When your white allies for racial justice mention the looting or vandalism we’re not engaging in whataboutism, or losing focus, we just want you to win. There are many of us with our feet in two worlds. I myself have taken the approach of not unfriending all the white conservative-leaning friends I had in High School and College. It gives me a valuable window into the swing state independents and persuadable voters. My life and network in Brooklyn, however, is a rainbow of ethnicities and orientations. I want the black and brown kids I teach to thrive and to not live in fear as much (probably more than) you do. The unfortunate reality is in our F’ed up gerrymandered system you need a minimum of 60% support to get anything done in this country. That means building a broad coalition. Right now my anecdotal pulse on the independent, educated suburban vote tells me you’ve won. More and more people I know are declaring themselves “former republicans” or “Republicans for Biden” They’ve had enough of the crazy and largely don’t blame the protestors for the violence and destruction so far. If the election were tomorrow Dems would take the White House, and both houses of congress, and we’ll be in a position to implement broad reforms. However, that can turn on a dime if cities continue to be burned and looted for another week. Yes I am white and I’m not by any means a leader in BLM movement, but dismissing the advice and intelligence you’re getting from your white allies is a strategic blunder IMO. So here is the biggest piece of advice I can give to the BLM movement:
Start Early. End Early.
Go home after dark. It's that simple. #StartEarlyEndEarly. Pause for a minute and reflect on the protests so far; Notice all the great stuff that is building broad support from people all across the country is happening in the daylight. All of the stuff that happening that works against the cause is happen after dark. Bad actors are using the cover of darkness and the distraction of legitimate protestors to loot and vandalize. Stop letting them do it. Your "self policing" is not working. The commercial spaces you are seizing and disrupting are most only open 8am to 8pm. So who exactly are you trying to reach at 11pm or 1am in Soho? It's a valuable strategy to make your voices heard and disrupt the everyday commerce and shared spaces of your community with your message. Kudos! Great work! By 8pm or 9pm however you're not reaching anyone, or disrupting anyone, in the commercial center of your community. The only thing you are doing at that point is yelling at your fellow protestors, and giving cover to the bad actors who are waiting for the sun to go down to begin the mayhem. The COVID-19 crisis has many older voices sidelined. That pastor or older community organizer with moral authority or standing in the community to stop the idiots smashing windows are largely sitting this out. As they should. COVID-19 is not a joke and many people will die needlessly in 3-4 weeks when this protest surge starts hitting our Emergency Rooms. If you're over 60 please stay home all together. We need your voice, your vote and your action in November. You can't do that if you're dead.
Love you all. Be safe. Get an n-95 mask and wear something over your eyes if you can. Please tag anyone you know is out there who would benefit from considering these issues in the comments.