Outside Agitators and Bad Apples | Bill AyersOutside Agitators and Bad Apples
We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe.
~~~Frantz Fanon, Provocateur.
I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without first having spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government.
~~~Martin Luther King Jr., Outside agitator.
Can liberals even hear themselves?
Yes, yes, all the liberal commentators, observers, and political operatives rightly point out that Trump incites violence with his lies and his threats and his racist dog-whistles, including calling demonstrators “thugs” and warning (with a sly and evil wink) that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”But then their narrative goes—predictably—wrong: protests against the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police are legitimate, say the commentators, observers, and political operatives, and “effective,” but a rebellion against the system of oppression (including systemic police violence) that led to the murder is inappropriate and will “never work.” Who are these people? And how do they know “what works”? Colin Kaepernick courageously took a knee years ago, and it was powerful and important, but did it “work” in their terms? Why would anyone look to the powerful for guidance on strategy and tactics? Note the framing: not a lynching by armed agents of the state, the latest in a pattern of serial-assassinations and a continual series of state-sanctioned murders, but an isolated incident. The cop in Minneapolis was a “bad apple,” they say, but this is entirely upside down: the whole barrel is rotten, the cop culture corrupt, the code of silence a license to kill, and, sure, there are likely a few random “good apples” in there, but the good apple is the exception, not the rule.
Listen up: do not tell oppressed people and the victims of white CONTINUE READING: Outside Agitators and Bad Apples | Bill Ayers
