"There Are Going to be Such Explosions": What Constitutes Violence in a Settler Colonial Society, the Unethical Use of Tear Gas, and the Importance of Media Literacy
Photo by Spenser on Unsplash
Black Lives, particularly Black Trans Lives, Matter everyday, all day, 365 days a year, 24/7.
Tony McDade
Nina Pop
Muhlaysia Booker
Joseph Thomas
Alexa Ruiz
George Floyd
Layleen Polanco
Iyanna Dior- Black trans femme who was attacked at a George Floyd protest in Minneapolis
Breonna Taylor
James Scurlock
Ahmaud Arbery
Regis Korchinski - Paquet
Botham Jean
(These people are listed in this post by Ericka Hart and Ebony Donnley)
Across the United States, cops are showing up to protests against police killings with more protective equipment than nurses in hospitals -- who are actually saving lives while also trying to shield themselves from contracting COVID-19.
Nurses wore trashbags in place of real protective gear.
— ColeSllaw (@sllaw_bass) June 2, 2020
And now we have trashbags wearing protective gear
— bagel w/ quarancheese (@HarryEatsBagels) June 2, 2020
Protestors in the streets are facing the excessive use of military grade weapons, tear gas, flash-bang grenades, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and more. In this video, we see a group of innocent protestors being pushed up against a fence with nowhere to escape as police bomb them with tear gas. This is not normal. But this is “business as usual” for a day in the life of cops who swear by their duty to “protect and serve.”
Today, in 2020 we are experiencing the largest civil rights movement in the world, and as Ericka Hart says, “This is a civil war.” All 50 states plus 18 countries have participated in protests against police brutality in defense of Black Lives as of June 3. More than 450 protests have been organized. The demand is simple: Defund the police. Check out Vienna Rye who creates art that exposes why “All Cops Are Bastards” and what we mean when we say there are no good cops.
Tear gas, flash-bang grenades, pepper spray, and rubber bullets are supposedly “non-lethal,” but these violent tools of war indeed are deadly. Tear gas increases respiratory illnesses and can have fatal consequences on those with pre-existing conditions like asthma. Although tear gas is explicitly prohibited in warfare, police are using it excessively to quell and silence the valid outcry of people who are fed up with a punitive system and police force that disproportionately targets and kills Black people.
Bootlickers will defend the use of tear gas and other brutal acts of police violence against protestors in the streets. They’ll say that if protestors simply remained peaceful and didn’t get violent then there wouldn’t be any problems. But that’s just not true. Any challenge to the police state is considered violent. Police ultimately have the power to decide what is and what isn’t violent. Throwing water bottles can be deemed violent. It doesn’t matter if you take a knee like Colin Kaepernick, you march with a sign in the streets, or you ransack Target. It’s “violent” to those who want to maintain the status quo.
It is absolutely absurd in the context of the United States government, which pushes forward the agenda of settler colonialism in the form of redlining, gentrification, and white saviorism, to argue about what constitutes violence and what doesn’t. No one speaks to this better than Angela Davis. In 1972 Angela Davis was being detained in a California State Prison because the government was fearful of her leadership in the Black Panther Party. In this interview Davis says,
“When you talk about revolution most people think violence without realizing that the real content of any revolutionary thrust lies in the principles and the goals that you’re striving for, not in the ways you reach them. On the other hand, because of the way this society is organized, because of the violence that exists on the surface everywhere, you have to expect that there are going to be such explosions. You have to expect things like that as reactions. If you are a Black person and live in the Black community all your life, and walk out on the street everyday seeing white policemen surrounding you...I was constantly stopped. The police didn’t know who I was, but I was a Black woman...and when you live in a situation like that constantly, and then you ask me whether I approve of violence, I mean, that just doesn’t make any sense at all.”
As Ericka Hart points out, “People are not connecting everyday incidences of racial violence to Black genocide in the US.” Our definition of “violence” cannot be diminished to Webster's Dictionary definition. Here’s a helpful resource for understanding how racism works and shows up. Anti-Blackness manifests in ways that white people have normalized. Hart continues, “The all white staff, production crew, neighborhood, etc contributes to our death.”
Kneeling is the most peaceful thing you could literally ever do, yet Kaepernick lost his job and received intense, anti-Black backlash. There are always consequences for challenging the white supremacist foundations of the U.S if you’re Black. But when you’re white and heavily armed, suddenly it’s “patriotism.”
In April 30, 2020, white men and women were not stopped, tear gassed, pepper-sprayed, or beaten for heavily arming themselves, and demanding to be let inside Michigan’s state Capitol for what they called an “American Patriot Rally” in order to express their disdain for the shelter-at-home orders. These orders were in place to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus. And although the country is slowly lifting these orders and “opening back up,” it’s still in everyone’s best interest to continue to shelter-at-home if you have the privilege to do so, continue wearing masks, remain at least six feet distance from people, and only interact with the people in your household.
At the same time, if you’re able, it’s a crucial time to get out in the streets and protest. We recommend checking out Rae Tilly’s “The Protestor’s Handbook,” for Yeoja Magazine. There are plenty of measures we encourage you to take to ensure your safety as much as possible, but ultimately protesting can be extremely dangerous. Don’t go to a protest and treat it like an opportunity to get some new photos for Instagram.
We encourage our community to continue to self-educate on the history of protesting, and inform your family, friends, and co-workers about the unethical use of tear gas and rubber bullets. Don’t let the cops dancing to the “Macarena” with protestors trick you into thinking everything is fine, and that some cops are friendly. Cops can be friendly and brutalize people at the same time, as we saw with the elderly man who was pushed down by a brigade of riot cops of the Buffalo Police Department who, just the day prior, were photographed taking a knee. Cops are domestic terrorists.
It’s also important to be weary of the mainstream media. The mainstream media can’t be trusted no matter what political party they affiliate with because they consistently report in a way that skews what’s actually happening on the ground. Media literacy is crucial in this age of social media where false information can spread like wildfire. @PossumKratom69 created this guide for vetting information. They also provide these tips for attending protests:
Palika Makum, a media activist, provides these pointers for recording footage at protests (white people we should always be recording interactions with Black people and cops, and ensuring we interject at all cost):
Follow alternative sources like Unicorn Riot, as well as activists on the frontlines in your area. We love Erick of @NYC4Revolution_ , Portland’s Resistance, Ohun Ashe, Nupol Kiazolu, and StlActivist to name only a few, but ultimately Black Lives Matter, which was founded in 2013 by three Black women, Opal Tometi, Patrisse Cullors, and Alicia Garza, is a decentralized movement with no formal hierarchy, which is intentional.
Relevant:
Did you know that Black Diamond has connections with Safariland, a U.S. based manufacturer that sells equipment to the law enforcement industry, including tear gas? If you’d like to help take action against the excessive use of tear gas and demand that Black Diamond takes action too here’s what you need to know.
