On the Montreal protests.
Someone asked me last night, why I was worried walking around the area where the protesters and police were gathered. I had half-jokingly said to a friend that she should walk beside me where she wouldn’t be so visible, in case she got beaten for WWI (Walking While Indian). I joked that my pale skin might shield her a little, but that it’s possible we’d both get beat down. I recounted this story to a friend online who asked how her dark skin could be relevant.
Another friend, online, made this incredibly succinct and accurate comment:
In situations like riots when it is considered ok for the police to lash out at anything that moves, they don’t actually forget their usual prejudices. In fact all of a sudden they find themselves in a position to indulge them violently without much danger of political repercussions.
Exactly. And this is why the people who normally face heightened levels of police attention/brutality even when the situation is calm as a Sunday afternoon, are very, very hesitant to put themselves at the kind of risk that comes along with being a marginalised person during these kinds of increasingly violent situations.
This is something you absolutely have to understand if you are a pale-skinned activist trying to work with people of colour.
This also goes for white people who are astonished that poc arent thronging the streets alongside them during #occupy protests.
Protestors took over Michigan Ave here yesterday, down the street from my job. To give you an idea of what we expect from aggravated Chicago cops, my boss took one look outside and told me to get out & take any route home that didn’t involve crossing Michigan Ave.
2 weeks ago · 70 notes · Source · Reblogged from karnythia
