Protests

[Cashewmilk]

What do you think about the protests? I for one am glad about it, I'm happy to see the young generation standing up literally for something. I don't think it'll change the hearts and minds of racist people though, but it's good to see people fighting back and causing a scene. I wish people would protest about other issues too more often though. Racism against dark skin is prevalent in all cultures. I'm dark skinned myself and I have felt and experienced the racism. It's stupid but there is racism within black culture and all cultures where there is a wide spectrum of light and dark skin tones. In Asian and Indian cultures, and African, the lighter your skin the more desirable you are. I don't know if that will ever stop.

 

[Fedrea]

What do you think about the protests? I for one am glad about it, I'm happy to see the young generation standing up literally for something. I don't think it'll change the hearts and minds of racist people though, but it's good to see people fighting back and causing a scene. I wish people would protest about other issues too more often though. Racism against dark skin is prevalent in all cultures. I'm dark skinned myself and I have felt and experienced the racism. It's stupid but there is racism within black culture and all cultures where there is a wide spectrum of light and dark skin tones. In Asian and Indian cultures, and African, the lighter your skin the more desirable you are. I don't know if that will ever stop.

May be inappropriate but I did laugh at the footage of the protestors pulling down the statue of slave trader Edward Colston and throwing him in the harbour in Bristol. The statue was an affront and the council should have removed it.

It's nice to see young people standing up at protests, it's good for the heart and mind to stand for something and I hope they change things.

Edward Colston: Bristol slave trader statue 'was an affront'

But the prime minister describes the toppling of Edward Colston's statue as a "criminal act".

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Acerakis]

The ones in the US have been a long time coming. I hate how people are using the riots and looting against the message of the protest when that rioting is likely a mix of people being angry at the situation and not feeling they have any other way to show it and people just taking advantage of the situation to loot. As many people have said, people have been trying to peacefully protest for ages and were labelled as unpatriotic for their troubles so no wonder some people felt rioting was the only option.

Its a bit weird here in the UK as we don't really have a police brutality problem so they seem to be a bit more just against racism in general, which seems a bit harder to actually implement much change to fix. Also really disheartening to see many people quite happy to cheer on a cause when it is in another country like the HK protests only to whinge as soon as it happens here. NIMBY I guess. As for any worries about how this will effect the covid situation, I think that ship sailed as soon as the beaches opened.

 

[waived]

The bloated protests that exist now in the tens/hundreds of thousands consist of people who don't get it and whose presence has turned the open rebellion of the first few days into a completely neutered pro-police event.

 

[Libracusp_1022]

I'm very glad to see the protests, and excited that every US state and 18 countries have taken part. It will be a long, hard fight, but I agree, it's been a long time coming!

 

[_Minsk]

if it actually helps its a good thing, but eh, why during the times of pandemic

 

[Libracusp_1022]

if it actually helps its a good thing, but eh, why during the times of pandemic

Covid may have contributed to setting it off. So many are unemployed, and the government's idea of financial assistance was far below what other countries provided, really a slap in the face. Police continued to harass and assault black and brown people during Covid for not social distancing, when they were. And of course, they left white people alone.

 

[Deleted member 1465]

It's a perfect storm and part of a much broader picture that will unfold inexorably as the weeks and months and years progress.

 

[Jean Améry]

Given that there's a pandemic going on and gatherings of large groups of people will likely contribute to a further spread of the virus and therefore the disease I think it's a supremely bad idea to do it now although I can understand the outrage. The video of mr. Floyd dying in such a vile manner was sickening. In normal circumstances I'd applaud anyone who is protesting peacefully.

Of course I understand the motivation completely and I think they're absolutely right (racism is abhorrent as is police brutality) but there must be other ways to effect change than this. This will likely make more people sick and lead to more deaths.

Besides those protests by themselves will achieve little, especially in the US. The only way to effect real political change is to vote out those whose ideas are abhorrent and vote in those who are willing to change things.

I also think it's wrong to vandalize public property even if I sympathize with the cause. Two wrongs don't make a right.