One perspective on BLM

[artislife]

This video is from a Seatlle activist and his views of Westlake yesterday. He has been with many protests including Act Up which was all about agitation. Please watch.


https://www.facebook.com/chad.gollersojourner/videos/10152970652386976/?fref=nf

Chad Goller-Sojourner is a Seattle-based writer, storyteller, solo-performer and recipient of a distinguished Washington State Arts Commission Performing Arts Fellowship. Most recently he served as the 2013 Ohio University Glidden Visiting Professor, where his work focused on the social, political and historical dimensions of multi-identity construction and intersectionality. In 2011 he was awarded both an Artist Trust Grant and Creative Artist Residency to further develop his sophomore solo show: Riding in Cars with Black People & Other Newly Dangerous Acts: A Memoir in Vanishing Whiteness.

http://www.ridingincarswithblackpeople.com/bio.html

He talks about using agitation and how it works. He also talks about how the Westlake event could have furthered their cause with an ask. This video is kind of rambly, but I liked it. He asks the person who is looking at a shut down to wonder why. In Seattle, shut downs usually mean another hour to an overly long commute so to not be annoyed with sitting in your car because of something...to ask yourself what the rage is about.

He aligns with my thoughts, which are that I have to take me, Artislife, out of being the one who is afflicted by this annoyance.


One thing I must add about this site in particular. I see many posters eager, yes, eager to jump all over posts that supports the conspiracy of a Rovian tactic being used and how Hillary is behind it and the jumpers are eager to point out how tinfoil hats Bernie supporters appear. But personally, I have posted many many times in favor of BLM and those who are not Bernie supporters are very quiet. Invisible. I see it with other posters like myself and it just adds to the illusion that agitation on this site is also very preferable.

[aikoaiko]

1. I watched it.

I agree that direct action can work. It can also fail. I can't say Cindy Shaheen and Code Pink achieved much.

He notes that Bernie is not the enemy of Black people and of course he is correct. But with this last disruption they treated him as if he were. Most of Act Ups events were directed at enemies.

Why is BLM choosing to disrupt Bernie when it could choose the AG who doesn't prosecute cops who kill without justification?

And now with #bowdownbernie it appears the disruptive protest is about Bernie specifically.

[artislife]

2. Why?

First, thank you so much for actually looking at the video and posting. You can see me!

Why, are they doing this? Because they have had more reaction than any other action they have done. The reaction in particular is from people who haven't reacted before, people that are perceived to be unaffected by Police brutality. The aim is to get the masses aware and talking about BLM because it has been allowed to go on for so long because no one else was paying attention.

I would be doing the same, frankly, if I was as committed to a cause. I am a more passive person, but that doesn't make me better.

At all, I actually think my passivity is something I should work on.

[winter is coming]

3. "But with this last disruption they treated him as if he were"

THIS. Once you've called someone a white supremacist, why would you expect them to listen to you? You're stuck with it... you can't escalate forward into something else, or even retreat to a more moderate position. If the goal of these protesters was to change anyone's mind in a positive way, they suck at it. Especially with the #bowdownbernie, this looks like a deliberate attempt to anger the crowd and get some video they can put on social media to "prove" there's a rift between Bernie and the AA community. How can that possibly help BLM?

[Bluenorthwest]

4. Let me post this 1989 local news report from NYC about ACT UP's protest at City Hall

Just for the notion of history, context and such

[artislife]

5. Great video

One of the protesters said he had to protest, he had done everything else to get the politicians to take notice.

The BLM in Seattle wasn't as organized, or shall I say organized in the same manner.

Think how much more they can do if they do get organized like Act Up.

Summer and fall of protests.

[Bluenorthwest]

6. Did you notice the average people being dragged away by the police while speaking truth?

No one gave those guys the mic.

[artislife]

7. I noticed they weren't brutalized as well

I think I may not be seeing what you hoped I would be seeing.

I am not sure.

I would love to know more. I am not being coy. I find that sometimes I am not sure I am reading the posts the way they are intended.

(except for the poking bear post, I am sure I read that one correctly...don't even think about it--)

Sorry I had to put that in, I think I am being followed.