Thread by @kurteichenwald

I used to watch riots in African American communities and thought, oh that is not the right way to do this.

I’m wrong. There is no right way. And my opinion is irrelevant.

I watched when Colin Kaepenick protested quietly, with dignity, and Trump, @vp, Fox and the..../1

...entire conservative world scream, stomp, call names and try to destroy this man who bravely and without rancor protested the threat of murder faced every day by blacks people in this country - murdered by the people supposedly in charge of keeping them safe. Now, those.../2

...same people who called Kapernick a “son of a bitch” (Trump) or who set up pr stunts to rain rancor on him (Pence) or who day after day attacked this dignified man (Hannity, Carlson, et al) say “oh, why are they burning? Why are they looting? Why don’t they be peaceful?”.../3

...make no mistake: they don’t want peaceful, which is why they slammed kaepernick. They don’t want violent. They want maybe a march or two that they can ignore while dining at a local restaurant. But mostly, they just want the black community to *take it* - get shot, beaten.../4

..unarmed, in their own beds or own yards, whether a child or an adult, whether buying a toy for a child or jogging, whether a criminal or a law abiding citizen. They just want black america to *shut up* so they can go back to whining about how tough life is for billionaires.../6

..they just want the murdered and oppressed, the poor and the hungry, the abused and the survivors, to shut up. They deny white privilege exists while white lawbreakers storm around unimpeded in a state capitol threatening legislators with murder with military weapons, while.../7

...a black man is murdered in the street for doing possibly nothing. Days after a black woman was murdered in her bed by a fusillade fired by cops who stormed an apartment without identifying themselves. Black men are always “reaching for their waistband” where no gun.../8

...exists. Why is it cops are saying all of these young men are “reaching for their waistbands” when there is no gun? Why does anyone BELIEVE that nonsense?

Schools are dilapidated. Education is awful. Wages are terrible. But tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts..../9

...the arbitrary finger of murder, pointed by another cop, will point at someone else soon, the next George Floyd in a list of scores of people - black people - just like him.

If this happened in Tucker Carlsons neighborhood, people would care. But people like Tucker & me.../10

...don’t fear cops. Tucker thinks it’s because he’s better than those who are killed. I know it’s because we win the genetic lottery.

So what should black America do in response to a society that murders their sons and daughters, yet does not care? I’m not the one to ask.../11

...if white america will only hear the fear &pain of these suffering communities when there are riots, then that will be what occurs.

If your community is dying, and no one will care until it burns to the ground, it’s those who don’t listen who actually struck the match.

Fin