For those who were following one of our popular posts on Funk the War and people of color, a visit of the debate going on at Upset the Setup, a new comment highlighting tactics:
It doesn’t appear that FTW has taken any lessons from Miami 2003 and scores of other white-led protest blunders that have cost many people/communities dearly. While white people raged, brown and black-skinned passersby were beat down and went to jail. Studied *anti-racist* anarchists are looking at the Miami Model (pre-emptive policing, profiling, infiltration, etc) as one of the serious repercussions and obstacles of (of course, first expanded repression tactics by the state – we know who calls out the dogs) but also from disconnected, uncoordinated individualized strategies that choose targets and employ seemingly spontaneous actions without community consensus, and put a lot of people in danger of police arrest and assault.
Typically, white people skate arrests and charges (and of course day to day criminalization and repression) while people of color pay the big price. White people can throw a rock or paintball at a building and vanish into the thin air of gentrification and white privilege that’s permeating this city. Got a college degree? even better. The city establishment would love for you to “take back the streets” from Black and Latino families. Take ‘em! No one is really standing in your way.
No surprise then that (predominantly Black) cops didn’t respond to so many taunts by frat-like ‘anarchists’ during the FTW march. Some of the more absurd moments that day? Two enraged white men yelling in the face of three Black cops – “If this were Birmingham, would you still be on that side?” FUCK COPS, FUCK THE PIGS!, again mostly directed at Black cops. One white guy feigned being pushed off of his bicycle by a cop – no one fell for it but other white folks were on guard, ready to brawl with the police – over what again?
I mean, it’s fine if you want to fight the police but set your own appointment with them and invite people to that event, see who comes. Hell, even plan a “white people against police brutality” march and go for it. But don’t co-opt the tremendous desire of people to end the state’s assault on people of color so that you can play act ‘resistance’ in the streets. FYI, it’s always advisable to have broad community support, particularly from people you’re claiming to advocate for.
The comment goes on to call for more informed discussion, and condemns attempts to block discussion of Funk the War and its organizing.
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