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Interrogative Essay​s & Critiques

Shutting Down Malls and Airports In Protest Not Only Makes Sense, Its Necessary

12/24/2015

71 Comments

 


Shutting Down Malls and Airports Not Only Makes Sense, But is Necessary
Nonviolent protests are performances. I don’t mean that in a disingenuous way, I mean that in the way that nonviolence requires an audience. Injustice is upheld in equal parts by those enacting immediate violence and discrimination (whether that be interpersonal, ideological, internalized or institutional) and by the silence and averted gaze of the “unaffected” masses.
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When Black Lives Matter Minneapolis shut down 35W last year after Mike Brown was murdered, there was a chorus of white folks yelling “but why do they have to block traffic?”, “I sympathize, I just don’t understand why they have to inconvenience innocent people”, “I’m sympathetic, but this just isn’t the way to go about it”. First, I hope we can all see the irony of those of the oppressor/dominator class suggesting the oppressed protest in a more convenient way. Second, in the systemic oppression of anyone there are no innocent people. Every day each and every one of us either reinforces or deconstructs systems of oppression by what we say or do not say, what we do or do not do. To voice support followed by “but” is not really voicing support, because the question is most concerned by the moral compass of the dominator than with what is the most effective way to achieve justice. There should always be room for critique, but the majority of folks leveraging critique against BLM aren't leveraging critiques against police violence. If you aren't speaking to and fighting against systems and circumstances of oppression then you don't have a right to complain about the tactics being used to fight back against these systems.

Last Winter, after a slew of extra judicial killings of black and brown folks, and as many grand juries and non indictments, BLM Minneapolis and supports shut down Mall of America. Again, the same chorus of, “but why do you have to ruin people's shopping experiences?” or “this is private property, this isn’t right!” came flooding in through social media and the doldrums of the comment sections. Never mind that taxpayers are responsible for much of the construction of the mega mall, and will be for its proposed addition, and thus the idea of what is or is not private property should be interrogated, as should the idea that our laws are valid, or inherently valid, metrics for mortality-last I checked Slavery, Jim Crow, the internment of the Japanese during WW2, Voter IDs, and the war on drugs, were all technically legal. I digress, let's return to the notion of convenience.

This year, after the murder of Jamar Clark in N. Minneapolis by a historically violent, brutal and racist police force in a state with some of the worst wealth and educational disparities, along racial lines, in the country , BLM Minneapolis took to the Mall of America again as well as the MSP International Airport. Again, the complaints. While it isn’t the focus of this essay, the sheer and astounding narcism and privilege that allows (mostly) white Americans to complain that their commute or their shopping experience was made unpleasant while black and brown folks are killed and brutalized by police at an exponentially greater rate than white folks, is staggering. However, not surprising. The list of young men and womyn of color who will not be celebrating any holiday this season, or any season ever again, is longer than any and all of our collective shopping lists, though apparently not more pressing nor longer than our list of facile complaints. The outrage over inconvenience shows a great lack of empathy and humanity, but also of an understanding of social movements and non-violent protest.

Nonviolence is equal parts performance and spotlight. Privilege is in part defined by our ability to look away, to be silent, to not attend the play without repercussions or interruptions in our lives. Anyone who was at the MOA or MSP or on 35w, or 94w shortly after Jamar was killed, who didn’t know much about police violence inevitably knows more now. If they didn’t know the name of Jamar Clark, they do now. The protests either alienated them or brought them to the light and made them question their roles in systemic oppression, but required them to witness the reality of police militarization for even a brief moment. It made them audience members, it required they look, it required they say something. Anything. Even if what was said was racist, hateful or unproductive, they revealed themselves, they interacted, and they watched, and they witnessed. If nonviolent protests does nothing at all it should reveal just who we are, to ourselves and to those around us. Nonviolent protest must disrupt “business as usual” it must disrupt “status quo”, it must not allow the silent, privileged ignorance and optional gaze of white people to continue while black and brown folks are murdered by police, charged and incarcerated at nearly 8 times the rate of white people for the same crimes (committed at nearly identical rates). While cities continue to close school after school and build prison after prison while the the wealth gaps grow larger, brunch and shopping day cannot and should not be enjoyed in the way that they have been enjoyed. 

Shutting down Malls is essential as it disrupts the flow of capital and demands an audience, progress never seems to be made until money gets on the table. The bus boycott worked because it nearly bankrupted the bus company and demanded an audience. Imagine if the MOA was shut down every day, it would take less than a month to entirely re-imagine police forces in Minnesota. Imagine the Vikings went on strike. It would take days before those who don’t support the cause would be demanding justice not in the name of justice, but in the name of their own comfort and wealth. Never underestimate the power of the privileged desire for comfort, for it is always held in higher regard than the livelihood of the oppressed. As Assata Shakur says, "Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them." I’m not sure what world those who “just wish these protesters wouldn’t inconvenience innocent people” believe we live in wherein justice has ever been given by the oppressor, but there are two options for resistance, violence and nonviolence. Inconvenience or blood. Justice is not an option, it is a necessity and a right.
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Yes it is inconvenient to miss a flight or have your errands for the day messed up, it is inconvenient at worst, the way that taking a wrong turn or hitting traffic is inconvenient. Inconvenience is a reflection of privilege, let’s not forget the privilege of owning a car are having the capital to shop for our loved ones. Or have or loved ones still alive to be shopped for.

Regardless of what you feel, that inconvenience made you say something, it made you look, it made you an audience member in our political theatre wherein some of us have the privilege to opt out of, and some of us are born into. In response to the last 400 years of systemic violence, of slavery and lynchings, and police violence, of redlining, of building power plants in black neighborhoods, of burning black neighborhoods to the ground to make way for parks or malls other measures of white luxury, in response to a history of inequitable access to education and housing, employment and health care, in response to a racist war on drugs and mass incarceration, any action would be justified. With knowledge of history, blowing the Mall of America up would have been justified, and yet the masses are in arms because they were late to work or getting home, because their christmas shopping wasn’t done on time. White folks should consider ourselves lucky that folks of color have never done us like we do them day in and day out.

In the age of distraction, in a country founded upon genocide and our collective, subsequent amnesia, nonviolence demands you look, demands you to be, at the very least, an audience member in the systematic subjugation and murder of black and brown bodies. To be inconvenienced, only, is a privilege, and the anger present in the inconvenienced, is rooted in a lack of understanding of both local and national politics and history. Protests demand of the silent masses that they speak, that they say something, even if it is hateful and awful, even if it is violent, because then it is in the open, then they are participating, they are watching, they are forced to look, they make it clear which side of history they are on and just what those of value justice are up against.

Things often get worse before they get better, but nonviolence, disruption, protest, forces the majority to understand that things are bad now, that they have always been. If the same precinct is shut down and the same street marched, the audience is no longer demanded, the protest is easily silenced, it becomes a part of our convenient, daily lives. Nonviolence must up its stakes, it must shut down the flow of capital, it must inconvenience those who have the privilege to look away. When white folks ask for black folks to be “peaceful” what they really  mean is silent, is convenient, is protesting in a way which does not disrupt the luxury of whiteness. Sorry, not sorry. If folks of color can survive white people, I think we can survive missing a flight, a sale at The Gap, or getting home a little late.
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Michael Lee is a Norwegian-American writer, performer and educator. He has received grants and scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the LOFT Literary Center, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and Intermedia Arts. He is an Ed.M candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. You can help support his writing HERE.
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71 Comments
Joseph Larson
12/26/2015 01:14:25 pm

Your article makes some assumptions I don't agree with. I do not agree that someone who is white or white male should automatically be considered an oppressor. But your article seems to assume that. Your article seems to assume that the people who were "inconvenienced" needed to be made more aware of the BLM movement. I think that is also a questionable assumption.

Do I agree more people are aware of BLM than were before? Probably. Do I think it's likely they are aware of it in a positive manner? No. When someone is "inconvenienced", as you put it, they tend to view the people generating the obstruction in a negative light -- making them less likely to be sympathetic to the movement involved, not more so. It's like loud pipes on motorcycles. They lead to bad feelings about motorcycles, not an increase in people looking out for the guys whose pipes aren't eardrum-shattering.

You know what BLM needs to do? They need to give "the oppressors" concrete steps. All I hear about is better educating the police. I agree. What can I, as a resident in Apple Valley, do that would change police behavior in Minneapolis? I can't vote for a different mayor. I can raise awareness to do... what exactly?

What BLM needs to do (in my opinion) is simple:

1. Raise black community voting participation to 100%. Think what THAT would do to the demographics of the city council. That's the potential for some serious political power.

2. Be specific. What exactly do they expect people to do?

Right now their protests come across as a lot of law-breaking without a real purpose. I know that's not fair, but when they engage in illegal protests but don't clearly present a real plan of action, it comes across poorly.

What do they really think the "inconvenienced" are supposed to do? I haven't a clue.

--

Furthermore, the idea that missing a flight is at worst inconvenient is ludicrous. A missed flight can mean someone didn't make it home before his father died in the hospital. It can mean someone misses an important business meeting, resulting in a significant proposal going to a competing company. It can mean someone misses a promotion or a job offer. It can mean someone doesn't arrive in time for a long planned honeymoon cruise.

Does this compare to somene dying? No, absolutely not. But it's more than "inconvenient". And the protests aren't saving lives. If they were, that would be one thing. But they aren't.

--

Do I have sympathy for BLM? Yes. If you saw my Facebook page, you would see that. But that doesn't mean they're doing the right things.

If they want change, start at home. Get 100% black voting levels and they'll have real political power. And that's where the change begins.

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Cedo
12/28/2015 04:52:23 am

Well said!!

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Andrew Theisen
12/28/2015 08:42:13 am

You are on the right track with getting black voting levels to 100%. What are you doing on your part to fulfill that? Your sympathy means nothing if you can't support BLM protesting.

You totally ignored the article about saying you have support for BLM "but". Voting was never created for marginalized people to have any chance of succeeding in. It is clear you do not understand the privileges of what voting entails.

I feel like you are almost there in understanding, a little more perspective from the shoes of others and you'll get it.

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Cedo
12/28/2015 10:21:54 am


http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/marginalize
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/democracy

We live in a Democratic society. If you want to change from being "marginalized" make change happen democratically!

Jonathan Gomez
12/30/2015 02:20:00 pm

Also important to know that many black and brown people can't vote because of their history of criminalizes behavior. Highly recommend reading Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow.

bjs
7/14/2016 03:02:45 pm

Protesters of any cause irritate me because they remind me of adults throwing temper tantrums or privileged white people trying to prove their progressiveness (and I am a white person who has protested before). I have no problem with the inconvenience factor protesting may cause. I agree that the complaints about being inconvenienced often shows the existence of white privilege. I also don't think for a minute that anyone would lose their job due to a highway closure, especially because it is a nationally publicized event that is outside of anyone's control.

That said, I think BLM has made racial tensions worse. Do all black and brown people support BLM? I am guessing no, just like all women don't support feminism, and most muslims don't support ISIS. If I was black, I don't think I would want a group of highly controversial protesters representing me. As a woman, I don't want a bunch of feminists representing me by screaming about "rape culture" or "street harassment", and as a Christian, I don't want traditional Catholics representing me. Everyone is a unique individual, regardless of what they look like on the outside.

Maybe all black people don't want to be seen as victims, who are being represented by a group that has been referred to as a terrorist organization. Has BLM ever considered these people, or are they too focused on skin color to take into account the black individuals who might appreciate law enforcement?

Jeri
12/28/2015 10:06:34 am

Agreed! Everything I have been thinking about these protests you have summed up perfectly. Are there injustices to correct, completely! Is this getting it done, I think the lack of real change has answered that.

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Tks
12/28/2015 03:50:31 pm

You completely missed the article's point and at the same time completely made it's point

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Bu Tt
12/29/2015 12:00:41 pm

Can you explain this, or was this supposed to be a clever yet meaningless one liner?

steve
12/28/2015 05:34:41 pm

exactly!!! the view of an educated human being

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Evin Ziemer
12/28/2015 07:28:13 pm

If being nice to white people was going to solve this problem, Dr. King would have solved it by 1965. The ongoing complaints about how protests alienate white people? Yeah, well white people have been ignoring Black and brown people being killed for hundreds of years. Racial Justice activists have been doing *everything* else to get white attention. Hasn't worked. So, don't protest and nothing changes. Protest and "alienate" some white people who haven't been doing shit, weren't going to do shit, and don't give a shit anyway really? The point of the protests isn't to gain white sympathy. It's to communicate that things have to change now or life won't continue as usual. It's an act of power, not an act to gain sympathy.

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Jesse Parsh
12/29/2015 08:29:28 pm

It's this kind of stuff that makes white people feel so attacked. I'm a white male who knows all about white privilege, I don't deny it nor do I condone it. I've worked my life for the oppressed. I've been vegan and an animal activist for over 20 years and have spent time in jail because of my actions. I've done anti racism protests, early occupy protests, anti war actions...all this and you're going to call out "white" people?

Jamie Boyd
12/30/2015 08:52:16 am

Jesse - Social Justice is not a transferable credits system. If it's not about you, its not about you.

Are you criticizing the disruption? As someone who went to jail for activism?

Why are you bothered by this? White privilege is not something one is guilty of, and no work you do - short of dismantling the systems that perpetuate it - will relieve you of it. There is no atonement, and my experience is that my black friends don't give a damn about white guilt.

"I don't deny it nor do I condone it"
Make yourself a cookie. Then try "I use it to fight white supremacy". There is no virtue in refusing to use the hammer you have while letting another person remain shackled. So what if he doesn't have a hammer right now? First break the chains he's in.

Quit making it center you.

PS: white vegans are often tone deaf to the potential to sound racist when discussing justice for black people & for animals together. I don't know that you are doing it here, but you're close.

kris
12/28/2015 08:35:55 pm

You only tell 1/2 the story he beat up a woman refused to let help get to her and help her beat up help when they arrived try to take an officer weapon them wonders why he got shot? The woman he beat up died because of him so no the protest is unwarranted your protesting for a thug. If you want to protest do it for the innocent child killed by stray bullet from gang violent. Instead of causing problems for others how about fighting to do good and get rid of the thugs drug dealers causing the problems? I'm tired of the blm all lives matter no matter what color you are if your going to be out causing problems be ready for getting caught and what might happen rob some one you could die hurt some one you can die don't cause problems of not ready to do time or get hurt or killed once one tried to her jack me I ran over them and left them don't mess with stuff not yours. One tried to steal my purse he got a broken arm not yours don't mess with it. Quit protesting in disrupting manners all you do is make it worse in yourself and loose any respect you had. Because now no one cares. Because you don't care about others why should they care about you if you want respect give respect dis respect get dis respect.

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Gary DeLoriea
12/29/2015 06:03:30 am

OK, you're argument doesn't hold water. Leave go the fact that Treyvon Martin,Tamir Rice and Freddie Grey weren't a threat to anyone when they murdered. If you're theory about being a peaceful citizen being a defense against being shot is bull. The Colorado springs shooter was taken alive after killing 3 and wounding 9 including a cop. The Memphis shooter taking alive, Charlseton, and the list goes on and on. The fact is if you are brown or black the police will shoot you very easily. The only shocking thing,which is sad, is when their murderers are actually hel accountable.

Ray L
12/29/2015 07:54:45 pm

DC sniper was not white. Wasn't he taken alive?

Hogie
12/28/2015 10:01:00 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p9Kp0hFoBo

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Margie
12/29/2015 01:37:48 am

I agree with Joseph Larson, but would also add a few thoughts. This article suggests a couple of times that even if these protests make people angry, and even hateful, it's good because it forces them to be part of an audience. But is that really accomplishing the group's goal? I would suggest that it is setting the bar pretty low, and possibly working against the overall goal.
Let's say a protest backs up traffic, which makes a lot of people late for work, and gets them all in trouble with their boss. Let's say that subsequently 50% of those people now respond negatively to the BLM movement. What if half of that group would have responded positively, had they been informed in a different way? And those people tell other people, who in turn tell others. There's a reason why the saying goes "you catch more flies with honey."

Secondly, this article suggests that shutting down the mall would have economic consequences, which would force people to change- for no other reason than for money. Is that not bullying? And is that not, at the very least, emotional violence?

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Bu Tt
12/29/2015 12:02:25 pm

I'm not sure how forcing your view upon a captive audience has really done anything positive.

Brooks Jordan
12/29/2015 05:54:15 am

Joseph Larson, Who has a 100% voting level? That is unrealistic. Don't you agree?

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Jabari
12/29/2015 07:01:56 am

BLM has made specific demands and proposals for over a year. People ignore them and then claim they're not there. Here: http://www.joincampaignzero.org/

You live in Apple Valley? Great. Fight against the voter disenfranchisement In your state. It affects people of color the worst. Here: http://felonvoting.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000286

Thanks for being an ally!

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Bu Tt
12/29/2015 11:59:07 am

This. This is perfect.

The vast majority of people I know now view the BLM movement with disdain due to disruptions in their lives. One friend almost got fired, and another missed a wedding. Both of those events have set in stone their views about BLM.

I personally support the BLM, and these disruptions are counterproductive. Zealous supporters refuse to acknowledge this, which makes me worried about the overall outcomes of these. We must channel our socially justified rage in a way that creates positive change, and that requires a tactically intelligent methodology that is, as of this movement, impossible due to the decentralized nature of BLM.

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Jamie Boyd
12/30/2015 09:01:32 am

So, those friends were previously doing outreach and fundraising college scholarships for young black kids and quit?

What did their good opinion help with?

Declaring that someone lacks a 'tactically intelligent methodology' just because the strategy doesn't center on gaining your support? Do you hear your own condescension?

You not knowing what the plan is doesn't mean it isn't there.

Thora
7/14/2016 06:47:52 am

BLM is a terrorist hate group much like the lol is viewed as. White privlage are you kidding me?! White is the only color that you can discriminate against without being called a racist. BLM ever shuts down a highway around where I live they would get run over. We don't have time to cater to self indulged uneducated brats who don't even understand why they are protesting.

laura
12/29/2015 02:40:28 pm

nice victim blaming- if blacks voted more they could empower themselves. forget about the people who can't manipulate their work schedules to be available to stand in line at the single voting station allotted their area.

I am white. I am an oppressor. It doesn't matter how many POC friends I have, how many POC I've slept with, how many posts in support of BLM I post.

I am white and I benefit from that. That makes me an oppressor by definition. Especially when a person continues to think of justifications as to why the oppressed are not doing enough for themselves.

You should reread the article.

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Jesse Parsh
12/29/2015 08:38:15 pm

You might want to look up the definition of oppressor if you think being white is the definition.

J King
1/2/2016 02:53:53 pm

Well put Mr. Larson.
He lost me immediately. He carries on pretty well, but some of the problems with his article are...
Why are *all* white people suddenly ‘the oppressors’?
Plus, by his own definition, the protesters themselves are 'guilty'.
I agree, YES - these deaths are an injustice.
However - Where is the rallying of support when white people are murdered?
Sure, most of us have seen the the reports on-line (i.e. pictures from CNN) that display facts of more whites were killed in 2014 Police than Blacks were killed....just as we've seen the opposite.
Fact: BOTH are wrong, because none of this is accurate.
Let me rephrase that = NO ONE REALLY KNOWS HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE KILLED BY THE POLICE OVER THE LAST FEW DECADES. (There is no accurate metric for reporting these incidents!!)

Yes, the Mega Mall is privately owned, bringing up the fact that they got taxpayers to pay for it is a completely different matter. (Not one that I am pleased with). A convenient way for Mr. Lee to deny the legal claim of the Mall to remove anyone they desire.

His slanderous accusations are just that. No facts linked and nothing more the crude, puerile, attacks used in an attempt to drive people to his opinion.
It has been made publicly clear that Mr. Jamal Clark was a known felon and his assaulting a woman was the reason the police were called. He was then shot by the police as continued to prevent the woman from receiving medical attention.
- Not the perfect outcome to be sure, but I digress and it was not my intent to pick apart his article.
I agree with Mr. Larson, and to paraphrase a quote from the movie RED DAWN...
If a fox stole your chickens, would you slaughter your dog because the pig saw the fox?
No. You need to prevent the fox from stealing the chickens.

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G
7/13/2016 01:21:38 pm

Well said! Better than the author!

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Susan
7/13/2016 04:23:28 pm

So well said.
I don't have a problem with the protest but there are legal ways to do it that don't also endanger more lives...a person black or white having a heart attack trying to get to a hospital.
I also agree- you want to things- then Doug it in a meaningful and productive way and also lead by example.

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Cheyenne
7/14/2016 07:48:42 am

I totally agree with getting more people of color out there to vote. This is how we, all of us can make a change in this world. NOW, I would also like people to remember that there is a major effort by many to suppress voter participation. A major problem for many. When states start making it difficult for people to vote and any reasonable person can see what the intended results are, everyone who cares about judicial equality needs to come forward and put a stop to it...It has been said or implied, that Republicans don't want those of lower income or people of color to be able to vote cause they will vote with Democrats. If you care about this country, if you care about the human race then you need to be vocal when there are injustices being perpetrated against other citizens.

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mplo
12/6/2016 08:22:04 am

You've made some very good points in the last part of your post, Joseph Larson. While I agree with the overall purpose of the BLM movement, there are certain tactics that they've resorted to that I don't agree with.

First of all (and this should be done with even baseball games), causing ambulances and other emergency vehicles to be diverted, thus making it more difficult to transport a seriously ill or injured person to the hospital, and get to the scene of a crime, or a fire is not the way to go. It used to be that when protestors stood or sat in the street for any reason, the organizers of such protests would make the demonstrators move aside in order to let ambulances or other emergency vehicles through.

Secondly, blocking freeways with extremely fast-moving motor vehicular traffic on them is extremely dangerous...and irresponsible, to boot.

Thirdly, not all whites, or even white males are privileged,

Fourth. One doesn't have to be a racist to raise such concerns.

Thanks for letting me have my say.

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Jamie Boyd
12/26/2015 03:12:55 pm

Re: proposal in a previous comment
I can't imagine why people who are currently systematically disenfranchised by overpolicing might not have much confidence in voting as a means to change things! [sarcasm]

If what is happening is an affront to your sense of justice, then there are plenty of resources to help you learn to take part in pushing for these changes.

Yes, these tactics work. Look at Chicago scramble to restructure police supervision, with the mayor and prosecutor scrambling to hold onto power.

When there's a boot on your neck it's not a popularity contest. Oppressed people don't need benevolent love, they need you to move your damn foot.

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JBoncz
12/26/2015 05:19:48 pm

When you have malicious intent, like the intent to disrupt traffic or shopping it reduces the ethical morality or the act you're commiting. I agree and understand the BBM message and how necessary it is to communicate, but the intention behind the act is not virtous. You say the worst that happened is inconvenience but you could potentially alienate supporters. Imagine someone's job was last because they were late to work because of this. They did not deserve to loose their job just as Jamar did not deserve to loose his life. Granted one is is dramatically worse than the other but we should all strive to act ethically and morally to get our message across, these protests might not be such a good lead by example of ethical responsability.

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Woz
12/28/2015 12:15:03 pm

"Imagine someone's job was last because they were late to work because of this. They did not deserve to loose their job just as Jamar did not deserve to loose his life."

Interesting comparison. Except you know what separates those two examples? One of them actually happened. Ask yourself this: why are you more upset about the hypothetical problems of a hypothetical white traveler than you are about the actual injustices visited upon actual people?

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Ben
12/28/2015 04:46:01 pm

Why do you assume these are hypothetical problems? And why do you assume they only happen to white travelers?

steelcobra
12/27/2015 11:09:43 am

Something to consider about the image at the end: all of those protesting techniques were not "shut-down, close-off" disruptive. Sitting at a lunch counter and refusing to leave was simply trying to get service the same way white customers did, refusing to sit at the back of the bus as well, it was using non-violence to provoke a response, and the point was to be simply doing things restricted by Jim Crow laws so that the oppressive types would be the bad guys when they responded. People react with sympathy to that kind of activism. They react with annoyance at the protesters with the tactics BLM has been using in Minneapolis.

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Jake
12/27/2015 11:27:32 am

The Montgomery bus boycott removed 75% of the ridership from the city buses, and threatened to shut down the entire system. That's a bit more disruptive to everyone in the community than shutting down any airport or mall for an afternoon.

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steelcobra
12/27/2015 12:23:41 pm

That's not the same though. That's disruption by absence, showing the system they needed those customers, not direct obstruction.

Jamie Boyd
12/27/2015 03:21:07 pm

I'm not terribly convinced that it was quite so sympathetic except in retrospect. Sure it's sympathetic NOW. The sympathy is effectively for maintaining the status quo relative to BLM actions.

MLK was certainly aware that some of his appeal to white people was simply NOT being Malcolm X. Letter from a Birmingham Jail is not something that suggests to me that he was pleading for real sympathy as much as he was setting up a stick & carrot.

His role has certainly been reshaped to allow white people who feared what he threatened a way to frame it in terms of how they were more 'being humanitarian' and less... 'giving in'. That's not a bad thing to understand, but I'm not sure it reflects what happened. Certainly no one liked him much til he was safely dead.

Maybe it will eventually occur to some white people that complaining about their fictional coworker's dying mom... okay, some of the people watching maybe will realize that most of the accusations getting hurled at protesters (entitled, self-centered, don't care about the context in other people's lives) are far more accurate when proposed as self-descriptions by those same angry white people as they are first catching their own privilege in the mirror. They go stomping their feet and demanding black people apologize for making them do this.

I don't know if it really did a damn thing to raise sympathy for the cause from white people; that still seems to be a terribly inefficient way to accomplish stuff. (Yes, that's a real thing to work on, but probably not getting results fast enough to take off.)

From the original post:
As Assata Shakur says, "Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them."

I'm not sure that I can give a compelling reason for this to appeal to my moral sense as a primary goal.

You clearly have an ethical concern around obstruction. How nice. Don't do it then I suppose, but is there some case you're making that it works better [for THEM] to appeal to you than to piss you off?

Because I'm not sure that is what contemporary sources reflect once ever. Much less that it works out regularly enough to insist that others adopt your own ethical intuition. (I don't know, maybe you have a very well-thought out idea here but I don't see it.)

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JBird
12/27/2015 03:30:54 pm

There is one huge issue missed here: does the leadership of BLM consider unintended consequences?

Example- The Rosa Parks meme, ostensibly containing the thesis message of this essay, fails as analogy. She was protesting her position on the public transit system; is BLM protesting the ability to shop? Obviously, no. This isn't a Woolworth's sit-in situation. This is a situation of interaction and its outcomes. Citizens and the police.

The point being, the MoA type of protest seems to create more division than unity on a very important issue.

Protest is necessary. Protest is vital. But to what end? If the central goal is to change the outcomes from black citizen/police interactions, then we need more than awareness of the issue. Awareness is not in short supply here.... We need support. Support from white people, support from all people- asian, latin, mixed, whatever.

It seems to me BLM has reached a crossroads- it can choose to follow a path that has no real goal outside disruption for awareness, or it can seriously consider outreach with depth beyond shouting in public places and writing critique essays aimed at those "whites" who get annoyed when they are made late for work.

That is, remain angry and yell at the walls, or take that anger and focus it into a message of prescription.

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Jamie Boyd
12/27/2015 03:59:32 pm

Wait... WHAT?

Yes, people who put their bodies on the line have generally thought about it quite a bit at an individual level.

Are you seriously imaging that people who organize things like this don't think and talk about what might go wrong? (or where it might go next)

Also: while I have never gotten a full picture of why this and why there, I can't imagine anyone doing all this and only thinking about desegregation of the bus seats.

Rosa Parks was picked for a strategic but ultimately a small role in this, (she did some far more bad-ass stuff later IMO) and the protest was against Jim Crow laws not one town's bus company.

Imagine working out the logistics of privately moving 75% of bus riders around. Tomorrow. No Google Maps, no cell phones.

Yes, they thought about unintended and indirect effects. FFS you know Rosa Parks name because the other woman was a single mother and this is why she somewhat synonymous with a deliberately public-friendly choice for a test case.

I don't even... how did you think... huh?

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Jamie Boyd
12/27/2015 03:38:17 pm

One thing I see happening at #BLM protests pretty consistently is that police are relocated. The presence of police and the social and convenience costs of policing are brought out of easily ignored black spaces and into white people's daily lives.

There is no "Officer Friendly" here either. This is scary guys in their matching stormtrooper outfits. This is a visibly militarized presence that has shifted the way I see police.

Part of the efficacy of the blockages I've seen up close (so, not this one) is where can protesters position the police.

You know who probably had a pretty good day? All the ones who were at home, enjoying the holidays in an area where they would normally get harassed by cops.

If nothing else, the ease at which white people invent stories that could have been disrupted by this action. There is intense sympathy for hypothetical 'victims' that I have yet to see extended to black people who are routinely inconvenienced by police stops.

Black people should just sacrifice and be polite... and never be angry that this cop is keeping them away from their loved ones.

Protests often make theatre of arrests, and forcing onlookers to watch is where a lot of the pressure to do better comes from, perhaps even to quit thinking doing nothing leaves one an innocent party here.

I don't think it's accurate to talk as if the organizers are fools who appreciate the help we're offering when we extend our thoughts on how to please us. How do I know whether I am the audience or part of the spectacle (both?).

Not like it's going to stop people, but I do wonder if anyone has a picture of what they expect to get in response to their demands?

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Jason Jehosephat
12/28/2015 09:57:21 am

"First, I hope we can all see the irony of the oppressor suggesting the oppressed protest in a more convenient way." First, I hope we can all see the irony of a person expecting to persuade a random assortment of people, that includes folks in the same boat as he, to give a damn what he has to say after he has just blindly labeled all of them "oppressor".

Second, I hope we can see that, no matter the profoundness of the merits of his grievances, the need to respond to violent crimes, to prevent houses from burning down, and to get dying people to the hospital is not a matter of "convenience".

Third, nothing good can come from rhetorical stretches of the nature "Second, in the systemic oppression of anyone there are no innocent people. Every day each and every one of us either reinforces or deconstructs systems of oppression by what we say or do not say, what we do or do not do." People who play word games to justify treating everybody as though they are the rankest offenders will never accept that any improvement has ever occurred because, even if there is one true "oppressor" left, they will manufacture rationales for continuing to characterize the world, along with everybody in it, as though it has remained and will remain at its lowest possible point in perpetuity.

A call for change cannot be constructive unless one assesses existing problems accurately, without hyperbole, and continues to do so as the problems grow or subside.

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Dan
12/28/2015 10:04:55 am

linking police injustices to shutting down a mall or airport is quite the leap of faith and appears aimless. I've seen this rent-a-mob before, and it seems to be comprised of the same random anarchists and anti-capitalist "folks."

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Gregory Clay link
12/28/2015 10:07:12 am

IN addition to misspelled words in this story, the analogy of Black Lives Matter to Rosa Parks is ridiculous.
IT'S called a false equivalency.

g CLAY
KEEP hope alive
www.gdclay.com

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Burt Reynolds
12/28/2015 12:00:36 pm

Not sure how much you want to hitch your wagon to statements like "blowing the Mall of America up would have been justified."

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What did Nelson Mandela go to prison for
12/29/2015 04:13:25 am

The mall is a building. I don't see any suggestion that the people in it would deserve such an attack.

Black communities have been carpet bombed, left to burn, or to wash away.

There is a difference between 'justified' and 'just'. Consider what's been stolen, destroyed and then withheld. (Work harder!)

Perhaps the suggestion is that a sense of proportion about the traffic delay might include that no one is returning the violence done to them. By several orders of magnitude.

Or have you missed out on the "violence" done due to white people's feelings being hurt?

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J
12/30/2015 01:34:09 pm

The full quote:

"With knowledge of history, blowing the Mall of America up would have been justified, and yet the masses are in arms because they were late to work or getting home, because their christmas shopping wasn’t done on time. White folks should consider ourselves lucky that folks of color have never done us like we do them day in and day out."

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Marty
12/28/2015 12:13:55 pm

Okay, as a Minnesotan, I can tell you this was written with rose tinted glasses. Ideological as you can get.... I've seen these protests. Non-Violent isn't exactly what I would call the movement. You see while the organizers want it to be considered non-violent, there are a lot of people with unguided rage who show up. I was at the MOA when BLM showed up the day before Christmas eve 2015. People did not peacefully come and go. They came with anger and rage, against people who often believe in the cause, and then are turned away by the methods.

Look at the sit-in/occupy movement that BLM had at the Minneapolis police station and city hall. It tragically turned into a slum that hindered police response time, to their own neighborhoods. The community was sick of the extra crime and destructive nature, so they asked the city to move them..

Until any cause knows when to distance it's self from certain people, even those who say they are there to help, but don't understand how to not cause more problems then they solve, then simply it will become a beacon for those who wish wish to cause problems with anonymity.


This is just my personal views, and I base them on actually seeing this from the outside looking in. Causing chaos doesn't make other support the cause. Showing that you care about black lives, would do that. By facing up against police (and the general public sometimes) in high tension situations, it shows a complete lack of care for the safety of those people. Would you encourage your child to go block freeway traffic? Or go toe to toe with police in riot gear at the mall?

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Side line
12/29/2015 10:17:04 am

Black and Brown people need to step up and be the cops and emergency responders, including EMT and firefighters, in the community. I work in medical care, side by side with many Somalians and Russians who are taking part in being providers for immigrants and those who have been here a few generations. If someone fleeing a civil war who has to master another language can take it on, so can African Americans. Mpls and St. Paul police departments actively recruit a diverse work force.

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Tmoney
7/14/2016 10:15:03 am

Well said this article is ignorant as it comes BLM movement are saying all cops are bad and out to get black people that is the same ideology of how they claim they are being oppressed and singled out. Not all cops are bad they do a difficult job and they also have families they would like to go home too stop being ignorant people and be the solution don't create more hate.

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AJ
12/28/2015 02:29:58 pm

I'm a white male in Minnesota and my take on BLM is simple, something bad must have been happening for some time to cause all of these people to take these actions and rather than judge the movement I should listen to it. They are working hard to make people aware of a problem that most of us can't see because of our position in society. Jarring us out of our bubble takes a bit of disruption and I get that. They now have my concern and my attention and that should amplify their voice in the halls of power.

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pamela parker
12/28/2015 05:19:17 pm

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Helter Skelter
12/28/2015 05:20:03 pm

Stomping Out Niggers Not Only Makes Sense, It's Necessary

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Shirley Neilson link
12/28/2015 06:12:01 pm

I so agree. Even without reading through this article, I completely support this statement. The remaining/ongoing recism in this country is not just "an inconvenient truth" , it is a moral/mortal flaw in this country, that if allowed to continue, will destroy us all... Since so many Americans don't seem to understand this fact, what better place to poke that moral conscience than right at the malll, where those that have, shop for more... I love it!

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Sam
12/28/2015 09:27:45 pm

Wait, you're joking about making this comment of support without reading the article, right? You not only have no idea about the content, slant, or purpose of the article, but you have also have swallowed the whole argument without truly digesting or thinking about it because you liked the headline. You are the epitome of lazy.

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Shirley Neilson
12/30/2015 01:26:13 pm

I was lazy in that I did not revise the post (I just copied it) that I made to my close friend, who shared this post, (who knows that I am a careful thinker). I want you to know , Sam, and others who read this, that I read the entire article and all the responses (27?) up to that time that were available on this blog. I have been thinking through my position on BLM since its inception, just as I listened to all of the positions during the civil rights movement of the sixties and seventies. as I was a young adult then. I thought about it a LOT before I ever decided to wear the BLM button, at first thinking, like so many others, that "All Lives Matter". But the opposite of "Black Lives Matter" is "Black Lives Don't Matter" not "All Lives Matter", which of course they do. Knowing that, I am happy to pronounce that "Black Lives Matter" Because I certainly don't believe the opposite. And another thought I have had, is Justice may be blind, but she doesn't get to use slight of hand....

mplo
12/6/2016 09:56:56 am

That's YOUR opinion, Shirley Neilson. Truthfully, there are times when the BLM Movement has overreached itself, and physically preventing people from going about their daily lives and business is one of them.

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Marty
12/29/2015 05:43:24 am

I have to ask..... If BLM decided to do a quiet sit in at a library, where maybe they focus on helping out youth or just getting together to be seen increasing their knowledge by reading publicly.... No signs, no shouting.... Think they could get the same or similar amounts of people to show up? Or is it just the chaos that drives people to join up?

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UThank
12/29/2015 08:48:14 am

Big difference between boycotting a service and sabotaging it, the the bus boycott a classic model of passive protest revealing social dependency and interconnectedness, here foolishly exploited by the author to include what are essentially acts of domestic terrorism and the sabotage of civilization. However, this is not surprising, given that a call to boycott malls, airports and freeways would be a spectacular failure, unlike the bus boycott.

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Jamie Boyd
12/30/2015 09:16:33 am

Crippling and nearly bankrupting the bus company... what about the people who lost jobs because they were unable to go for the whole boycott? This didn't just empty buses.

Have you ever thought about how disruptive that was?

If anything, this qualifies as symbolic by comparison to the damage done back then. No one missed a flight. (Several people have been debunked, if you want to claim it happened give flight details that can be verified.)

This is forcing white people to live with the constant hassles of the police response.

Your objection seems to be that it's effective at leveraging power

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Frozenrunner
12/29/2015 11:22:34 am

The demand for justice without a trail. The events surrounding Jamar Clark's death are not a certainty yet Black Lives Matters has tried and convicted. You do not get the concept of justice. The angry lynch mob is out. Non violent? hardly. Shoving a mentality down someone's throat is haedly non violent.

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Jonathan Banks
12/29/2015 12:18:56 pm

After reading through the article and the comments it seems that most everyone is in favor standing up for the oppressed communities changing how they are treated in America. I encourage the group to unite around achieving that change and accept that there are many paths to change. If you just can't get behind BLM, then make social justice happen in a way that works better for you. If this group supports the same change then the energy spent on infighting is really quite wasteful, because that energy could be used for bolstering actions that are personally acceptable for you.

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Shirley Neilson
12/30/2015 01:44:27 pm

Jonathan- Perfect! We have so much to accomplish on the social justice front, that turning passion into arguments and negativity, does not help the cause of social justice at all. You have succinctly stated the common point which just about everyone can agree with (social justice for all) and made the excellent point that we are better off working for that goal in our own ways, that feel right for each of us.... After all, back in the sixties it wasn't only demonstrators, but people who supported the cause through their legislators, through writing and singing and creating plays and poetry as well as just voting their conscience. The civil rights movements then and now use all of the tools and voices at tour disposal to make for "a more perfect union"

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Adel
12/29/2015 01:09:00 pm

While easy to do, frustrating the public has shown to be counter-productive, no matter how good the cause. It's just a sign of laziness or incompetence.

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Jamie Boyd
12/30/2015 09:19:25 am

Shown by who? Where?

When did making people happy work?

Give some examples.

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Cate
12/29/2015 01:41:09 pm

Read Lizabeth Cohen's _A Consumer's Republic_ for the chapter on how the development of largely white suburbia, with its privately-owned shopping malls, not only contributed to the demise of public downtowns but also, in turn, the abandonment of the public spaces where citizens could gather and protest without being silenced by the owner of a space. Furthermore, given that malls were created for overwhelmingly white suburbanites and highways created to help those white suburbanites work in cities without having to live next to the black and the poor people they left behind when they moved to the suburbs, it makes total sense to protest racial injustice at malls and on highways. Where else are you going to get the attention of whites? Certainly not on the downtown sidewalks they abandoned. Why not center protests of whites' treatment of blacks on the highways created to separate whites from blacks physically, socially, and financially?

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Tom Herman
12/30/2015 09:47:15 pm

You would have more credibility if you quit repeating the lie that Michael Brown was murdered. On November 24, 2014, McCulloch announced that the St. Louis County grand jury had decided not to indict Wilson.[14] On March 4, 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice reported the conclusion of its own investigation and cleared Wilson of civil rights violations in the shooting. It found that witnesses who corroborated the officer's account were credible, and it was also supported by forensic evidence. Witnesses who had incriminated him were not credible, including some who admitted they had not directly seen the events.[15][13] According to the evidence, Wilson shot Michael Brown in self-defense.[16][17]

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Fred Qwynne
1/2/2016 05:25:31 am

There are 2 very obvious solutions for the situations that the Black Lives Matters people protest. Work on making the community less violent. Less police calls, less chance for something to go wrong. Makes perfect sense except to the community. It is a straight forward argument. Change the attitude of the community from accepting crime. The other solution is as long as the perpetrator r of the crime does not have a gun, leave them be. If the first responders feel threatened by a situation, pass a law that says they can leave. If you want a community of violence, have at it. There are plenty of woe is the black community on this thread. Not a single one where there is any acknowledgement of culpability

When you try to compare anything that BLM does to Montgomery Bus Strike just try to remember there it was the policy of the bus company and the actions were taken against the bus company. That is far different than targeting fair goers, commuters, runners, shoppers, and travelers for the action of the police.

Why does the movement sputter

1. You make victims of people and claim your cause is just enough to do so.
2. Your cause is protesting thugs killing thugs. The senseless violence that kills others is ignored. The title of the group becomes a fallacy. There is no desire to make the community better

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Chad Dyer link
7/13/2016 06:50:04 pm

Please, everyone remember...personal accountability goes a long way in this world. Take care of those in your circle of influence and be positive.

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Gonzo
7/14/2016 12:01:39 pm

For years now I have stood on the platform of the light rail on the Hennepin County government center waiting to take the train to get to my car.. I look across the street and I see a poster in one of the windows at the old court house, it's one floor up from the street... it's been there for years. The sign is a poster of a child that was shot to death in his own community on the North Side of Minneapolis.. it says, who killed me.... and a reward of $60,000.00. I find it incredulous that NO ONE has come forward to give up the coward that killed that child..NO one has been arrested, and that child's face haunts me every time I see it. Now, last weekend a two year old was killed by a "stray" bullet.I simply ask... When will the black community wake up and call out these bastards and criminals and take back their community block by block, instead of letting the thugs run the streets sell the dope and kill the children in the crossfire.... If BLM, when will the Black community take control and put an end or at least address, black on black crime and murders..

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