When I initially starting writing about the protest I attended in NYC yesterday, it was more-or-less a recounting of what I had seen, heard, and felt. My plan was to shape that sensory experience around the noted absence of a leader - you know, that elusive political jesus we always seem to hope will emerge. And how maybe, after experiencing what I did, it’s okay if one doesn’t. Because truth is, one might not. And if we keep waiting in our little bubbles of indifference and inaction, hoping for this hypothetical messiah to save us all, the ground we stand on is going to sink while walls and strongmen continue to rise up all around us. The only leader we have right now is our own proactivity: our protests, our taking to the streets to be sure we are heard, is the voice that is needed for this moment.
I was happy with that as an idea. Sure, maybe I was mourning a bit in my execution of it, slightly miffed that I didn’t sound more like Hunter S. Thompson. But then, I was sober, after all.
Today, though… today, something else happened, something that made me scrap that whole draft (not that it will be greatly missed, but still.) Today, I had posted a series of photos of the very protest I had attended, captioned by sarcasm: “Heard criminals and thugs were causing trouble and instilling terror…found only empathy and cries for justice. Huh. Imagine that.” Some people messaged me, irritated that my choice of words were misleading at best, cable news anchor level bullshit at worst. That things had been violent, that criminals and thugs had taken to vandalism, looting, and general assholery. Which is true; while the protest I was at was nothing but peaceful and amazing, I had seen the broken glass of shattered storefronts walking home afterwards.
Still, I stood my ground, noting that most of those people were opportunists. Not to mention others who had posed as Antifa as either cover to do shitty things, to sway the narrative of what antifa even is, as well as doing what they could to incite riots in the first place. I was scolded for saying such things, that I was eating up propaganda and taking Vice articles as fact. (Which, okay, quick side-note: I think I was most mad at that assumption than anything else. Vice, though? Really?)
But that being said, as the conversation progressed, I grew more frustrated as I was sent one link after another. Sure, you could look at CNN’s coverage of the protests and see its reporting and choice of words as defense of the looting, which is absurd and hypocritical to condone. You could look at MSM coverage, and be outraged at how all of a sudden, CoVid doesn’t seem to matter anymore. You could look at the New York Post, see video of the vandalism from just last night, and be pissed off that no one seems to mind, how it’s all being excused away. Like anything in our current world, you could look at anything, and see total slant, total lack of nuance, and total hypocrisy.
I didn’t write the caption I did to mislead, but to simply point out that not all of these protests are turning violent, and not all protesters are out there to be violent. For the most part – in the same way that for the most part, our country isn’t majority extremists – these protests consist of people who are fed up, disgusted, and pleading for accountability and change. Their ask isn’t anything crazy, either: they want to be seen as human. To eliminate certain police practices and reteach others, and to hold law enforcement to the same standard any of them would be held to. And of course, due justice for those taken both in the recent weeks, and in the dozens of years before.
It’s been a while since we’ve been here. For decades, most of us have been numb and complacent, uninformed and apathetic. Things got comfortable, distractions happened, cynicism and distrust in leadership grew strong. So maybe, some of us just don’t remember. Maybe history we were taught left out a few things, or seemed less offensive in sepia tones. But when movements happen, it doesn’t always go seamlessly. It won’t always be organized. There will be a select few who take it too far and wind up hurting and damaging people, property, and the cause itself. It will seem like end of times and that our country is falling apart. But we’ve been here before. We’ve survived, and come out of it for the better. And at the of the day, that’s all those who are marching want: to change things for the better.
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