times are different so only time will tell. But I think thats the scary part in all this - we DONT KNOW. Times are scary and people react either online or IRL.
I sadly do not think you will understand this, although I hope you approach this with an open mind and listen to POC and Black voices.
