4 years to the day after George Floyd was murdered, here's where we are:
* Racist people are just as racist as the day before George Floyd was murdered.
* Black people are still asking for the exact same things.
* "Liberal" and "Centrist" white Americans are *more* racist, and *less* supportive of DEI than they were the day before George Floyd.
* Police budgets have grown *faster* than they did the day before George Floyd.
* Biden has undone any of the gains made during the protests.
1/N
* progressive DAs have been recalled, and NYC has 1000s of more cops than it had before.
* Entire DEI programs have been shut down at major universities.
* The FBI basically rebooted COINTELPRO, labelling and surveilling young black people who participated in the BLM protests as "Black identity extremists."
* There has been no meaningful legislation passed to identify cops like Chauvin before they commit murder, and remove them from service. There's been no meaningful change in accountability
Folks didn't understand at the time, but they'll understand me now: Every "racial equity commitment" I was involved in, was built to last and to sustain beyond the short term emotions of folk. I don't do hashtags, or chalk on the street, or anything that's impermanent. Because I didn't believe that the emotions would last.
Now the hashtags are gone, and the chalk has washed away.
Like I said, I don't know what a "racial equity moment" is. I was Black last year. I'll be Black next year.
@mekkaokereke “This can’t be what this country actually *wants*, can it?” I keep asking myself. The answer is…depressing.
It's not what the whole country wants. It's just what a well organized, well funded, and sizable minority wants. (They're winning with about 20-30% of the population)
Someone on mastodon shared this report about abortion earlier today. (I think there's a pretty big overlap between the people who want to ban abortion in all cases and the people who want to restore jim crow).
https://nationhoodlab.org/abortions-regional-divide/
The evangelicals aren't even close to a majority, but they've been very effective at taking and holding political power, so in places where they are a significant minority they are getting their way.
I thought this quote was particularly important: "It turns out Evangelical churches are excellent training grounds for political organizing. “Places of worship provide a natural foundation for organizing, a place where people are showing up every week and maybe serving on a board or volunteering at all sorts of events,” says Christopher Scheitle, professor of political science at West Virginia University. “And Evangelical churches have this entrepreneurial spirit and they don’t have to seek approval from a hierarchy of a bishop to set up associated non-profits like sports camps or publishing houses, which get people in the pews involved.”"
@mekkaokereke What most people want is peace and security and to get on with their lives. If they see riots and stuff on fire, they will vote for more cops and hardline DAs and a general crackdown.
This whole cycle happened in the 1970s and 80s. Anyone remember the Willie Horton ad? The crack wars and resulting extreme sentences for crack? If history really does rhyme, the backlash is just getting started.
@mike805 @mekkaokereke most people are confused about the definition of peace then.
@ATLeagle @mekkaokereke For most people the definition of peace is "I can walk down the street without feeling any fear or annoyance."
They would be happy in Singapore or Japan, as long as they don't want to smoke pot or do some other thing that happens to be strongly repressed there.
@mike805 @mekkaokereke when peace and security is rooted in no one making noise and complaining, then they stay happy with really shitty situations, especially if someone else has it worse.
We need to raise up the worst off and have peace for all
@mekkaokereke As for racist people, they really don't change their attitudes. The next generation may grow up more or less racist, but the people who are racist tend to stay racist. Social change is like the old saying about scientific progress: one funeral at a time.
@mekkaokereke Portland just voted out their progressive DA for a centrist police sympathetic DA.
Part of it was the current progressive DA walking into a time bomb of a poorly thought out drug decriminalization law that made drug use rampant in Portland.
Unfortuante because I thought the SA was good working through a bad hand as he took office.
@rlounsbury @mekkaokereke Wasn't that the intention that drug law? Like, it was structured poorly intentionally to make this kind of outcome inevitable?
@mathew1927 @mekkaokereke
The only way to fix it is to have a Federal center of excellence issue test based licenses to let someone be in law enforcement. Setup to be the ideal of what it should mean. These things must be met:
1) You must have a federal license to claim powers law power.
2) All powers stripped from non-licensed. Includes sheriffs etc. Impersonating a police officer should be enforced.
3) Failure is individual. If the entire LA police force individually fails the ethics test then it is entirely striped of officers. A federal group takes over unfunctioning until it’s rebuilt.
Unfixable issues are actually easily fixable as long as the will of the people is behind it. The ‘will’ the people have doesn’t actually want it fixed as it’s largely racist.
They will argue State autonomy where there is Federal will. They will use Federal powers where there is state will. The problem is racism in politics and that’s spilling over.
@taatm @mathew1927 @mekkaokereke
I see those rules being used to put federal forces in charge of law enforcement in liberal cities like trump was demanding during the George Floyd protests.
They’d claim, as they always do, that crime is out of control and liberal cities are refusing to enforce tha laws
@aintist @mathew1927 @mekkaokereke
Of course they would if they could, but the “do nothing just in case” paralysis stops us from actually achieving anything, which is why it’s a narrative they push.
The point being is that it would be a single liberal institution used to install civil rights. Worst case it is corrupted and the local police becomes… oh wait, no change.
@aintist @taatm @mekkaokereke
This presupposes the need for a law enforcement function.
That without the bloated gangs we have now, we'd descend into lawless chaos.
A fraction of that budget used for UBI and housing would get rid of most 'crime'
@mathew1927 @aintist @mekkaokereke
I entirely agree. Social programs first and the with a much smaller budget, actual policing, like dealing with sexual violence.
@mekkaokereke and rather than positive change, we’re still being killed extra-judiciously, the Voting Rights Act is in peril, and DEI is under attack. Guess this is what we get for being “uppity.
@Acronymesis @mekkaokereke VRA is basically dead. Brown vs board of education is in their sights now.
@mekkaokereke I'm sorry so many of us are so fickle, "foul weather friends", and that we can be so cavalier about promising ally-ship.
@mekkaokereke It's 12 years since Sandy Hook (2 years since Uvalde). It's 24 years since Bush v. Gore. It's 40 years since Iran-Contra.
Systemic problems are systemic. And they're self repairing. You can't fix them in the street, and you can't fix them in a single electoral cycle.
Nothing wrong with DEI. The mass adoption of make pretend corporate inclusion classes was a scam.
You're clearly listing facts -- it would be great if you linked your sources for further reading?
It will probably also help to deter trolls who will pretend that you're offering "biased" (i.e. nonwhite) opinions to be "debated".
Sure? But unfortunately, no it won't deter the trolls.
If I make an outrageous claim like: Black men said "OK, we won't say 'defund,' but can we say 'reallocate?' can we spend that police budget on things that do reduce crime, and help people suffering?" Biden responded by reallocating *Covid funds* to hire even more cops.
People yell "That's a lie! He never did that! Prove it!"
Then I go https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/112504121484456252
Then the trolls just... never acknowledge it.
Happens.
Yes. This project's Mastodon account ended up here because pro-Zionist trolls control the three or four most popular Mastodon instances.
Trolls either disappear, or try to make you disappear.
And it turns out that white Jewish people are just white people, after all. Shocking. Appalling. Completely unexpected. ;)
The best we can do is make white bigots turn to vapour and go antagonise someone else as quickly as possible. Citing well-sourced facts is an ideal method for it. ;)
@mekkaokereke +in the UK there’s a lot more legislation preventing protests -with a new law about damaging statues being a “crime against national heritage”. Can’t have people protesting against the status quips after all
Thank you for this. Do you have a writeup of what kinds of lasting actions you engage in? (and/or, if relevant, others that you recommend) If so, a link would be awesome.
If not, would love if you could add a few words here.
<3
Here's some of what I did.
1) Address the systemic leverage points of policing racism. I assembled some of the people that like "organizing the world's information, and making it universally useful and accessible," and created projects for them to work on, and transfer skills to, criminal justice reform organizations.
Dr. Goff's Ted Talk on Center for Policing Equity:
https://youtu.be/t0Cr64zCc38
And yes, some individuals that work in law enforcement, do want to fix this problem.
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2) Black graduation rates are reduced due to poverty. In the US, poor kids don't graduate. Most college dropouts, are due to financial hardship. You need at least 1 rich family member. And Black families are disproportionately poor. I don't trust any "George Floyd scholarships" to sustain beyond the moment of guilt. So I worked to decrease family poverty of all young Black students. The group I helped organize made Name, Image, and Likeness laws happen.
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/111082263176915187
2/N
3) I show that inclusion makes *more* money. I'm loud about it. I don't trust that businesses will continue to do DEI under financial constraints and revenue pressure. So I make sure that they know that DEI work makes them *more* money. "They should just do it anyway to be good people!" True! But they don't.
I don't tell companies, "Making this product accessible is the right thing to do! X% of Black and Latiné people have Y disability!"
I say, "You could make $XB more a year."
3/N
4) I don't trust that racist voters will significantly and permanently change their patterns, just from seeing one horrific video. The next generation is not different or less racist.
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/109609941910796255
Biden is further right than most Dem voters. Trump further right than GOP voters. Almost every US candidate is further right than their voters.
Change in voting outcomes will come from decreases in voter suppression. So I supported non-partisan voting efforts.
4/N
5) I don't trust that VC firms, that gave less than a half of 1% of assets to Black founders, and publicly worship alt-right and fash poasters, will make a durable change in how they fund Black founders. I think a lot of hatred for many VCs, and their sociopathic decisions, stems from the fact that we are looking at a literal Nazi bank.
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/109982115166606787
I genuinely want to know what VC would look like if it weren't so fashy. So I support other funding models, and GPs.
5/N
Correct that it was Trump's DOJ/FBI that labeled protesters Black Identity Extremists?
I was both suprised and disappointed that Philadelphia's Black neighborhoods voted heavily for Cherelle Parker who promised to increase police and reinstate stop and frisk.
https://whyy.org/articles/philadelphia-cherelle-parker-policing-mayor-election-stop-and-frisk-gun-violence/
@mekkaokereke There are clearly Rufo organized campaigns against University DEI programs, justified largely by claiming both that DEI programs are responsible for campus anti-semitism, and that they are funded by Jews. Weird combo. I will confess that I'm somewhat at a loss about effective action to counter this.
On an individual level it's easy to combat. But that doesn't work at scale. US journalism is pathologically racist, and so won't say the things that work to change people's opinions, on the "DEI means antisemitic protests!" lie told by nazis. Literal nazis! Who a few years ago were cheering on synagogue shootings and chanting "Jews will not replace us!"
Here's what I say to friends about the campus protests, that completely changes their understanding of what's going on:
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Thanks to the far-right manipulating the US press, and the US people being gullible and ready to believe any anti-Black talking point, most of the US public thinks that the protests are:
* Mostly Palestinian + Arab + Black + a few performative and uninformed white kids that just want to look cool
* That make almost all Jewish students on campus feel unsafe
* Because most Jewish students fully support Israel + Netanyahu
* so camps are unsafe for Jewish kids
This is all a lie.
2/N
* The truth is that most of the campus protests were organized by Jewish students, working alongside Arab and Palestinian students.
* Almost all of the camps have Jewish students in them
* Muslim students in the camps protect and respect Jewish students at seder, and Jewish students protect Muslim students at Salah.
* Some of the most extreme, most anti-Israel, most "10/7 was justified!" calls, come from a Jewish organization (Jewish Voice for Peace). Not Black students.
3/N
At this point, the conversation often devolves into a deep dive on Jewish Voice for Peace, which is a lot of me saying, "I'm not an expert."
I'm sometimes able to get the convo back on track, and point out that many US Jews, regardless of their position on Israel itself, don't support the war in Gaza being done in their name. US Jews are not a monolith. There are Jewish kids inside the protest camps, arguing with Jewish kids outside of it. Very few of the campers are Black.
4/N