re: #117 Belafon

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I get where the author is coming from, and we definitely don’t need to get away from the original point. But the moms didn’t show up until their kids were being taken. The veterans didn’t show up until moms were being taken. You definitely don’t want to turn this into all lives matter, but turning what is happening to everyone in Portland to advance their cause. At the same time, whites definitely need to remember that their privilege doesn’t give them power.

There are some great truths in what he said, though.

But there are two points to say:

One. I think the participants have a very clear idea of why they’re there. They’re there to uplift black voices (and the majority there are white because Portland is white). But they can’t help how the rest of the country takes it. And the rest of the country needs to remember why they’re there (note the irony of the chowderheads who say they agree with the injustice of Breonna Taylor but they don’t agree with BLM).

Two: if you’re calling on a wider response to injustice, “dilution” is going to be happen eventually, and that needs to be combatted from within.