I live in Atlanta with some cool neighbors. For the past 3 nights, a mixed bunch of us stood at a strategic intersection between 6 and 7 pm and held up signs supporting BLM. You can seem my sign in the header.
Virtually all of us are white. We picked a corner where a lot of people pass by in all four directions. Some are going to work. Some are coming from work. Another road goes to midtown and the last direction gets you straight on the interstate in a third of a mile.
Many of the drivers are “essential workers” and at least 70% are POC. We saw lots of buses and ambulances and a few police cars.
We didn’t do anything special. Just stood there and smiled through our masks (almost everyone wears a mask … all the time). But we seemed to make an impact. I would estimate that nearly 50% of passing cars honked their horns in support. I saw literally hundreds of cars with POC where people smiled, waved, yelled “thank you”, raised fists and put their hands over their hearts. A few seemed to be crying. I saw a lot of white drivers do the same. Overall, I’m guessing that 70 to 80% of passing cars signaled their approval and support.
Everyone on the corner felt great. This was the third night we did this. 40 or 50 showed up the first night. 15 or 20 the second. Maybe 30 or so the third night. I don’t think the numbers made much difference to our audience. Especially for cars with POC onboard, the chance to see a random bunch of white folks holding BLM signs seemed to lift their spirits.
There’s no signup sheet or roster. If you have time at 6pm, grab your sign, come on down and feel good. A friend of ours kicked it off on Facebook. I hope this is happening around the country and I’m just too dumb to know. If by some weird chance that isn’t true, then please consider doing it when you have the chance. I have never spent an hour doing less work to generate more smiles on people who probably really need one.
Let me be clear. We didn’t earn any points as BLM “allies". We didn’t change the national dialog. We didn’t take any risks. We didn’t work very hard or get any blisters. What I know we did was make some people, especially POC, feel a bit better for 5 sec, 10 sec or 30 sec (if they stopped at the light). We made them feel like some folks cared and weren’t shy to show it.
I think it’s probably wound down because the national narrative has shifted. But there will be other issues in the future, likely involving race or immigration, and maybe we or other folks can help other oppressed people feel a tiny bit better.