It's Not That Black And White

[StarstruckIllusion 53,564]

2 hours ago, Quartz said:

It hurts me to witness what's going on in the US right now. Reading through comments here, I need to say something.

I am not loving the narrative surfacing that if you are not for the riots, you are anti black people.

Some of us are like Gaga with our sentiments-- we don't want this to escalate. We do not want more people to get hurt. There are other ways to achieve change; it's not just a choice between being oppressed or fighting back violently.

It's not that black and white. There are other ways.

I might not be American, but I am human. You might not agree with me, but please think about the path of kindness again. Violence has a way of snowballing into something uncontrollable and dangerous. If you have a personal choice today, please choose kindness. Violence is never the answer, or so I'm told. 

It hurts black people that they can cooperate with the police to a tee, and still get murdered. 

It hurts that change won’t come now bc of the way voting works. 

It hurts black people that the string of far right wing and *centre right leaders havent done anything about that (incl. Obama)

It hurts how those other ways of achieving things always fall short when it comes to human rights of oppressed people.

It hurts to read people think we want violence in the first place. 

Lots of pain on both sides 💕💗💕

[Bt1 5,213]

19 minutes ago, anuanu said:

I can kind of answer. Fires were started in residential buildings (I think they had a storefront underneath) 4 blocks away from where I live last night and damage to businesses was done as close as a block away, but I am still donating to various grassroots movements/bail funds. Regarding violence, I'm white and I don't really feel it is my place to have an opinion how the black community is responding to this, but I can understand why it is happening. They feel helpless in a way that I will never know and it's not like they haven't been trying for generations. Really it is a privilege for me to even be sitting here contemplating the morality of it.

The only thing I will call out is all the white people I saw on livestreams looting H&M and Athleta (and instigating other violence/arson) under the guise of "ally-ship" when in reality the blame is only going to be put back on the black community. 

 

It's an interesting position, but still cant understand this support for violence, just because the victims / protesters are black. 

It always can turn into something ugly and in times like this, it is even easier.

 

[Hoeanne 1,061]

1 hour ago, Florin said:

I'm really curious how some of the riots fans will act if this was happening close to you and you and your family will be in danger because of this. 

Protest, but dont forget to vote. That's kinda the only way things can change. 

I’ve been to these protests. I’ve been at the scene. In the heart of it, forming a barricade between black protesters and the cops. No protester or rioter has ever made me a fraction as scared as the police have.

[NFRatwell 23,290]

People need to realize that kindness and violence are both useful ways of achieving goals for civil rights.

But you need to realize that both serve different causes. Violence is useful when you are looking for the government to create laws or protect people’s rights on paper. The theory is if they don’t care enough about you, make them care enough to listen to you by destroying the things they value. That is how the civil rights era was successful, and violence is the reason we have the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments (we fought a whole war in part to slavery). 

But violence does not solve the way racists will treat you. black people and their allies have been fighting both peaceful and violent protests for over 350 years in this country, and we all know racism is still prevalent. The ONLY way for us to have a less racist society is by normalizing black people through the media, giving them political power, etc. that is how we were able to grow as a society for the past 60 years. 
 

These riots are focusing on police brutality (as they should) and need to stay that way. If you support people vandalizing other’s properties and lootings, know that that is meant to get the government to act by enforcing stricter laws on police who murder innocent civilians. But that will not end racism. If anything, lootings will make more people racist. And that’s the exact reason why the alt-right is sending people to help destroy communities, so they can blame it on black people and get those votes to win the election this year.
 

And that’s exactly why we are not seeing the peaceful protests on the news, we are not seeing the photos of BLM having conversations with the cops, we are not seeing the unity and love being shown. Because political parties, the government, and even some on here are not interested in depolarization. 
 

I’m 100% against police brutality, and I think the protests are 100% called for. We have too many violent and racist cops in the US when we shouldn’t even have one. But be aware that violence will only potentially solve this problem, and it’s almost guaranteed to spread racism and hatred against the black community. 

[Hoeanne 1,061]

The entire framing of this discussion is wrong. Every protest started out peaceful and remained that way until the cops showed up and attacked the protesters. The violence is being done to the protesters by the cops. the looting is the result of the cops ratcheting up the tension until it breaks and and the energy from the crowd inevitably spreads outward. 

[President Biden 5,898]

50 minutes ago, Rio said:

Peaceful protests rarely work, especially in America. Please look at history. Gaga has made a beautiful gesture but quite frankly, she should be out there, with Ariana, protesting, as the true activist she is.

Bullshit.

 

The army of high schoolers, alongside myself, partook in the March for our Lives. We lead a peaceful protest. Then, we got up and campaigned viciously in 2018. We threatened to support primary candidates against Democratic establishment leaders even. We brought gun violence to the forefront of the midterm elections. And it worked. The Democratic caucus endorsed gun reforms we demanded. We helped win back the House by flipping important seats in the suburbs where most people thought big establishment money would would maintain the status quo. We made the biggest shift in Congressional power since Watergate.

 

And now we are mere few Senate seats & the Presidency from getting a Gun Sense Majority.

 

Peaceful protest after a tragedy was the catalyst for that. So don’t tell me it “DOESNT WORK”. It doesn’t change laws, no. Nor do riots. But it can bring momentum to a movement that pressures people to take real civic action.

[Queen Bitch 10,513]

As many others has said, you're not anti-black if you're against the riots. But you should be able to understand why they are rioting. 

I (usually) do not support violence, I do not support looting or burning of property. But I 100% understand why they are doing it. They are tired, they are fed up. They're tired and fed up with getting killed. They're fed up with being oppressed. Their shitty excuse for a government didn't listen to them before, maybe they will listen to them now. 

Right now, the violence is necessary. There's no way around it. I wish it wouldn't be like that. But it is. 

[DrVictor 82]

kindness won't change anything. do you think far-right a**holes care about our kindness? it does sound terrifying, but we will have to literally fight these ignorant assholes worldwide ⚔️

[Ariana Grindr 3,173]

4 hours ago, Quartz said:

It hurts me to witness what's going on in the US right now. Reading through comments here, I need to say something.

I am not loving the narrative surfacing that if you are not for the riots, you are anti black people.

Some of us are like Gaga with our sentiments-- we don't want this to escalate. We do not want more people to get hurt. There are other ways to achieve change; it's not just a choice between being oppressed or fighting back violently.

It's not that black and white. There are other ways.

I might not be American, but I am human. You might not agree with me, but please think about the path of kindness again. Violence has a way of snowballing into something uncontrollable and dangerous. If you have a personal choice today, please choose kindness. Violence is never the answer, or so I'm told. 

 

4 hours ago, Lionel Hutz said:

You mean the ways that have been tried time and time again but have been received with mortal indifference every single time? 

 

4 hours ago, Franz Ferdinand said:

So, question. If you are against violence, I'm assuming you are agree that the police need to be abolished, right? Or are you against violence ONLY when it's not sponsored by the state?

 

4 hours ago, Brecht said:

I don’t think that if you’re anti-riots you’re anti-black people. I just think that if you’re anti-riots you live in Wonderland and doesn’t have a sense of reality.

 

4 hours ago, TheQueenLG said:

"Violence is never the answer." Honestly, I agree. But the problem is that there are other people who do not agree, namely the police force, and violence is therefore justified as self-defense. Police have instigated almost all the person-on-person violence I have seen - We cannot expect those rebelling to just stand there and take it... They have the right to fight back. 

 

4 hours ago, xoxo Craig said:

I get it, but peaceful protests only go so far. And its beyond that point. Black people in the US have every right to be angry, and if they feel that the only way their voice will be heard is through violence, then I have no option but to support them. Change comes when there is a significant amount of people rising up. We would not have rights as LGBT people had there not been the Stonewall riots way back then. And I believe its no different. When your oppressors start pushing you back and start the violence first, are you just gonna lie there? Or are you going to fight back?

This time, I don't think peaceful protests are enough. Change in the US needs to occur, and it needs to happen now. I don't want to advocate violence and I think violence is not the way forward... but I think it's beyond that point.

I'm not from the US so I don't really have a say in this... just going off what I see in the news and stuff

https://instagram.com/stories/danielcorona/2321352812445210785?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igshid=8zsw2q8lk27c

 

Edit: I guess this is a private account whoops my bad. Basically I agree with all of you. Peaceful protest have changed nothing. This has been on going. This injustice is stuck on replay. I do not condone violence or reckless behavior but if that is what this country needs to move towards change then so be it. Being pro black is not being anti white #****thesystem #****whitesupremacy #****whitepriviledge 

[TheQueenLG 2,469]

1 minute ago, Ariana Grindr said:

 

 

 

 

 

https://instagram.com/stories/danielcorona/2321352812445210785?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igshid=8zsw2q8lk27c

This is a private account. Why'd you link it? 

[Adakam 2]

Someone here yesterday called them thugs, thats 100% being anti-black people, so what you are saying doesnt apply to everyone.

Something id like to ask, because all i see is "riots are bad" "violence wont stop violence" etc, but i havent seen a single antirioter propose an idea of how to fix this, other than what you said in the OP "there are other ways", which ones? Tell us!

Peaceful protests have done nothing, kneeling for the National anthem got mocked and did nothing, so what now? Whats the community supposed to do? If violence isnt the answer, then what is?

[Ariana Grindr 3,173]

46 minutes ago, TheQueenLG said:

This is a private account. Why'd you link it? 

whoops my bad. Basically I agree with all of you. Peaceful protest have changed nothing. This has been on going. This injustice is stuck on replay. I do not condone violence or reckless behavior but if that is what this country needs to move towards change then so be it. Being pro black is not being anti white #****thesystem #****whitesupremacy #****whitepriviledge 

[Jill 31,812]

44 minutes ago, Adakam said:

i havent seen a single antirioter propose an idea of how to fix this, other than what you said in the OP "there are other ways", which ones? Tell us!

They told us but they're trash as always.

[Adakam 2]

4 minutes ago, Lionel Hutz said:

They told us but they're trash as always.

Saw the same bs here in Mexico when women protest the recent wave of 10 women being raped and murdered DAILY. and they decided to turn their protests into riots.

"tHerE r OthEr wAys, VioLenCe iSnt tHe aNswEr" THEN WTF IS THE ANSWER THEN?

[Jill 31,812]

3 minutes ago, Adakam said:

Saw the same bs here in Mexico when women protest the recent wave of 10 women being raped and murdered DAILY. and they decided to turn their protests into riots.

"tHerE r OthEr wAys, VioLenCe iSnt tHe aNswEr" THEN WTF IS THE ANSWER THEN?

Diplomacy, obviously