Hi all, while I sympathize with businesses who have experienced losses, I want to address how statements like this have been used to advance problematic rhetoric around the protests. Don't fall for it:

(1) It shifts the focus from the original problem of police brutality to the behavior of those protesting injustice. Notice how people who post lots of things about what the protesters are doing won't post anything about the original injustice.

(2) It dehumanizes protesters by presuming that we all wouldn't do the same thing given the circumstances. Other social movements, including White women's right to vote in the UK (ex: Suffragettes) gained attention due to the use of arson and throwing bricks at businesses.

They too, were met with extreme police brutality and in fact many of the newspapers initially only reported the violence of the women and not the violence and sexual harassment of the police at the time. Know your history.

(3) It lacks the context that Black people have been peacefully protesting police brutality for 100+ years yet injustice persists. Even when Colin Kaepernick took a knee as a form of peaceful protest, people were outraged. So it's not about the nature of the protests,

but rather about dominant groups wanting for oppressed peoples to stay in their place. Few social movements have advanced without disruption to our economic or social status quo.

(4) It fails to acknowledge that most protests are peaceful. Many times, we only see the violence attached to otherwise peaceful protests because that's what makes news and headlines.

(5) It plays on stereotypes about who is violent. While some protests have de-escalated into violence, there are many reasons why and many perpetrators. In some cases it's people taking advantage of a situation, in other cases it has been escalated by police, and in other cases

it has been escalated by people who aren't even the protesters that are trying to stir chaos or discredit the protests. Even the Seattle mayor @MayorJenny has observed that much of the violence there has been White males showing up and being destructive.

And if you check @freeyourMind's Twitter feed you will see footage collected from all around the country of White people showing up to incite violence, while the peaceful protesters (of all races) ask them to stop.

(5) It positions corporate advancement as more important than an individual's life. As many have said before, including business owners who have been affected, these businesses will recover, but the people who have lost their lives are gone forever.

All this to say, when you see arguments like this posted by friends or family members, take a pause. Feel free to share this thread to help educate others.