god everyone's really pushing the "protests would have been orderly and peaceful if not for those Young White Outside Agitators" angle today, extremely disheartening

there are all kinds of things wrong with this but among the most important is that it completely displaces the police from the conversation. we all saw the cops arresting and shooting reporters and throwing protesters on the ground!

another problem is that it completely forecloses and delegitimizes the possibility of multiracial protest action that isn't just quietly marching to a rally and then going home!

a statement like "the chaos/violence/looting/arson is all because of undercover cops/white supremacists/white anarchists" actually means "normal people would never respond to repression by confronting its perpetrators or destroying property" which is both false and reactionary

these supposed culprits turn up at a lot of protests and the vast majority of them don't get to the level we've seen in the last couple days. what's different is not their presence but the genuine pent-up anger and aggressive police response

another recent development is that if you're pushing this line about "anarchists," congratulations, you're on the same side of the barricades as Attorney General Barr https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1266796887622905856?s=19