re: #193 wlewisiii

Understood. I am, actually, agreeing with you.

No, no-one is 100%. But the TV footage from that day was as close to perfect as could have been imagined and that’s the kind of thing too many American’s want out of every protest since. And once you accept how many shades of grey there are in all of us, that get’s a little painful…

Yeah, I find them to be traumatic to watch. If anyone has known anyone who was in early-mid 60s SNCC or CORE (I’ve known a couple - profs), let’s just say there is no consensus on whether or not having a bunch of stupid confeds dump coffee or put out cigarettes on you for sitting at a lunch counter or getting on an integrated bus was worth it, even knowing how their work contributed to the gains of so many.

Look at what happened to Shirley Sherrod, who was a product of the Albany Movement, which her husband lead. I’ll NEVER forgive the Obama administration for how they treated her.

I know what you mean about what Americans expect out of protests. At least, I see it as a weird sort of porn/gratification complex, especially among people who have never had to struggle for anything, themselves. There is a whole contingent of people itching to see cops beat protester’s heads in for any pretext, and there are people naive and totally unschooled in how to deal with it. Potentially bad situation.