Thread by @HeyChelseaTroy

This evening in Chicago, I watch one moneyed/powerful institution after another sound alarms about Possible Protests.

That's what upsets them; not graphic evidence that Chicago Police murder innocent people with impunity.

What is the purpose of protest, here, now?

1/

Under the right circumstances, protests drive change. In 2020, multiple city administrations moved to divert funds from policing to community support, and Colorado became the first state to end qualified immunity since its introduction.

But Chicago's circumstances...
2/

I mean, let's start here: the mayor is a cop.

She has presided over, at this point, MULTIPLE high-profile cases of police misconduct attempted coverups.

What kind of change do we expect to drive?

3/

Will protesting end qualified immunity here, or divert police funding?

I cannot blame protesters and prospective protesters for feeling bone-tired and hopeless right now.

/4

Black and brown Chicagoans are tasked with surviving the term of a mayor who surveyed the city, saw that 87% supported defunding, and then increased the police budget.

Who took federal pandemic funding meant to help sick and struggling Chicagoans, and gave 70% to the police.

/5

What is the place of protest under such an openly, unequivocally, brazenly hostile administration?

I want to get there. But first I want to provide a microcosmic analogy that most folks have some personal experience with: calling people out.

/6

If you're white, affluent, or otherwise privileged and you've educated yourself about your privilege, you might know the call to confront your racist/homophobic/etc uncle at Thanksgiving.

There's two ways to do that.

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1. Pull him aside privately and have a 1:1 conversation where you attempt to plant some seeds, to ask questions that make him think, to present him with additional context.

This is called "calling in," and its goal is to change Uncle Racist's mind.

/8

2. At the table, in front of everyone, riposte whatever racist/homophobic comment your uncle just made.

This is "calling out." Very, very few people will have their mind changed by getting called out. Call it fragility. Call it defensiveness. Say it's wrong. But it's true.

/9

The goal of calling someone out is not to change their mind. (Or if it is, it probably won't succeed).

Calling out is done for everyone else at the table BESIDES the uncle. It demonstrates that the uncle's behavior is not cool and not acceptable here.

/10

If my uncle starts spouting some anti-gay drivel at the table, I clap back.

I don't do that to change his mind. I know I won't—at least not soon.

I do it so my cousins' children don't mix up what uncle said with truth, or with uncontested opinion.

/11

How is any of this relevant to the purpose of protest in Chicago right now?

Yeah, protests in Chicago won't convince the mayor to change positions on police accountability. I mean, nothing else has, up to and including NINETY PERCENT OF THE CITY CALLING FOR IT.

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Protest, here, serves the function of calling out.

It is noticeable. It is public. It is an escalation, like a fight at the table, not a deescalation like a conversation in a side room.

It is not for the Powers That Be in Chicago.

Instead...

/13

It's for Chicagoans and people outside Chicago.

Its function is to disambiguate Chicago's policing allocation from an appropriate or uncontested solution.

If this were already universally understood, our mayor would not have been elected in the first place.

/14

Under the right conditions, protest drives legislative and administrative change.

Under the wrong conditions, such as ours in Chicago, protest drives popular understanding toward creating the right conditions.

Change takes a long time, but it's worth the investment.

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