Notes

4 Theses on Snapchat Stories:
1) People criticizing looters need to incorporate a more nuanced class perspective into their understanding of what's happening. Looters do not steal out of greed; looting is an action born out of necessity. Decades, nay centuries, of continued oppression, of segregation, structural violence, systemic racism, divested communities, the murder of black leaders, the war on drugs, white flight, gentrification, disenfranchisement, police brutality, food deserts, and a million other nuanced, systemic forms of oppression, have made people desperate. On top of this, we have a mismanaged pandemic which has disproportionately ravaged black communities, unemployment skyrocketing, a crisis of our medical infrastructure. Deindustrialization and chronic unemployment in black communities. While the looting of a small business is horrific and destructive, you must retain a nuanced understanding of the dynamics of capitalism, must contextualize these incidents as the inevitable result of a vicious and destructive white supremacist, capitalist economic system. And while yes, the looters are not the same as the protestors, it is unfair to depoliticize the actions of the looters by asserting that they are "using chaos as an opportunity to steal." Working-class people forcefully taking basic necessities, stealing commodities that they can later sell, or committing property damage against a big corporation is a political action. To say that the looters are merely "greedy people taking advantage of a desperate situation" ignores that, for many, there is literally nothing else they can do: a complete lack of a leftist alternative has weakened everyone's political imagination. Black folks have essentially tried every conceivable form of organizing and every theoretical approach to defend themselves and their communities from racism: anarchism, non-violence, militant self-defense, civil disobedience, electoralism, Marxism-Leninism, Focoismo, intercommunalism, Islam, and Christianity. Countless black leaders killed, imprisoned, exiled: Fred Hampton, MLK, Malcolm X, George Jackson, Assata Shakur, Huey Newton, and so many more. A young generation of black leadership killed, leaving behind a weakened community susceptible to the War on Drugs and mass incarceration. And while new movements begin to organize and expand, new movements like Black Lives Matter (that we should wholeheartedly embrace and support), the specter created by the US government's vicious extermination campaigns still haunts the reality and the memories of all those who are living; for many, an alternative is still not apparent. A new generation of leadership will arise, and we, as the members of the progressive youth, must work to rekindle the flames of revolutionary love, compassion, and ambitions.

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4) We all need to take a moment to understand these protests with more nuance, to engage in an historical analysis of the concrete developments that led to these outbreaks of violence. Since we are in a pandemic, this is the perfect opportunity for reading critical race theory and engaging in the works of black authors. Authors, writers, activists, leaders like Huey Newton, Malcolm X, MLK, George Jackson, Angela Davis, W. E. B. DuBois, James Baldwin, Kwame Ture, Frantz Fanon, Harry Haywood, Kevin "Rashid" Johnson, Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Frank B. Wilderson III, and Jared Sexton. These black thinkers and leaders have unique and valuable, often contradictory, opinions and thoughts on how racism is configured in the United States (and globally too). I copied some links below to a few works and articles, and although some aren't introductory works per se, they might give you a more nuanced understanding of race. These works will be challenging, and they will often force you to take a deep look into your own identity. Or maybe that won't happen because you'll reject the ideas in these works: you'll create a protective wall between yourself and the work, ensuring that your ego and identity are protected from the work's traumatic implications. If that is the case, then that is fine, but I recommend that you continue to read the book with caution, be slow and deliberate, and make sure you aren't putting words in the author's mouth.