George Floyd / May 2020 USA Protests Megathread

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 5/29/20 at 8:41pm

A little surprised there's no existing thread on this topic yet.

Words are hard, but it is very important we stay involved and aware of what is going on in this country. Here's the latest: New York Times

It is difficult for me to articulate what is going through my head watching the country the past week. I am devastated, heartbroken, pissed off, agonized, disgusted, and a thousand other emotions. As I often do in times of intense devastation (systematic killings, racism, anarchy), I turn to Toni Morrison. From Mourning For Whiteness:

"This is a serious project. All immigrants to the United States know (and knew) that if they want to become real, authentic Americans they must reduce their fealty to their native country and regard it as secondary, subordinate, in order to emphasize their whiteness. Unlike any nation in Europe, the United States holds whiteness as the unifying force. Here, for many people, the definition of “Americanness” is color

Under slave laws, the necessity for color rankings was obvious, but in America today, post-civil-rights legislation, white people’s conviction of their natural superiority is being lost. Rapidly lost. There are “people of color” everywhere, threatening to erase this long-understood definition of America. And what then? Another black President? A predominantly black Senate? Three black Supreme Court Justices? The threat is frightening...

...To keep alive the perception of white superiority, these white Americans tuck their heads under cone-shaped hats and American flags and deny themselves the dignity of face-to-face confrontation, training their guns on the unarmed, the innocent, the scared, on subjects who are running away, exposing their unthreatening backs to bullets. Surely, shooting a fleeing man in the back hurts the presumption of white strength? The sad plight of grown white men, crouching beneath their (better) selves, to slaughter the innocent during traffic stops, to push black women’s faces into the dirt, to handcuff black children. Only the frightened would do that. Right?

These sacrifices, made by supposedly tough white men, who are prepared to abandon their humanity out of fear of black men and women, suggest the true horror of lost status."

Please feel free to use this thread to express your feelings, stay up to date on what is going on, and find community. I think we all need that now.

[Highland Guy]

Posted: 5/29/20 at 9:26pm

Black Lives DO Matter

[Broadway Joe]

Posted: 5/29/20 at 10:40pm

Watching these protests sure makes it look like the coronavirus is over. Our dummy mayor yapped about pulling people out of the ocean yet outside Barclay's center was packed with people.

That cop was an absolute moron and deserves to be thrown in jail. How stupid do you have to be to do something like that when you're being filmed. He had to have seen past incidents with cops making wrong decisions in similar situations and yet clearly didn't learn from their mistakes.

[Highland Guy]

Posted: 5/30/20 at 12:03pm

After ten years of marriage, the wife of the officer charged with the murder of Mr. Floyd, has filed for divorce because of the murder.

There were protests outside the White House last night.  Trump tweeted that if the protesters had breached the fence, they would have been met with "vicious dogs" and "ominous weapons".   

Updated On: 5/30/20 at 12:03 PM

[SouthernCakes]

Posted: 5/30/20 at 12:18pm

So, I’m all in support of #blacklivesmatter and the protests, but where I fall off is the looting and smashing of cars, etc.
What good does that do? That only makes the other side more afraid of you and only pushes the fear higher and makes their anger louder? Someone please explain!!

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 5/30/20 at 12:32pm

SouthernCakes said: "So, I’m all in support of #blacklivesmatter and the protests, but where I fall off is the looting and smashing of cars, etc.
What good does that do? That only makes the other side more afraid of you and only pushes the fear higher and makes their anger louder? Someone please explain!!"

They never should have thrown that first brick at Stonewall either.

[James885]

Posted: 5/30/20 at 12:51pm

At this point, I don't know what can be said that hasn't been said after the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Oscar Grant and the deaths of hundreds of other unarmed black men in this country. What Derek Chauvin did was nothing less than murder and he should be held accountable.

I'm not condoning the looting, but the fact is that when black people riot, they're labeled as disgusting thugs and criminals. And yet just a few weeks ago, white protesters stormed the state capital in Michigan armed to the teeth, cheered on by the idiot in the White House and met with little more than a stern warning from the governor of Michigan. The media has a history of treating black protesters much more harshly than white protesters, as evidenced by our idiotic leader threatening on Twitter just yesterday to have the black protesters shot if they didn't stand down.

My question (and this rhetorical and not aimed at anyone in this thread) for all those who think protesting and rioting is the wrong way to handle this, please explain what the RIGHT way is. Because we've seen that peaceful protests, such as the one led by Colin Kaepernick have been met with widespread condemnation from the the leadership of this country.

All I know is as a black man, I'm tired of waking up and reading reports of yet unarmed another person of color  having been gunned down in cold blood by the police. Racism hasn't gotten worse, it's just being televised now.

Updated On: 5/30/20 at 12:51 PM

[Highland Guy]

Posted: 5/30/20 at 1:17pm

As I understand, the cops were called when Mr. Floyd, a Black man, attempted to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill.  

In today's United States, the value of a Black man's life apparently is no more than $20.  Of course there is rage and protest in American streets. 

  

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 5/30/20 at 1:21pm

Setting a police precinct on fire is a lot less violent than putting your knee on someone's neck for nearly nine minutes and murdering them. People who don't "get" why this is happening are very ignorant to this country's painful relationship with racism and race relations. Peaceful protests DON'T work. People have reached their limit, they are done. What do you expect to happen? You cannot keep pushing and pushing and expect nothing to happen. Do you think people of color are going to sit back week after week only to get murdered in the street, week after week? They are angry, they are scared and they are absolutely done taking this bullsh*t. How privileged of you to not understand why people riot in America today. 

"As my father explained during his lifetime, a riot is the language of the unheard." - Martin Luther King III

 

 

 

[SouthernCakes]

Posted: 5/30/20 at 3:59pm

This keeps being the response I get. But throwing a brick and protesting is different then looting a target. I’m not seeing the point!

[Highland Guy]

Posted: 5/30/20 at 4:06pm

SouthernCakes said: "This keeps being the response I get. But throwing a brick and protesting is different then looting a target. I’m not seeing the point!"

 

Then you know nothing of the American civil rights movement history.  If you don't see the point now, you probably never will.  You might as well move on.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 5/30/20 at 4:07pm

Yep. You don't get it. Move on. What a goddamn privilege. 

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/30/20 at 4:32pm

Because nothing has changed. Nothing. And we have no where else to turn.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 5/30/20 at 4:56pm

SouthernCakes said: "This keeps being the response I get. But throwing a brick and protesting is different then looting a target. I’m not seeing the point! "

You think Stonewall was one brick and some protesting?

Damn, try Googling history some time. You might learn something.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 5/30/20 at 5:24pm

Joy Reid of MSNBC reports that: "Gov. Tim Walls, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and now MN attorney general Keith Ellison ALL alleging outside forces, domestic and possibly foreign, have post-Tuesday infiltrated the state, and are in organized fashion setting fire to historic businesses in communities of color, and causing mayhem... white nationalist groups are posting messages promoting going to Minneapolis to “get our loot on” and cause mayhem. He says they will investigate those using the outrage over the murder of George Floyd as a “cover” for illegal activity."

Joy Reid's Twitter Thread

[Highland Guy]

Posted: 5/30/20 at 5:24pm

During these troubling days, this is what we should hear from our leaders.  Instead, American citizens are threatened by the President of the United States with "vicious dogs" and "ominous weapons".

 

 

 

[amandap213]

Posted: 5/30/20 at 6:00pm

I'm a non-black woman of color and I believe that if you have a platform, USE IT! I get angered seeing people post absolutely nothing about the protests because they think it doesn't affect them. In reality, this affects all of us. Systematic and institutionalized racism has been at the core of the American society for centuries, that is a fact.

 I am very very surprised that only one broadway show (jagged little pill) has actually made a statement about Black lives matter directly. They didn't post a "love is love" post, they tackled it head on. I have to say I'm very disappointed in shows like Hamilton and the Lion King who employ so many black and non-black poc performers; yet they haven't said anything. I'm curious as to what some of you think

[SouthernCakes]

Posted: 5/30/20 at 7:28pm

What does it have to do with ransacking a Target? You’re all being dismissive instead of an actual intellectual response. I’m owning my ignorance on the subject. I get the protesting both peaceful and unpeaceful. It’s the looting I’m not understanding. How is that progressing the situation and not just taking advantage of the situation?

[Highland Guy]

Posted: 5/30/20 at 7:47pm

You won't win friends here by telling us that we aren't giving you intellectual responses.

 

Updated On: 5/31/20 at 07:47 PM

[Tag]

Posted: 5/30/20 at 8:06pm

Why is no one talking about these protests being the catalyst for the second Corona wave, as the 1918 Philly parade was?

Updated On: 5/30/20 at 08:06 PM

[ArtMan]

Posted: 5/30/20 at 8:09pm

We, (Jacksonville), are having a violent demonstration in our Downtown as I post.  If it was your home or your place of business that was burned, or your family, innocent bystanders being assaulted, many of you would sing a different tune.  Violence, burning and looting doesn't solve anything. 

[ArtMan]

Posted: 5/30/20 at 8:09pm

double

Updated On: 5/30/20 at 08:09 PM

[Highland Guy]

Posted: 5/30/20 at 8:59pm

ArtMan said: "Violence, burning and looting doesn't solve anything."

 

And, as has been shown time and again, neither does sitting on our butts doing nothing.

[ArtMan]

Posted: 5/30/20 at 9:06pm

Well, tell that to all of the employees who are now out of a job because of the burned down Target.  In addition to all of the other Target employees, temporarily out of a job, because Corporate closed them down.  Or all of the other businesses that were burnt to the ground. Many were family owned businesses.  Or the people who were planning to move into, ironically, affordable housing, when the apartment building was burned down.  Is it fair, that all of these people now have to suffer?

Updated On: 5/30/20 at 09:06 PM

[ArtMan]

Posted: 5/30/20 at 9:06pm

double

Updated On: 5/30/20 at 09:06 PM