I just saw someone post the following:
"Isn't looting not really protest? ...anyone lucky enough to have made it to the United States should feel blessed, that's all I have to say."
Anyone out there agree with that? It was hard for me to grasp that this is a point of view a lot of people relate with...and that's a huge part of the problem.
I thought I'd post my response in case others might benefit from it. If you are someone who thinks this way, please dig deep. I'm not being condescending, either, our future depends on you. Dig deep, reflect on where this idea comes from, and learn. Really, where do you get these ideas? Did you come to this conclusion by looking at all the facts? By having discussions and figuring out what felt right and what seemed wrong? As people just trying to make it in this world, we simply don't know everything. We can't. It's ok that we don't. But it's important that we listen to those who know about things where our own knowledge lacks. It's vital that we LEARN.
Enslaved people shipped as cargo to the United States were not "lucky" just to be here. Their descendants, who are murdered in the streets, in public, on camera, *by the very people that have sworn to serve and protect*, #every28hours, are not "blessed" just to be here.
The little bit of property damage is beside the point. there are literally thousands upon thousands of peaceful protestors out there right now! These peaceful protestors are actually being abused and provoked by police, with almost zero media coverage.
We have come to the point where people of color are being murdered in the streets almost every day by police without any justice, not even close. It is essentially legal for police officers to murder unarmed people of color in the United States. That's what we're dealing with. That's what we've been dealing with since the birth of the United States.
Without deflecting, without jumping to a "but..." How does this information make you feel? How do you think it would make you feel to have some understanding of this since birth? To have a cultural understanding of an imminent threat by a deadly force that is supposed to protect society, for generations, since our country was founded? Now tell me about a broken window at a CVS...
"Q. How would you define somebody who smashes in the window of a television store and takes what he wants?
BALDWIN: Before I get to that, how would you define somebody who puts a cat where he is and takes all the money out of the ghetto where he makes it? Who is looting whom? Grabbing off the TV set? He doesn't really want the TV set. He's saying screw you. It's just judgment, by the way, on the value of the TV set. He doesn't want it. He wants to let you know he's there. The question I'm trying to raise is a very serious question. The mass media-television and all the major news agencies-endlessly use that word "looter". On television you always see black hands reaching in, you know. And so the American public concludes that these savages are trying to steal everything from us, And no one has seriously tried to get where the trouble is. After all, you're accusing a captive population who has been robbed of everything of looting. I think it's obscene."
