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hi, y& #39;all listening? I have some thoughts on the two protests I attended this weekend and the Rodney King riots. #LAProtests
people have been comparing these #LAProtests to the Rodney King riots. A lot. I was a very young lawyer living in the San Fernando Valley at the time (fun postscript to this thread) and I see lots of differences.
and of course I& #39;ve been trying to separate my own lens/ self from the protests. I wasn& #39;t terribly "woke" back then. I am trying to be better now. #LAProtests
But even after trying to separate my own lens out, there are some real differences. And we need to listen to those. #LAProtests
1. Rodney King was proof of what African Americans were saying -- racist cops, finally caught on video. But he was a one-off in that there weren& #39;t a lot of similar incidents, or the ones that did happen in the years shortly thereafter didn& #39;t get national attention.
1a. Now, we have so many that it& #39;s hard to keep track of them all. Michael Brown. Tamir Rice. Trayvon Martin. George Floyd. Eric Garner. Etc. (At yesterday& #39;s big protest, we chanted their names. And it took a while to get thru all of them.) #LAProtests
2. Why so many? is it just the advent of video? Lots of folk are saying -- the murder of Black people under color of law has been going on so long, but only now is it being filmed. But... (next tweet) #LAProtests
2a. I genuinely think there& #39;s more violence toward Black people under color of law (aka by cops) and it& #39;s for a specific reason. Call it post-Obama, call it a culture that Trump inoculated... but the angry white folk are more, and louder, than say in 2008. #LAProtests
2b. remember the historical research showing that monuments to the Confederacy were erected during/ shortly after eras in which Black people stood up? the monuments were intended to put them back down. #LAProtests
2c. And IMO the same thing -- angry white folk acting to put black people down and in their place -- is happening. So these horrific acts of violence are more frequent than they were in the 2000s, 1990s, 1980s. #LAProtests
3. let& #39;s talk about who participates in #LAProtests, Rodney King and now.
Rodney King was basically a riot by Black people in Black neighborhoods. These are far more diverse, and they& #39;re in white suburbia.
Rodney King was basically a riot by Black people in Black neighborhoods. These are far more diverse, and they& #39;re in white suburbia.
3a. and the L.A./ West Hollywood protests yesterday were very deliberately planned to be in white neighborhoods, per leading Black Lives Matter-LA leading activist Melina Abdullah https://bit.ly/3clasLC ">https://bit.ly/3clasLC&q...
3b. But it& #39;s more than simply bringing the pain to white neighborhoods. It& #39;s a question of welcoming white folk into a movement. (L.A. is a horribly segregated town. White folk don& #39;t go to South Central.) #LAProtests
3c. And protesting in white neighborhoods also means that the protests attract people who are anti-capitalist as much as they are anti-racist. #EatTheRich, they chanted yesterday. #LAProtests
3d. The movement optimist in me says -- that& #39;s a good thing. We know that we can& #39;t dismantle systemic racism without dismantling parts of the capitalist system. So welcome white allies! #LAProtests
4. The Overton WIndow on the demands has shifted. A lot. Post-Rodney King, and even post-Ferguson, the demands were for better policing: body cameras, training, Now... #AbolishICE and #DefundThePolice.
4a. It turns out that body cameras just enable us all to see people getting murdered without cause. Training doesn& #39;t make enough of a difference. We elected a charlatan to L.A. Sheriff who called himself a progressive, and believed that a black woman D.A. would change things.
4b. So the demand to abolish the police force, entirely, is new to mainstream circles. And it& #39;s leading @thenation now! https://bit.ly/36MuqO8 ">https://bit.ly/36MuqO8&q...
5. Now let& #39;s talk about #ThePoliceAreRioting and #ThePoliceAreTargetingJournalists.
Way too many Black journos have been arrested, shot at, shaken down, hurt. Was it targeted, or a lot of accidents? IDK. But fear a woke press.
Way too many Black journos have been arrested, shot at, shaken down, hurt. Was it targeted, or a lot of accidents? IDK. But fear a woke press.
5a. Journalists who are p!ssed act out by digging deeper. I& #39;m sorta optimistic that this attack by the police will lead to even more and better investigative stories, and finally some accountability. #LAProtests
6. There& #39;s probably more to say, but i am exhausted. After yesterday #LAProtests i tried to unplug today. Went for a 7 mile run with SHADOW. Bought new-to-me furniture. Before blowing up in Thousand Oaks.
