Thread by @shaistaAziz

A THREAD on cognitive dissonance, white supremacy, racism, and the media and political narrative of ‘counter protests’ and ‘both sides.’
#BlackLivesMatter
👇🏾

1. I’m seeing many white people on social media saying yesterday’s terrifying, horrific violence by the organised far-right in London and a number of cities across the country does not represent Britain, it’s only a ‘small minority’ of people and its why “we” should ignore “them”

2. Newsflash: This argument holds absolutely no water and is based on a collective, overwhelmingly white, nationwide, cognitive dissonance. This theory of cognitive dissonance, developed by Leon Festinger, outlines how overwhelmingly, most people, and in the case of racism,

3. and white supremacy, white ppl, like to see themselves as good ppl and therefore feel Britain is a good place full of good people. The obvious fallacy of the argument when it comes to white supremacy is there’s 100s of years of evidence to the contrary, causing the dissonance.

4. And we are seeing this played out again today. This denial, this pretence, and this desire by many white people to distance themselves from live HD televised white supremacy and from racist violence and far-right ideologies in action on the streets of our country is exactly

5. why these men and women have been given the power and legitimacy to take to our streets in the first place. The hand wringing, the pearl clutching and deep desire of many white people to distance yourselves from these white supremacists IS the problem.

6. Footage and photos tell the story loudly and clearly YET many politicians and media (there is a revolving door), yesterday, today, weeks, months and years from now will still refuse to describe these people for what they are: ideologically driven white supremacist extremists.

7. To describe them as ‘counter demonstrators’ or anything else orther the organised far-right is to be wilfully deceitful and to whitewash white supremacist ideology and to feed in to their racist, white supremacist victimhood propaganda.

8. And yet look at where we are. The “both sides” narrative is in full flow. Fake and manufactured media distractions over the British way of life being under threat are in full flow - yet the juxtaposition of the images from yesterday and the words and terminology being used to

9. describe those responsible for what happened couldn’t be more surreal and removed from reality. It’s epic and next level national gaslighting.

10. Black ppl,Black communities, poc, communities of colour know these people, we’ve grown up in the shadow of violent racists. it’s why we monitor ourselves and each other, we think more than twice about attending football matches, even though many of us love the beautiful game.

11. It’s why we look at the fixtures list in advance and time our movements to make sure we avoid large crowds of pumped up white men moving in packs in our neighbourhoods as we know threat of racist verbal and physical violence is lurking under the paper thin surface.

12. We know we can end up being hurt in the blink of an eye or worse happening. White people, you know these people too. You know these people intimately. By looking away and branding these people as “stupid” “morons” or anything other than violent racist white supremacist

13. you are absolving yourself of taking responsibility for how white supremacists violence manifests, in all its forms, daily, and the devastation it’s creating.

14. Please know plenty of Black people and poc have woken up this morning feeling even more terrified and exhausted. Many of us will spend more time checking in on each other today and over the coming days. Many of us are changing plans to avoid being out to ensure we are safe.

15. Racist white supremacist violence, historical and contemporary, is physically and psychologically terrifying and the purpose of it is to traumatise us. All of us, starting with Black people, people of colour and including white people who don’t subscribe to white supremacy.

16. It’s overwhelming and exhausting in very different ways for Black people, people of colour and white people because white people are afforded the luxury of white privilege to carry on as ‘normal’. There is nothing normal about any of this.
#BlackLivesMatter