I awoke to the current horror show on my Twitter feed as anger spilled out across American cities. There were more than a few clips of people smashing windows and setting fires and clashing violently with police. A lot of those people were white guys dressed in black. There were also several clips and photos of police dressed as protestors - especially Black Bloc types. Maybe they were simply keeping track of the crowds. Maybe they were elevating things.
The idea that right wing cops or left wing anarchists would piggyback their own agendas onto the protests over police brutality towards African Americans is sadly not at all surprising.
Psychiatrists use the word "elevated" to describe someone in an agitated emotional state. The process of getting elevated is "escalation." Once someone escalates into a heightened emotional state, it's imperative to de-escalate them. No one who is angry or outraged or fearful or despairing is in a sound mental state to make prudent decisions. Veteran organizers of nonviolent protests spend a great deal of time making sure their marchers and the situation doesn't escalate. Nonviolence isn't a jacket you try on and go out and march; it's a discipline that has to be trained into you.
For African Americans - or any oppressed group - it is even more important that things not escalate. The entire point of these protests is the cavalier disregard authorities have for black and brown bodies. We see it in mortality rates, Covid-19 deaths and iPhone footage of people of color being killed. I remember in the film "Bloody Sunday," the organizers of the march in Derry took every pains to make sure confrontation was kept manageable and the situation didn't escalate. The British Army and the IRA had other plans, and there was a slaughter - not of the British, but of the Irish Catholics.
Leaving aside the probable presence of police provocateurs among the protests, the presence of Cosplay Socialist and Podcast Revolutionaries inserting themselves and their agenda into these protests enrages me. Attacking a Five Guys because you have a beef with capitalism is...that's not the point, OK. Maybe capitalism is intertwined with racism, but right now that conversation needs to be put aside. These protests are not about you and your agenda, it's about a specific form in injustice that really doesn't apply to you. And sometimes "outside agitators" are indeed outside agitators.
White protestors have a license to engage in behavior that would get African Americans killed. Don't believe me? Remember the Michigan State House? Their behavior though will reflect on the protestors who are doing things right in petitioning their government for a redress of grievances.
The 1619 introductory essay made a powerful point: African Americans have precious little reason to believe in the institutions of American democracy, yet they have been the most patient and persistent in engaging with them. They demand their right to vote; they march; they serve in the armed forces. Their faith in institutions that have wronged them is frankly unbelievable. The Rose Brigade of privileged white boys who want to smash things up - in the context of African American engagement - is nauseating.
At this moment, the entire country is elevated. Some of this is because of the virus. Some of this is because of the fascist squatting in the White House. Some of this is simply the slow attrition of white supremacy on black bodies. I see this video of an African American police officer in Atlanta demonstrating what de-escalation looks like and two things strike me. First, this is why it's important for African Americans to have a voice in these moments - on both sides of the barricades. But secondly, why must we always put the onus on African Americans to heal the wounds inflicted by white violence?
At the very least, it is not the place of Hipster Revolutionaries to hijack a moment that does not belong to them.
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