No, it's the people stealing TV's and Xboxes which are switching the focus. It should be about civil rights but a bunch of idiot's are just using this as an excuse to commit crime for free stuff.
Looting stores in your own community, many of which are minority owned, doesn't protect black people from police brutality. If anything it only gives police justification to escalate things.
I was an activist in college. I know first hand the detrimental effect a bunch of looters hijacking a peaceful lawful protest can hurt your cause. Stealing TVs has nothing to do with social justice. At worst it just gives ammunition to those trying to silence those voices.
And really the only reason I'm talking about it so much is because people are defending it. When we all agree police brutality is wrong, there's honestly not a lot to talk about. It's wrong. Period. But when we have people defending looting, then we have a discussion because many will disagree with that.
The fact that this is all taking place in a pandemic is another layer to this I have issues with. The coronovirus doesn't care whether the lives it takes are black or not.
Last edited by XPac; 05-31-2020 at 08:47 AM.
Michelle Visage just posted this on Instagram, though it would be helpful to share, just in-case.
"We are Shakespeare. We are Michelangelo. We are Tchaikovsky. We are Turing. We are Mercury. We are Wilde. We are Lincoln, Lorca, Leonardo da Vinci. We are Alexander the Great. We are Fredrick the Great. We are Rustin. We are Addams. We are Marsha! Marsha Marsha Marsha! We so generous, we DeGeneres. We are Ziggy Stardust hooked to the silver screen. Controversially we are Malcolm X. We are Plato. We are Aristotle. We are RuPaul, god dammit! And yes, we are Woolf."
People can be concerned about many things at once, how about asking what they think of police brutality first before assuming? Why wouldn't people be concerned about looting and rioting, those are subjects which should be discussed.
It's not about what "sucks," these are acts which will make people employed and homeless and make companies want to leave the community. There is no guarantee these things will be replaced, rioters aren't only attacking companies they know for a fact they'll do that. They certainly don't mind putting peoples livelihoods in danger during a pandemic when Trump is the president. How many of these employees and business owners are minorities themselves? There have been reporters that many had their businesses destroyed from this.
No, his life won't be replaced and this won't bring him back, either. This isn't about desecrating Confederate statues, this is about peoples livelihoods. It will, however, leave the community shattered in the aftermath during a pandemic. It's not solely about the anger now, it's about the unintended consequences that'll be left when this is over. This isn't a video game where the community will rebuild itself afterward like a computer reboot as though nothing happened, the consequent could last for years or life times.
How is robbing a store doing anything about police brutality? The police don't work there, the employees who do might even be sympathetic to the protesters and it'll be them who suffer when Target takes their business elsewhere. In the middle of a pandemic. This lens you're focused on is that of the outsider of that community, what if it was a building you worked out that was on fire? "Stuff being stolen" isn't noble, it's theft. Acts which hurt the moment it's going to be aligned with to the public because criminals exploit protests and riots for their own gain. There's nothing noble about stealing the latest Nintendo console.And neither can the many others who have died because of police brutality, nearly every week a black person is killed by police. That needs to stop, like right ******* now. It’s unacceptable, plain and simple. It’s a decision on your part to switch focus just because you see some buildings on fire and stuff being stolen.
I haven’t seen anyone defending looting and rioting, only people who are expressing sympathy and understanding with the anger and frustration that many people have. Anger and frustration is perfectly understandable. It’s not the protestors fault that police continue to kill unarmed black people. It’s up to the police to change. And it is absolutely your choice to shift focus on the looting and burning buildings.
There’s also plenty of examples of police instigating conflict from the last couple days. There’s a video of police driving into protesters in NY, there’s a video of police firing paint canisters into people’s porch, there’s video and photos of several reporters and camera crew being arrested and hit with rubber bullets just for doing their job. You don’t seem concerned with any of that, only the looting and burning.
And of course there’s plenty of examples of peaceful protests and of police joining with the protesters in solidarity, you could focus on that instead, but no instead the last 10 pages are full of people complaining about looting and burning buildings.
from Twitter
there are two americas: one fights for black lives and the other fights for brunch - @ZIWE
2Americas.jpg
I’ve known about having to reform the police and other matters so as to improve black peoples’ quality of live for awhile, but it seems the only way black peoples‘ lives will truly be fulfilled in their mattering is if someone with enough power steps up to sway the narrative that way. From what I’ve seen so far, it seems that it won’t be Trump, but I’m sure that the good, however small, will still eventually seek its way to the top and prevail in influencing the narrative to sway for the better of black lives and peace through proper justice in communities as a whole. It just hasn’t gotten to that point yet.
Last edited by Electricmastro; 05-31-2020 at 10:15 AM.