Let People Talk

When someone says “abolish the police!” and you think that’s going too far, a good answer is “Wow, I think that’s going too far, and here’s why.” A bad answer is “So what she really means is reform the police.”

I’m seeing a shit ton of the latter around news and social media and it’s pissing me off. Let people talk. Let them say what they mean. Disagree if you want.

Holy cats my Twitter is full of nice white people going “abolish really means regulate” and they need to stop speaking for people who clearly did not ask to be muted.

Electing Democratic Party politicians is not and has never been the goal of Black Lives Matter and similar movements. It’s wildly inappropriate to scold them for failure to build their movements around the strategy, tactics, and rhetoric of anyone else. Especially a party organization that has largely taken them for granted and repeatedly thrown them under the bus since the 1960s.

But if you want to organize around “Black Lives Matter Only Insofar As They Are Props For Democratic Electoral Rhetoric” go right ahead.