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When You Brag That The Women’s Marches Were Nonviolent

Above Photo: Rosa Parks being fingerprinted by an Alabama police officer after her arrest during the bus boycott (Wikimedia).

When you brag that your protests had no arrests, I wonder what you think that says about you.

“When someone asks me about violence… I just find it incredible. Because what it means is that the person asking that question has absolutely no idea what black people have gone through — what black people have experienced in this country — since the time the first black person was kidnapped from the shores of Africa.” — Angela Davis

 

1-0dJKycGjSKEx2huRi0294A When you brag that your protests had no arrests, I wonder what you think that says about you.

Rosa Parks’ February 21, 1956 mugshot after her leadership in the Montgomery Bus Boycott (Getty Pages).
Rosa Parks’ February 21, 1956 mugshot after her leadership in the Montgomery Bus Boycott (Getty Pages).
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. being arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for “loitering” in 1958 (Wikimedia Commons).
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. being arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for “loitering” in 1958 (Wikimedia Commons).
Angela Davis being arrested in 1970.
Angela Davis being arrested in 1970.
Mississippi Freedom Riders arrested in 1961 (Washington Post).
Mississippi Freedom Riders arrested in 1961 (Washington Post).

When you say that your protests were peaceful, I wonder how much credit you are taking for that.

The firehosing of unarmed water protectors at Standing Rock in freezing temperatures in November, 2016 (Avery Leigh White).
The firehosing of unarmed water protectors at Standing Rock in freezing temperatures in November, 2016 (Avery Leigh White).

 

When you take pictures with smiling cops and thank them for protecting you, I wonder, who are you marching for?

Police militarization in Ferguson, Missouri, 2014 (YouTube).
Police militarization in Ferguson, Missouri, 2014 (YouTube).

When you say that your protests were nonviolent, I wonder, how do you define violence?
Is it a brick?
Is it a rock?
Is it a baton?
Is it pepper spray?
Is it a firehose?
Is it a police dog?
Or is it poisoned water?
Is it a school suspension?
Is it mass incarceration?
Is it grinding poverty?
Is it that “random” airport security check?
Is it yet another traffic stop?
Is it the toy gun in that kid’s hand?
Is it that stop and frisk?
Or is it the thought that you could march a million white women down the street without fear — and high five the same cops who wouldn’t hesitate to pepper spray black and brown faces begging for nothing less than their lives — and then call it progress?

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