Soooo, B-MO is tense. There have been non-stop reports of violence and looting. There have been objects thrown at the police, there has been destruction of private property. There have been those who say “fuck it, tear some shit up.” An even larger group has been quick to say “this is NOT the way.”

Now let me state at the outset. I don’t do “protests,” not out of cowardice or lack of concern about the issues, just simply because I don’t go places where I may get killed because of the actions of the person next to me. As the old folks always say, bullets don’t have names.

I don’t however have the same visceral reaction that many do when they see scenes of looting and destruction. I am of the mind that all movements for social change require two avenues. For those of you who didn’t live through the latter parts of the civil rights era, many believe that MLK would not have been as successful if the threat of Malcolm X was there as a counterbalance. You either talk to us about it or we tear shit up. I know its a simplistic analysis but at its lowest common denominator, that’s what it was. For those who will scream, “but they tearing they own shit up!” Let’s look at that realistically. That’s not “our” shit. We have all had that conversation where we complain about “outsiders” coming into our communities and taking our dollars back to their own. We accept businesses in our communities selling sub-standard, knock off, expired bullshit and are quick to say, “if the Koreans weren’t here where would we get our goods? If the Pakistanis weren’t here, where would we get our gas and snacks?” Well, I would respond with, where can you buy a fucking apple or fresh meat or fish? Where can you purchase healthy food to feed your family in the hood? We lament about the absence of black businesses in our communities. Why that phenomenon exists is the subject of countless articles and books. (Manning Marable, Walter Rodney, Dr. Claude Anderson to name a few) Then we do a curious thing, we call our own people animals for destroying (looting) those same businesses you complain about

We complain that it makes us look bad, we say that it gives the “man” a reason to treat us badly. What that line of reasoning neglects, however, is that the “man” never needed a reason to treat us badly. Everyone of those protesters could have been wearing white and holding a bible and they still would be treated badly. Major cities and institutions have policies and procedures set up to deal with peaceful dissent. The protesters are herded into designated areas and allowed to sing their songs, say their prayers and in some jurisdictions, you are allowed/required to file for a permit to protest. We go for that shit. They don’t fear peaceful protest because they know as soon as it rains, or gets too hot or too cold, you’re going home. They know that its Baltimore today, but something will jump in Jacksonville, or Kansas City or Minneapolis or any number of places in the US that we are being killed. We will then divert our protest attention to Justice for [insert name of the next person gunned down or mistreated by the police].

Some tend to compare our protests with other groups. They say “well white people don’t act that way,” and to that I’ll state that you are correct, white people HERE don’t do that. In Europe, they TEAR SHIT UP. (See attached photos, better yet, Google Image search European protests) White folks in this country are COWARDS. They have nothing to protest for. They actually do but they just don’t realize it yet. They are like the “good” Jews at the beginning of Hitler’s reign, they thought they were safe. The people some are trying to compare us to are just happy its us that are getting our heads busted every time they interact with the police. In actuality, more whites are killed by police in America than us, but the media makes more money out of highlighting us. They don’t care right now because its not scary enough for the majority of them. They won’t protest because they still believe that Officer Friendly is there to protect him and they are right.

So we can’t compare our methods to theirs and we need to stop asking others to do that. Some of us believe that in order to make them answer the door we must knock LOUDLY, to use an analogy. I don’t presume to be a great orator or to have all the answers but I do think that Frederick Douglass was correct way back in 1857, back when we were still chattel slaves when he said:

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.”

We’ve tried words, it don’t work.

Drops mic, walks from stage drippin blackness