The Wrong Way to Protest

If you want to instigate change, you have to do it in a strategic way that will win over necessary support. Harassing regular people is not it. You will just turn them away and maybe toward something you would not want them to support. You have to be strategic about this. Harassment and violence should not be part of your tool kit.

There are videos going around showing how protesters in Washington DC are harassing regular people to show support for Black Lives Matter, and I really think that harassment is the wrong way to go about generating support for your cause. Based upon this snippet of a video, the protesters look like mostly white young people, none of them black, getting in this young woman’s (it turns out she is 49 – so not so young) face in a threatening manner. First of all, getting in her face, even with a mask on, in this age of the pandemic is very risky and could cause her to be infected. Secondly, having a crown of people getting really close up to you and basically in your face is very threatening. It’s not a good look for BLM. It’s a terrible look and these young white people are hurting the black’s cause.

As the commentators in this video said, these “protesters” were really not about BLM – it was just a self-serving stunt to aggrandize themselves as being “noble” when in reality, they are just being immature and selfish.

The other video, again about the Washington DC protesters showed these protesters harassing Rand Paul and his security contingent. Crowding around and pushing on the policemen is practically on the verge of violence. Again, this is unacceptable and displays a selfishness. If you want to protest Rand Paul, do it from a distance and don’t go pushing his bodyguards.

In this instance, there were some young black protesters, not just white protesters, crowding around Rand Paul, demanding that he “say her name”. Again, this threatening behavior of crowding against the policemen is wrong. Stand back and allow them to walk home without fear for their lives. I don’t like Rand Paul because he has been walking around without masks, although I have to commend him for wearing masks that night so maybe he is changing his mind. I don’t like him but I would not want to threaten him.

If you want to protest, do it like the way the Parkland students did by marching and giving speeches, by starting non-profit organizations. Or do it like the way Greta Thurnberg does for climate change: again by marching and giving speeches. Both protested peacefully.

But probably the best way to do something about the police violence is to run for office and introduce bills, or go canvass and vote for those who will do something about the violence, or set up organizations that will implement strategies of change. Right now, physically threatening a congressman or yelling at people who can’t do anything about the situation just kind of gives me the impression that you are really not about BLM. You just want to be just-this-close-to-being-violent-without-really-being-violent. Not a good look.

The looting and burning and the destroying of properties fall into the same category of being just-this-close-to-being-violent-without-really-being-violent. Destroying properties does not engender support. It’s just about destruction for destruction purposes.

Look, change unfortunately moves very slowly but there has been some improvement. I never thought in 2008 we would vote in a black president with a name like Obama, but America did. Yes, there was a backlash against him but I think over time that backlash will diminish simply because of demographics. I never thought that homosexuals would be given the right to get married, given by none other than the Supreme Court: that was an astounding change. I’m sure we’re suffering backlash from that decision, too.

I fear we will always have to battle racism and bigotry just like we have to battle thieves and murderers: some people are just born that way and there is no changing it. We just have to deal with them. BUT, we can change the systemic nature of the racism and bigotry because I think most people will tend toward justice and fairness if they are brought up properly or live in an environment that shows you the right way to behave. Right now, most of us middle aged and elderly grew up in mostly or in all white environment so I suspect there is unconscious racism. But I think some of us are beginning to wake up. Those videos of police violence are a real eye opener and starting to instigate change.

Please, do your protests in a strategically peaceful way to generate support for your cause.