live-tweet thread of the gish zoom

i don’t know what live tweeting entails i’ve never done this before so you get what you get

i’m assuming most of you are here to know what jensen says but i’ll try my best to tweet everything

some smooth piano music on the waiting screen to kick things off. i dig it

not as much as the vegetable song, but still

misha is explaining his funky, glitch-free background maison created

just general intro stuff about the panel

jensen and danneel have joined. jensen says they are there to listen, learn, support the panelist’s ideas, and apologise for the flags in the background from JJ’s birthday. he says they want to give the panelists a voice

misha’s introducing the panelists now

misha is desperately trying to condense the long bios he wrote for each panelist because of how accomplished they each are, bless

if you guys wanna know who the panelists are they’re listed on the gish website! it includes daryl davis, the man who convinced KKK members to leave the Klan. misha says they’ve been working together for a number of years to try get his story onto the screen

“pain pushes until vision pulls.”

daryl is now talking: he thinks the tipping point is coming now. “we have been still fighting the civil war since it ended... it has mutated, into segregation, the KKK...” but now people of all colours are coming together to make this change. he thinks it’s a good sign, and that

the end of this war is coming

briona is also talking about everyone coming together and willing to listen to make change. she says the tipping point is now, it is eerily similar to the civil rights movement, “history repeats itself”

baratunde: he has posted a link for us on how we can help out on his IG! i don’t know his IG so if anyone knows please quote this & link it and i will retweet

this incident has been so atrocious it has garnered more pain: anyone who made excuses for previous incidents can’t for this. the lack of action federally is angering people. this time, it’s different, because of the extreme, atrocious circumstances George’s murder took place in

hoping this will lead to shared ownership of the problem & responsibility of the solution. it’s a good sign that more white people are coming out, questioning, using their privilege to protect black people.

rev d: expanding on baratunde’s; “you can’t hear what you don’t feel” “feel, deal, and heel”. what she feels is different about this moment is that the discussion is finally shifting; the discussion abt racism is no longer a euphemism about POC; there is an increasing

understanding about how this isn’t just about black people dying, but that white people are killing them. there is an increased sense of accountability & responsibility from white people. we’re nowhere near justice, but that the speed the officers were fired-

and george’s murderer arrested was unprecedented; it was so quick. it feels like a bend towards justice

misha is now delivering questions from gishers

“what justication can there possibly be in looting & arson?”

daryl: there is no justification, but there is a reason, part of it is frustration, part of it talking the city’s language: costing them money, after they have been let down for decades. if you wanna teach-

someone a lesson, hit them in their wallet

baratunde: uprising is a better time. ‘looting’ better describes the beginning of this country [USA]. looting is a sign that the system hasn’t worked. arresting the officer within a week is unprecedented, but so is the flagrancy of what happened. looting & arson are forms of-

political expression. ‘looting’ is an effective method when everything they’ve tried before [voting] has failed

briona: sometimes in this country, property is more valuable than people. sometimes you need that visual stimulation before you’re willing to listen to someone — they have been trying, but their efforts have gone unnoticed. you can’t ignore a building on fire.

rev d: on the term ‘looting’: what we’re seeing is not just rage, but grief. and one of the ways grief expresses itself is anger. we grieve what we never had. part of this rage you see happening is people who are so frustrated by not just what has happened,

but by what hasn’t happened yet. they’re not burning down houses, schools, libraries. they’re not random. all of the things that are burning are signs of economics. they’re taking what they need. they’re trying to express their discontent with their economic oppression

she suspects russia or something else is involved; doesn’t believe black people lit up the police station, that would be a death wish. people are coming from out of town & black people are taking the wrap for it

NONE OF THE PANELISTS ARE CONDONING ARSON/LOOTING

“how can one respectfully reach close-minded people & what can young people do to spread awareness?”

baratunde: facts aren’t enough to break through. we connect as humans through human stories much more than through facts; we engage people better with questions that proclamations of righteousness (although we are right)