Second week of holding signs on the local rural highway. 7 people this time. 214 good responses (waves, thumbs up, fists), 24 bad (middle fingers, yelling). Not bad. #BlackLivesMatter

When we started doing this, I thought the angry people would yell “all lives matter,” and some have, but a lot just scream “white lives matter” instead.

When you’re steeped in unexamined white privilege, simply saying that black lives matter is an outrage.

But that’s why we’re doing it here. Because we want our neighbors to know that BLM isn’t just a Portland thing. It’s not just a city thing. We are out here too.

And yeah, we’re all white, or at least white presenting. But that’s the point, too. I want the white people who drive by to know that the wind is changing.

And I want the people of color out here, and there are some, to know that we’re here for them.

The positive responses come from a diverse group: men and women, various shades of melanin, young and old. Often while families honking and waving.

The negative reactions are all white men alone. Today the angriest one rolled down his window and shouted “YOU’RE THE PROBLEM!”

We were seven people on a corner, holding signs to support a movement that just wants black people to stop dying at the hands of the police. We’re the problem? Us?

I think a lot about Fox News viewers who receive a daily drumbeat of antifa equals BLM equals protesters equals violence equals “they’re coming to get you, Barbara.” If I grew up listening to that shit, maybe I’d believe it, too. I don’t know.

But Oregon isn’t mostly white on accident. It’s that way through government action. It was founded as a whites only state and redlined black neighborhoods into the river (literally). All that plus add a right wing media diet and it’s no wonder the idea of BLM freaks people out.

And oh yeah, there are a lot of explicitly racist armed white militia movements here. So that’s a factor.

I’d say that all those things are the problem, personally. Not a handful of people on a highway intersection with some signs. But that’s just me.