Donald Trump spent the weekend on Twitter ranting about black athletes and their supposed disrespect of the country, national anthem and flag. Always quick to incite chaos, drama and controversy, this is the modus operandi of Trump as a politician—repeatedly accusing people of color for diminishing America’s greatness.
Of course, this isn’t a new tactic. Whenever people of color, especially black people, shine a light on the injustice that is so deeply woven into the fabric of America, there are scores of white people who try to silence them. Much of white America wants black people to shut up, smile and be grateful that it tolerates our existence—even though they have done everything to make that existence as miserable as possible. This was true for the civil rights movement as much as it’s true today. The very same peaceful protests of the 1960s that Americans look back on with such admiration were deeply criticized at the time. What’s telling is that, even though several decades have passed, the argument people are using today to discourage protest about racial injustice is the very same argument they used in the 1960s.
A Gallup poll taken in 1964, shortly after the 1963 March on Washington, found that 74 percent of Americans believed that “mass demonstrations by Negroes” would “hurt the Negro’s cause for racial equality.”
Another Gallup poll in October 1964 found that 73 percent of Americans believed that “Negroes should stop their demonstrating now that they have made their point.”
And here’s what folks are saying today:
All of this translates to essentially the same thing: there is no acceptable way for black people to protest that doesn’t make white people deeply uncomfortable. This is so very much the case that people will come up with any reason they can to find a way to stop it. Notice all the diversionary tactics taking a knee has become about in this debate—the flag, the anthem, patriotism, injecting politics into sports where it supposedly doesn’t belong, spoiled millionaires who are complaining about oppression that doesn’t really exist and now helping Trump to “win.” But this has never been about Donald Trump. Though Sunday’s protests were likely inspired by a pushback against Trump and his attack on black athletes, this protest was originally about and remains focused on police and state violence against black bodies and other people of color.
Today, numerous reasonable (white) Republicans make a similar argument. The NFL protests are too incendiary and will backfire on the (mostly) black players participating.
Civil rights protesters largely ignored popular sentiment in the 1960s and continued to speak out for their rights. As a result they were able to achieve real progress, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Now, it may seem like a near impossible task given the gravity of what we face, but how about we stop centering Donald Trump in everything? He’s vile, repugnant and doing all he can to destroy our democracy. That we already know. But, this is not about him. He is not the only reason why black and brown lives continue to be at risk in our country. What we really need to do when it comes to racial justice is take on white supremacy at all levels. Of course, that includes fighting back against this administration as hard as we can. But this also includes other forms of resistance—such as holding white folks accountable when their fragility and discomfort take over and they make these pitiful excuses for why black people shouldn’t be allowed free speech and peaceful protest. This is not just limited to Republicans. Many white progressives also struggle with problematic behaviors around delegitimizing and policing protests about racial justice. This is something we need to address if we are going to truly get anywhere on this issue.
We have work to do. If anything is a distraction here, it’s these excuses that are meant to keep us from getting closer to racial equity. Let’s keep our eyes, hearts and minds focused on the big picture.