Looting and rioting don’t tackle racism
THE murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis is sickening beyond belief but what did the rioters and looters – of all colours – think they were achieving by torching their own cities?
How does burning your local convenience store and nicking tellies help fight racism? How does that achieve justice for George and his family?
It doesn’t. All it does is add fuel to the fire of hatred. It doesn’t mean your voice is being heard – it just means that those who want to discriminate and divide will do so even more.
Witness Trump’s reaction. Did he sit down and think how to make America a more equal place where black lives matter? Nope. He threatened to end a few more.
Daubing tragic George’s name on the side of a trashed Louis Vuitton store is as depressing as it is mindless. Does anyone really believe stealing a few grands’ worth of handbags is honouring his memory?
The Mayor of Atlanta Keisha Lance Bottoms – who witnessed her own city being turned into a war zone – gave the best response: “This is not a protest. This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr.
This is chaos. A protest has purpose. When Dr. King was assassinated, we didn’t do this to our city. So if you love this city, this city that has had a legacy of black mayors and black police chiefs and people who care about this city where more than 50% of the business owners in metro Atlanta are minority business owners, if you care about this city then go home.”
Being both black and female Keisha, 50, knows a thing or two about discrimination. But if you’re thinking this is all 4,000 miles away who cares, then we all should. Protests have spread to the UK though and have, thankfully, been mostly peaceful so far. But throw in a few rent-amob agitators – almost exclusively white, middle class, universityeducated wannabe Che Guevaras who need a good wash – and we’re a tinderbox too.
The politics of race have become a mess. Even having an opinion on it as a white person is dangerous and leaves you open to accusations of bigotry. Likewise saying you don’t see the colour of a person’s skin is also, evidently, a sign of prejudice. But then so is judging someone on that very thing. Pick the bones out of that one if you will.
What doesn’t help is constantly being told by – again mainly by the white liberal elite – that racism lurks in everything. Jamaican Stew and Tunisian Rice were removed from the menu of one college canteen because they were “racist micro-aggressions”.
Sombreros have been banned in Mexican restaurants and even asking: “Where are you from?” is dodgy as it’s a “covert way to say you don’t belong here”.
Designed to promote a more tolerant society this guff just creates more friction and suspicion. Exactly the kind of emotions that lead to people losing their lives.