African American
In reply to the discussion: what is the deal with this continuing racist behavior of whites [View all]Kind of Blue
(8,709 posts)and not that our tone/method "Might" change hearts and minds. How has that worked out for us living in what is the greatest amount of recorded killings, among other injustices, since the Jim Crow era and polite protests of the '50s, '60s and before?
There's so much written about this that I'm doing an injustice in trying to explain that, to me, heaven05 posed the right questions at the right time. Had to read up on my contradictory feelings - raised to be polite/nice and balance that with rage. I've posed the same responses many times in public and privately when I'm told/hear or read "move on," "get over it," and "negroes have made such progress" that I think of as polite racism.
You say "shooting to kill isn't always necessary." Wow, talk about harsh. Did heaven05 shoot to kill after saying, "I asked quietly...?" Many of us, depending on the situation, are shedding thinking of white reaction first before we act. And I say heaven05 reacted from an informed space. Jeeze, remember BLM's tactic that changed the focus of this election season was not by saying, D'uh, Uh, kindly excuse me but...
I say heaven05's tactic is a form of education. If later, like you say, "better not talk like that out loud" is said among friends then YAY, that's a step in the right direction, too. It's teaching them it is not polite to say such things in 2016. But whether or not heaven05's method changed hearts and minds, is not up to her(?) to determine. If they miss the content of "quietly" posing food for thought then that is on them. I say this because while information to change hearts and minds comes from outside of us, doing so is an individual process that none of us have access to. I say this also because you stated, "If he," Sen. Bryd, "could do that, then I think people like this couple could do it as well, given the chance."
What chance? Who's to determine the chance if we're to first act on a possible but highly improbable favorable white reaction? Do you know why Sen. Bryd changed his mind? If not, it was not because he was simply educated about racism. It was because he was finally able to put himself in our shoes. Who would think that it was mainly the event of his grandson's death that turned him around? Who's to say what event in anyone's life can cause this kind of evolution? The comfort of the bigot or passive bigot, and the chance they might change, cannot be our first concern.
The point is that being confrontational is a valid strategy in our arsenal. I cannot sit back in judgement on heaven05's situation that I did not witness because "educating" comes in many forms.
The time has long passed when Dr. King said freedom comes through "persistent agitation," and longer still when Frederick Douglas said, "Those who favor freedom without agitation want crops without plowing." Surely they educated in ways that are preferrable to you but agitation that's been in practice forever is a form of change, as well.
Harsh or not, polite or not, "educating" or not, we know supremacy deals in death and it would be so cool when people stop talking about our tone/method that we all know is a deflection from atrocities.