re: #206 Blind Frog Belly White

I have a question though, and I’m asking as a white suburban mom who has not always had an easy life, and not always lived in the suburbs either.

I feel like BLM is doing an overall good job of drawing attention to the issue of police brutality and injustice in black communities. This is needed badly. Protests are all well and good, and again needed, but my question is, then what? There has to be something past a protest movement for anything to change. It’s not “just” racism that’s at issue here. There’s wrestling the prison system away from private companies, reforms in how police are being trained to see communities as the enemy, poverty, shitty schools in minority neighborhoods, food deserts in poor areas, lack of opportunity, lack of access to proper health care, the drug war, and on and on. This isn’t just one thing, it’s many, many things. What does BLM propose to do to address these issues? Because IMVHO this is where allies and communities can come together to do the most good. Grabbing a mic and screaming at a mostly white crowd that this is their fault (in so many words) isn’t going to fix anything.

In order for shit to change, like it or not, it’s going to take more than just Black activists to get us there and it’s going to take a LONG ass time to get it done. I’d love to listen and hear what needs to happen, but if I’m being screamed at it’s not going to help me figure out WTF I can do. I have raised to white kids to be decent and honorable humans who have compassion and empathy and to judge people based on their actions, not race, religion, gender or who they love. What else can I do? I mean that.