Violent protest or peaceful protest? This question has been challenged for centuries, and still, people argue and disagree over the most effective way to protest. The recent black lives matter protests around the world following the death of George Floyd highlighted the tension between two sides of protestors. As one side destroyed all objects in […]
via Violent or Peaceful Protest? — Levine Lowdown
First of all, I did what I said I’d never do; I got into it with another blogger on their blog. But in this instance, I must have been too weak to help myself because I have had it with foreigners who sit somewhere in another country and have the nerve to pretend as though they know of our experience here in Amerikkka.
The author of this particular blog lives in Australia. And I should have known right off the bat, that any white Australian speaking on protests going on in the U.S. would take exception because in all reality, the Aborigines should be protesting to get those Botany Bay Penal Colony convict rejects from out of their country.
The whites are always going to go on and on about how peaceful protesting is the means to an end; yeah, our end. Just ask Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., how well that peaceful protesting worked out for him. He was felled by an assassin’s bullet thanks to Dr. King peacefully protesting which seemed to have lit a spark in the whites who had him murdered for going about things all peaceful like.
Here is my first comment on the article in question:
During the Civil Rights Movement, peaceful protesters were met with violence from ‘the state’, meaning the federal government and on the local level. You don’t remember seeing pictures of hoses and dogs being sicced on peaceful Black protesters? Those people were then jailed for their peaceful protesting. So, why is it okay for the federal government to act violently towards peaceful protesters, but yet, you seem to take umbrage with protesters who turn violent since ‘peaceful’ protesting doesn’t work either? So why don’t you ask Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., how well peaceful protesting worked out for him. It was ‘peaceful protesting’ that got him an assassin’s bullet.
We have tried it both ways and neither works. The fact of the matter is that American descendants of slavery are damned if we do and damned if we don’t.
I lived in Minneapolis, MN for over a decade and I can tell you that what burned down was NOT owned by American descendants of slavery. Where the majority of the riots occurred is an area known to have a high concentration of immigrants from Mexico, Asia and Africa. One or two stores may have been owned by American descendants of slavery and I know this for a fact because I was in Minneapolis just as recently as this past November. And so I get so sick and tired of people going on and on about how Black people are burning down their own neighborhoods. We don’t own any neighborhoods. We don’t own multiple stores; grocery stores, banks, department stores, etc., and I am sure that you know this.
Until whites want to tear down the system of white supremacy from which they benefit, nothing that Black people do, be it peacefully or non-peacefully is going to make a bit of difference. And I do believe you know this already.
To which the blog’s author responded with:
Yes, MLK was assassinated. But, it was his peaceful protesting that resulting in 4 legislative changes and the introduction of the civil rights act in 1968. Malcom X was not responsible for any legislative change.
I’m not saying that the businesses that were destroyed were necessarily owned by African Americans. However, many African Americans died during the protest not by the police, some businesses were destroyed as you have noted. This whole process is about reconciliation, we in Australia are going through the exact same thing. It’s about reconciling with those who were first, violence is contrary to the action of reconciliation.
You sound defeated. I find that disappointing. We have just witnessed 4 straight weeks of MILLIONS of people around the world leaving their normal life behind to fight for equality. People have abandoned their social media image which society asks them to create, and instead have turned to activism. We have witnessed the power of people to charge more police officers. This is a time of hope that needs to be sustained, I don’t think we should be defeated.
And of course, I took it from there!
Again, I have to disagree with you. Nothing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and crew did, amounted to anything. The Supreme Court gutted key provisions of the Voting Rights Act which is what Dr. King fought so hard for; Black people to have the right to vote and an end to Jim Crow. Many Black people are being denied the right to vote. You haven’t heard of gerrymandering? And Jim Crow never ended, it just morphed into a different way of keeping Black people from entering certain areas of town and certain restaurants, etc. Whites started building ‘gated communities’ and now we have gentrification. And so AGAIN, nothing was accomplished. I am in the states and so I know, first hand what is going down and what has been going down for my over 40 years on this planet.
And the only reason MILLIONS of people are somewhere protesting or whatever they want to call it is not because of some ‘awakening’ but because they are unemployed thanks to COVID-19, have been on lockdown for months and have had it. This was just the perfect storm of mess that coincided. You give people too much credit where none is due. I’m a realist. I see the reality of the situation while you want to believe in ‘hope and change’. We thought we had that with Barack Obama and that got us what? Donald Trump! I rest my case.
Now, I thought that we were finished, but apparently not because the author of the blog responded with this:
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I will never completely understand your oppression and struggles but I will continue to listen and try to learn. I am interested however in your statement that MLK didn’t do anything. Who do you think was responsible for the civil rights act 1968?
I disagree with you on this point completely. You are saying that millions of people were protesting just because they are sick of being in their homes? That explains nothing. That doesn’t explain the emotion on these people’s faces. That doesn’t explain the passion that led some to violence. That doesn’t explain the images of people joining together as one. Sure, maybe a few just wanted to get outside, but this was a huge movement of people joining together. I’m a realist aswell. I don’t think this is all going to fix itself in 5, 10 or 20 years. But, I am an optimistic realist, I think over time change can occur. Barack Obama wasn’t successful because he didn’t have full control of America’s politics. If Joe Biden also has support in the Senate, powerful change can always occur if it is supported by appropriate services.
Apparently, I could not let that stand and so replied:
You seriously lack knowledge of America’s political system. For his first two years in office, Barack Obama could have gotten much completed since both the Senate and the House were in the hands of the Democrats. Nothing got done. It was only after that control had shifted to the Republicans is when Obama claimed to have been stalled when attempting to get anything done.
And just what did the Civil Rights Act of 1968 accomplish? Because when you look at where Black people are today, that Act did nothing. Black people are the poster children for the faces of poverty, gentrification, homelessness, mass incarceration, income inequality, illiteracy, victims of police brutality and the list of the like is endless. An Act does nothing when the same mindset is still there and the same mindset of the whites in 1968 is still very much in evidence today.
And I know that you did not go there with regards to Joe Biden when he is mostly responsible for why American descendants of slavery are overly represented in prisons all across America due to his 1994 Crime Bill. He’s been on an ‘apology tour’ about that. You seriously need to educate yourself before speaking on issues here in America.
And we still weren’t through! His response was:
I’m disappointed this discussion had to go down this route. I thought we were debating some really interesting points and it was very insightful. However, I will not continue if we go down the persona attack route because that has no purpose.
Regardless, sorry I did not know that the first 2 years of Obama’s Presidency he had control of both the Senate and the House. I made the mistake of assuming his second term was the same as his first term. What do you think needs to be done as the first step and then possibly subsequent steps?
I wasn’t talking about the effectiveness of the act, but rather the role of MLK in creating the act. As I’ve said, legislation is only effective when it is supported by services that ensure accountability, enforcement and education.
I do know about the 1994 Crime Bill. I have researched it heavily and understand Biden’s negative impact. My point was that the two options are Trump or Biden. Clearly Trump isn’t going to achieve anything in this area other than take us backwards. If Biden can pass legislation there is a chance change could occur due to his very progressive agenda.
And even then, I could not let him get away with that!
Biden doesn’t have ANY agenda. The man is senile. If you even look at any of his political ads, the man is actually stumbling over his words. His nickname is “Slow Joe.” No one takes him seriously. He is NOT the person to beat Trump. With Joe Biden as the only alternative, Trump is a shoe-in. That is a fact. The Democrats don’t care about winning this election because they stand for exactly what Trump stands for. There is no difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. There is no longer any illusion of that.
Have you never stopped to wonder why Black Americans fare so poorly regardless of whether a Democrat or a Republican is at the helm? It is because there is no difference between them. Biden is not progressive and the only reason he was picked as the choice for the Democrats is based off of Biden’s position as Obama’s VP. That is all the Democrats are throwing at Trump. Someone who mumbles, is incoherent, has been groping females for decades and was Obama’s VP. Only older voters are even thinking about Biden as most of the rest of us are sighing and throwing our hands up because there is nothing to vote for.
Most of us are already preparing for the FACT that Trump is going to get re-elected. He has nothing standing in his way. And in fact, if you want to give anyone credit for what’s going down today, give it to Trump. He has made so many whites unhappy since they are also unemployed, hungry and broke, that they are expressing that anger towards Trump. But make no mistake, Trump’s base is still solidly behind him since racism is alive and kicking in Amerikkka and always will be.
Folks, we have got so many Monday morning quarterbacks, it’s ridiculous. How is someone over in Australia going to tell Black people what we need to do in so far as how we go about protesting especially when their shit reeks to the stars and back? Those descendants of convict rejects are sitting somewhere on their pasty asses talking about how peaceful our asses should be when they did not ‘peacefully’ take the land away from the Aborigines and quite frankly, to this very day, treat those people like shit! But yet, this piece of shit Botany Bay Penal Colony reject wants to get all offended when I push back on his attempts to tell us what to do here in Amerikkka. I don’t give a fuck about being polite when someone is speaking on a subject they obviously have no knowledge of whatsoever.
And I don’t even know what he meant by this!
However, I will not continue if we go down the persona attack route because that has no purpose.
How in the hell did I personally attack him? The TRUTH attacked him? Because that’s the only thing I threw at him. Not once did I cuss, throw a fit or even flip out and yet, I still get, “the persona attack route.” What the hell? Dude couldn’t handle what was coming at him, that is quite obvious and so then resorted to lying about ‘personal attacks’. For the love of !! That’s a white person for you! When they can’t best you, they claim you’ve ‘personally attacked’ them, WITH WORDS! For the love of !!!!!
As I have already stated, we have tried IT.ALL. And nothing has worked for us; not peaceful protesting, not violent protesting and this is because the system of white supremacy is going to make sure that ANY protests are going to be met with violence from the government. But it seems that according to some piece of shit over in Australia, the violence displayed by the government is nothing next to some burned out taco trucks and a fire in Target. We should just continue to love dying at the hands of the KKK that makes up police departments all across Amerikkka because some piece of shit in Australia believes everything would be okay if only we peacefully protest and vote in Joe Biden as the next president. Seriously???!!!
It is quite obviously time for me to go back to reading fluff and nonsense. The next book, that I’m getting out now, is Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon.
But first, this is for ‘Australian dude’.
Now figure that one out!
shelbycourtland 