Running racism in America thread

Minnesota governor says 'white supremacists and drug cartels.'

Walz: White supremacist groups, drug cartels suspected at Minneapolis riots, but reports still unconfirmed

Likely some terrible combination.

They've mishandled every step of this. Incredible.

 

They've mishandled a lot of it, but I'm not sure what folks would have tolerated earlier this week. People flipped out over the use of tear gas on the first night.

Maybe tonight the protest/uprising/riot/whatever is quelled by the presence and force necessary to quell it. I'm just not sure many of the worst protesters give a whit about justice.

 

Explaining something isn't the same as excusing it or endorsing it.

I think Hugo would recognize the mechanisms of repression that cause this kind of hopelessness and rage.

I also think a lot of what we're seeing is stoked and made worse by the kind of radical bad actors we're talking about.

 

As long as there have been protests in my lifetime, there have been persons attracted to them not for a cause, but for the chance to break things. It doesn't take too many of them to have a bad effect far out of proportion to their numbers. That's how crowds work. Likewise, it doesn't take many cops who joined the force to have a chance at what they think is heroic action, are dismayed to learn most police work is deadly dull, and who relish the chance to get their freak on in a tense situation. Crowds of cops work like other crowds, too.

 

The white people coming in to stir up shit? No. No, they don’t give a whit about justice because they know the power structure will let them slip away back to the safe suburbs and rural areas from whence they came.

 

Repped for real talk

 

Which is why the police need to be there to stop it. At some point, you say "duly noted" to the Hugo quotes and you stop it. Lady with the bullhorn isn't going to win that exchange.

I'd love to see the church - men in the church - out there trying to stop it, but, heh, forget it. We're not up for it, haven't been up for that in a long time. Evangelicals would have to have $16 masks, a beard trim and all their blog thoughts in a row before they'd show up to stop an anarchist.

 

This is all good philosophy, and insightful thinking on the part of someone who was one of the most thoughtful people ever. And you never saw him looting, stealing or starting fires -- not even for the sake of shock and awe. I can actually almost understand the taking of goods when the getting is good, and easy. I will never understand the wanton, pointless destruction and violence. That is nothing but the stuff of all the non-thinkers -- and there are a lot of them -- in these scenes.

WriteThinking: Besides, these actions may indeed shock whites, or even more thoughtful, law-abiding blacks. But again, they will do nothing to address the problems. They will only exacerbate them.

 

There is good in the world

 

Again, he doesn't seek to excuse it. He seeks to explain it.

"a riot is the language of the unheard." - MLK jr

 

These white shit-stirrers are not anarchists. They are not some randos just out looking for a good time.