I’m thinking, today, about how Mahatma Gandhi is used in America to reinforce the idea of a model minority. Why is “Gandhi” the only name from the Indian independence movement that white people know?

Because he reinforces the idea of passive resistance. Of the Good Brown Person who doesn’t make waves. Who protests nonviolently and somehow, magically, gets things done. This, mind you, is an idea perpetuated with the same breath that damns Colin Kaepernick for taking a knee.

Gandhi was one man in a revolution fought by thousands. They paid with their blood. Bhagat Singh. Chandrashekhar Azad. Ashfaqulla Khan. Jhansi Ki Rani. Jatin Das. So many other victims of state-sanctioned execution who fought to overthrow British rule.

And then there were the lives lost afterward. During Partition. Millions dead, still more millions displaced. Revolution didn’t come passively. And peace…? Well, it still hasn’t. South Asia is a hot mess.

So is America.

But those with power and privilege get to maintain that power and privilege by selling the lie of “acceptable protest” vs. “those looters.” By pitting “good minorities” against “the rowdy ones.” By dividing and conquering.

They don’t want you to know that our collective anger gets shit done. And they certainly don’t want to acknowledge that Black Lives Matter.