A few days ago, I was discussing the protests which started in Minneapolis and have since spread around much of the western world with my sister over text. When she asked me what I thought, I spent 15 minutes coming up with a response which I didn’t disagree with. I wrote: “The cop kneeling on the guys neck should be prosecuted once enough evidence is gathered. I’m for the protests for reform like addressing at least the feeling that police are less accountable for their actions than a normal person, but the people looting are opportunists who should be disliked by all sides. Right now, I haven’t seen any concrete demands from protest. Ex: how should cops be held more accountable? I do wonder if there would be this level of protest if people weren’t locked inside for the past 3 months. I haven’t really thought about my opinion yet, will add it to the list, but that’s some cursory thoughts. HBU?”

1 hour later, she texted back: “I completely agree with that. There are an exceptional number of racial biases that have been overlooked for ages and it is only now that people are taking a tough stance on them. As for cops, I think they honestly just have to do what every white privileged person should be doing at this time, which is educating themselves on subconscious acts of racism and micro-aggressions that we often overlook we do. They can’t go through intensive training to prevent this behavior, it all just roots down to how educated you are on the racial imbalances that exist no matter how many people try to say they don’t.”

When I received this, I was surprised. A few thoughts that came to mind were that she doesn’t agree with my thoughts, I wasn’t so sure that she really agreed with her thoughts, and I hope that the point of the protests is not for all white people to educate themselves on subconscious racism and aggression. The text makes it seem like all white people are aggressive racists who can’t be helped. As a thought exercise, what should a society do with a bunch of aggressive racists who can’t be helped? Probably lock them up and throw away the key.

When I first heard of the protests, I assumed they were pursuing reforms on law enforcement such as more strict enlistment criteria, training, and oversight. But that my sister’s thoughts on the protests are how every white person needs to be aware of the fact that they are an aggressive racist suggests I may have misread the purpose of the protests. To better understand this, I think it will be useful to spend some time looking into the movements that were triggered as a result of the George Floyd catastrophe. Doing a quick search, there are a number of active campaigns some of which I am in favor of such as ‘Campaign Zero’ and ‘Not This Time!’. The one that has stood out most to me at the protests has been ‘Black Lives Matter’.

‘Black Lives Matter’ seems to be the over-arching movement and slogan of many regional chapters each with personal demands and goals. I tend to agree with this structure in that each chapter can better target their own goals than a national campaign, but it also makes it difficult to follow what is really meant behind the signs at the protests. When I see ‘Black Lives Matter’ on a sign at a protest, my first thought is this means ‘All black lives matter, regardless of any individual differences’. I agree with this statement, but to what degree does carrying a sign saying ‘Black Lives Matter’ also imply that I am in favor of the views of the regional and national movements which have been forming behind the slogan? What exactly are the goals of ‘Black Lives Matter’ chapters?

According to M4BL, there is a war against blacks in America and a leading cause is societal white supremacy. To address this injustice, blacks deserve monetary reparations for past and continuing harms, funds supporting law enforcement should be redirected to black communities, federal jobs should be created which target blacks, and more. I haven’t evaluated what I think about any of the individual demands, but the more that I read the more irritated I have been finding myself. Why is this? Some of the statements and demands which have been bothering me most include:

• Black people will never achieve liberation under the current global racialized capitalist system. We are anti-capitalist.
• The current systems we live in need to be radically transformed including a realignment of global power (into their hands).
• Specific reforms are insufficient and too narrow in scope to make a meaningful difference (in context of disbanding police).
• White Supremacy is threatening our existence.
• We demand independent black political power and black self-determination in all areas of society.
• We demand a constitutional right to a free education for all with special protections for queer and trans students.
• Divestment from fossil fuels to sustainable energy.

Looking at these, I feel my problem with the ‘Black Lives Matter’ slogan is that the primary aim of the movement seems to be grabbing political power rather than the improvement of black lives. Otherwise why include free education, transgender rights, and sustainable energy demands in a movement? As more demands are added under the umbrella of ‘Black Lives Matter’, what the term means starts to drift. However, the words stay the same making it easy to label those who disagree with the movement as deplorable. After all, who but a racist thinks black lives don’t matter?

So what do I think about the protests? Originally, I was largely in favor of the protests though now I am less sure. I am sure many or most of the individuals at the protest are there in support of reforms on policing and a real concern that blacks are improperly treated by law enforcement. However, demands from the movement and the text from my sister suggest this may not be the full picture. As the movement has become more political, the core slogan of ‘Black Lives Matter’ has become polluted with unrelated demands while continuing to state that anyone who disagrees with their platform is a racist. I am in favor of the right of people to continue protesting. However, I am strongly against the labeling of individuals and organizations as racist only because they failed to speak up in support of ‘Black Lives Matter’.