HISTORY DOESN'T LOOK THE SAME WHEN YOU ARE LIVING IT. This is a line of poetry that's been floating around in my head for a long time and it comes to mind now after the death of George Floyd and (to a different extent) Regis Korchinski-Paquet have sparked sweeping worldwide attention and protest regarding racism, particularly anti-black racism, privilege, police brutality, and justice.
History is often written by the winners, by people in power who at best are ignorant of the struggles of people with less opportunity, and at worst purposefully keeping others down to maintain power. The history we're told often glosses over the bloody, brutal, violent struggle that was often necessary to achieve the gains we have today, and this real history is exactly why you shouldn't be dismissing of the protests and riots in Minneapolis and other places.
For those of you who don't know, on Monday May 25th, a police officer killed a black man named George Floyd after kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes despite Floyd stating that he couldn't breath in Minneapolis in the USA. (And it's not true that if you can speak you can breathe, this link explains it quite well and it's information that I learned in my university physiology class) Floyd's crime was allegedly trying to pay at a store with a counterfeit $20 bill . This was captured on a widely shared video that has stirred outrage around the world, I personally have seen people posting about it who are based in Canada, the US and Australia, and a quick Google search also finds reporting from the BBC, the Irish Times, and more.
A few days later in Toronto, Canada on May 27th, a Black-Indigenous woman named Regis Korchinski-Paquet died after falling to her death from a balcony on the 24th floor of an apartment building. The family states that police misconduct was involved and that Toronto police tried to pass it off as a suic*de, there is an ongoing investigation from the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) who on their own website say they investigate "police activity where someone has been seriously injured, alleges sexual assault or has died" which seems to indicate suic*de is not part of their purview.
Sometimes the only option left is to force others to pay attention to your cause. When you are fighting for your rights, and the lives of your people, and being ignored again and again, when you tried peace and were met with violence even though weeks earlier whytes who were protesting lockdown, armed, were not, sometimes you need to do something big like riot and force the world to pay attention to you and your cause. What is happening in Minneapolis right now is just that, and this tactic does work. The Stonewall Riots catalyzed major wins for LGBTQ+ rights, Martin Luther King Jr. didn't just make a speech, he was jailed and organized protests and indeed in a letter from jail he wrote this powerful passage that rings true even today:
"I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.”
(More of the letter available from The Washington Post)
If you're looking for further responses to "riots never solve anything" this is a great piece.
The deaths of George Floyd and Regis Korchinski-Paquet also occurred just a few months after Breonna Taylor, a black, 26-year-old paramedic was shot and killed by police in her own home in March of 2020 (Louisville, Kentucky, USA). The fact that black people are being murdered by police is alarming, the rate at which police are killing Black people is really alarming, and none of us can stand by and continue to allow this to happen.
Policing in North America (Turtle Island) comes from the institution of "Slave Catchers" in the USA who chased slaves who ran away to "return them" and in Canada, it is largely based around controlling Indigenous peoples. This history means these institutions have deeply embedded deeply problematic policies, histories, and relationships with communities, particularly racialized communities. Now more than ever we really need to be looking at alternatives to policing. And they do exist:
Rolling Stone put out 6 ideas in 2014, the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies in the UK also has several ideas, and an example that I found particularly compelling is the Bear Clan Patrol program in the Prairie provinces of Canada in which Indigenous peoples are providing security to their communities.
And to those concerned about these protests occurring in the middle of a pandemic, yes it's true that is a concern, and all I can say to anyone who is or will be out protesting is: I understand. People will be wearing masks and do their best to practice physical distancing I'm sure, and when faced with one thing that's killing people and another sometimes you need to prioritize the fight for one.
Some other important things that should be clear:
- Racism is real, it is embedded in our systems from a long history of race-based discrimination, oppression, marginalization. and white supremacy; everyone has racial biases & may say or do racist things (not just "bad people"). Further, there is a difference from being stereotyped, told something racially mean, inconvenienced, and racism.
- "Not seeing race" is not helpful in the present because race impacts how people move and exist in the world - it's not likely that a white man would have had a police officer kneel on his neck for nearly 9 minutes simply for having a bad bill, Black people are killed for going jogging in North America. Race must very much be seen to see the injustices enacted upon racialized bodies so we can work to stop them.
- Saying "Black Lives Matter" does not imply that other lives do not, what it does is highlight, center and focus on Black Lives, just like the LGBTQ+ Rights Movement focuses on LGBTQ+ rights, without saying that no other rights matter or no one else has rights, or feminism focuses on women's rights and equality without saying women are better than men or that men's rights aren't valid.
My knowledge comes from approximately six years of education and advocacy on intersectional feminism that includes women's studies courses in University, employment in the sphere of social justice, and studying https://everydayfeminism.com/ a credible source that equity academics refer to. If you'd like any further clarification on the points I made above, please read up on the topics on Everyday Feminism.
So what can you do, right now, to be part of the solution?
- Talk to your elected officials - call, tweet, email, there are plenty of templates and campaigns already out there about these specific issues and racism more broadly. There are a few tips on how to make this effective in this post I wrote in 2018.
- Learn more about unlearning racism and anti-racism. In addition to Everyday Feminism, this extensive list of resources curated by Sarah Sophie Flicker, Alyssa Klein is a good place to look.
- Start conversations and make space, educate your circles about issues of racism and police brutality, legitimize the voices of marginalized peoples, and when marginalized folks are doing the labour of education, find ways to ensure reciprocity
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