[New Contributor]
Remember the old Verizon catchphrase? Imagine if, you will, an entire country of disenfranchised African-Americans screaming that right now. Is anyone listening??
Let me preface this with the fact that I am a White male. I know the privilege I was born into and I also know that simply based on my skin color I will NEVER know the level of anger felt by my African-American countrymen and women these last few days. Now that we have gotten that out of the way, I have one simple message to the masses protesting: “Burn this bitch down.”
If that sounds familiar to you, it should. Michael Brown’s stepfather uttered this phrase in 2014. Let me say that again for the racists in the back… TWO THOUSAND FOURTEEN.
Here’s my point…
For all of you telling protesters that they are taking this too far, I would argue that they may not be taking it far enough. 6 years after Ferguson and the same shit keeps happening over and over and over again. When all the public outrage ends and the celebrities point their tweets in a different direction, the clock starts on the next injustice and the cycle repeats.
So I ask all of you (mostly White) people, what would you do?
You showed up to a government building with assault rifles because the government had the nerve to ask you to stay at home for the greater good. I shudder to think what would happen if suddenly the White race was consistently and intentionally targeted by cops for simply being White. So save your outrage. I say “burn that bitch down.” If you wanna hang your hat on the “Most cops are good” argument I say this: You’re right but there are enough bad ones that this brutality keeps happening, so I say “burn this bitch down’.” There are no more arguments to defend this behavior and if you have one, YOU’RE the problem.
Can you hear me now??
Similar Read: Ahmaud Murdered… What’s Next? Who’s Next?
You’re right… Ferguson was 6 years ago and it seems like yesterday, that’s how bad things are. I’m hopeful more people like you will speak up and continue to address these issues!
This read is worth considering. My pushback on this thought though is Black people should not be the ones called to burn anything down. White people built these institutions, and so white people should do the work of dismantling them. In other words, if you want someone to “burn it down”, it shouldn’t be the oppressed shouldering that responsibility. Also, consider the danger that call will put Black people in. White people are protected in ways Black people are not. This is on you author, a white man.