"Liberal / Progressive" People & Those Who <3 #BernieSanders
We, as privileged white folx - NEED to really LISTEN and support #DirectAction and #BlackLivesMatter - ALWAYS.
No, not, "If" ... no not, "But..."
Just stop - yes, stop - and LISTEN
"If" and "But" - do nothing but -support- the systemic and institutionalized racism that so many are still facing, on a daily basis.
Focusing on policing the TONE of any protest or action is a common method of derailment and distraction from these important issues.
And PLEASE stop clutching your pearls, #DirectAction has been a civil rights tactic THAT WORKS --- for a very long time. LGBTQ people should be especially aware of this tactic, and even more wary of respectability politics, as they are both a part of our (recent) history too.
Civil rights history has been built on many forms of #DirectAction. as a reaction to injustice, killing, war, and inequality.
Use your technological privilege to study the suffragette movement and every feminist wave to follow, how #DirectAction and radical activism brought about countless changes in racial equality and desegregation, to massive anti-war demonstrations, and of course the entire LGBTQ movement - including #Stonewall / #ActUp / #QueerNation / #BashBack and more.
Learn your history, if you have access to the internet and the magic of google, so it is no longer optional.
These uprisings were all based on giving a voice to the unheard, and utilized many direct actions.
Anger is absolutely justified when faced with the urgency of insurmountable oppression, injustice, and, as we should all know - frequent death of black - and trans - lives.
So, it is not surprising that radical acts are likely to be much more important to many activists than voting, and the obviously questionable legitimacy of electoral politics as usual.
Beware of tone policing and respectability politics, as that was exactly the refrain LGBTQ activists heard from so many others, through their own decades of oppression, and is likely what many #BlackLivesMatter activists are possibly feeling NOW from the (very white), progressive / liberal left, who are currently embracing Bernie.
( I ACTUALLY CANNOT SAY - SINCE I AM WHITE)
This action / disruption was one fast way to bring the urgent matters of racial injustice and the daily horrors black lives are NOW facing, to the forefront of all of the usual 'respectable' campaigning.
We must choose to listen, read, and learn, and support #Radical activism, #DirectAction and #BlackLivesMatter - ALWAYS.
And, it looks like Bernie Sanders.... Agrees.
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Respectability politics or the politics of respectability :refers to attempts by marginalized groups to police their own members and show their social values as being continuous and compatible with mainstream values rather than challenging the mainstream for its failure to accept difference.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respectability_politics
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