I wrote about white people: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-09-04/black-lives-matter-white-people-portland-protests-nfl

girlies, I wrote this bc these protests keep getting WEIRD. and some seem counterintuitive. I asked myself, "what has changed? why are these protests getting weird?"

The answer I settled on is: white people.

earlier this summer, white support for BLM grew... A LOT.

According to a June poll from Monmouth University, 49% of white Americans now say police are more likely to use excessive force against a Black culprit. In 2016, that figure was 25%

like,,,, THATS INSANE

But as an LA activist filmmaker told me, the marches over the summer started off coherent and then devolved into being performative.

“White girls would agitate the police and then cry when they responded," he said.

the messiness of this...LIKE! why.

THE ANSWER I found from a historian is this--

Black people are always protesting their immediate state while keeping in mind the end game. White ppl are driven the “fierce urgency of the future.”

he gave me a GREAT example:

Black people are protesting contaminated water in Flint. White people are protesting the melting of Arctic glaciers. One could you today, the other could kill your children in 30 years.

BOTH are important but require a different response

This historian told me that if history shows one thing to be true, it’s that white attention and sympathy for Black social justice is fleeting. It wanes when cameras disappear...and unsurprisingly, that's already happening!

45% of white people surveyed found racism to be a “big problem.” By early August, that number had fallen to 33%.

I suppose I’m not too surprised ... because ... white people.