I am not trying to start drama, but the discussion has been traumatic for several PoC in this community and that is absolutely intolerable. I will start off saying how fucking privileged I am and how I'm working with other kids at my school to become an antiracist. Everyday I'm becoming more sickeningly aware of my white privilege, and that is not something any white person who considers themself an ally should take lightly. Every single thing I am about to say has come from my attempts to remove myself from my racial socialization into whiteness, but every single thing I am about to say has still been influenced by my whiteness, so if I say anything and I mean ANYTHING wrong, offensive, or harmful, please fucking tell me right away. My arguments are both emotional and based on research, and most of the things I'm saying are opinions I've developed from interactions with PoC in various situations, and I'm in no way saying that MY views are in any way, shape, or form a monolith of the views of the Black community or any community of color for that matter. Read my words, and defer them as less important in comparison to the opinions of PoC. Listen to PoC's opinions on this, first and foremost, always. All of that being out of the way, I'm just going to let my feelings out because it is my utmost responsibility as someone learning to be an ally to defend people of color, but though this post is long, I am in no way trying to speak over PoC. Just please, if this is a safe discussion for your mental health rn, please hear me out.
I just wanna say, BLM and there's no debate over that. However, I think it's very important to acknowledge the CONTEXT of rioting. I absolutely believe that every person at the BLM protests who destroyed property and risked others and even killed others should be adequately held accountable, but to say that they were morally unjustified is kind of ignorant to me. Property destruction is a crime, and obviously so is physical assault/violence, but we need to consider where that's coming from. A history of police brutality, and not being able to address inequities through systems that were specifically designed to keep PoC from using them, has left communities of color VASTLY unable to defend themselves in traditional ways. When a system isn't built to protect some people, asking those people to then protect that system is kind of f*cked. Saying BLM isn't saying that all lives don't matter, it's literally saying that Black Lives matter BECAUSE all lives matter, and black lives are being focused on because they're still being shown that to many, they matter less. There is no point in telling groups who already "matter" at all levels of established economy, society, and history that they matter, but when communities of color are consistently ignored and excluded from "traditional" ways of calling for change (like through voters unions and racialized partisan gerrymandering), they don't have any other options to turn to than the streets, and after so much fucked treatment from a system that was never built to treat them equally, the ONLY way to truly call for the transformation of that system is demonstrations and protests, because radical change is required, and radical change can't be achieved by regular conversations. So yes, I do believe that people who caused damage to property and who hurt and assaulted others should be held accountable, but we can NOT act as if they just have the luxury of other options just because we're parts of a group that's used to having those other options. I am a white girl and I will never understand what it means to be a person of color and how it feels to see the validity of your life fucking debated, but I will also never stand to watch that happen. The violence is not okay, but there are some situations when violence is not a statement about one's morality, but about the options one has available to them, and we are NOT going to criticize Black people for finding the strength to pursue those options, and seeing as a comprehensive study of over 7.2k BLM protests over the summer by a Harvard study showed that 97% of BLM protests were completely peaceful, a similar study on over 7.5k BLM demonstrations over the summer showed that 93% of those protests were completely peaceful, we're also not going to demonize the actions of a desperately hurting community because of the drastic actions of a vast minority. I've said my piece. You may comment your disagreements but I'm not changing my mind because it's too fucking important. I'll be logging off for the rest of today for my own mental health, and I genuinely love each and every single one of you, but I also invite you to self reflect on how, if you're white, your whiteness may have blocked you from different opinions on BLM. Here are the links to the studies I referenced about violence at BLM protests during summer 2020.
https://time.com/5886348/report-peaceful-protests/
Please thoroughly investigate these links if doing so won't be harmful to your mental health. And remember, every single one of you is so fucking valid, important, and all of you matter, so please let the PoC in this community know how this is a safe space, because it is, and they all deserve better than emotional trauma like this, especially Black members of this community during BHM. A
Again, there is every possibility I said something very wrong. If I have, you do not need to message me privately because I would never cause drama or trauma getting called out over mistakes I made. I am so grateful to all of you, and all critiques and arguments against me I'm willing to hear if they're well founded. I'm very sorry this was so long, I felt very upset. I'm very sorry if this causes drama and trauma and would understand any punishments. Take care everyone.