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.

2) In 1919, the United States was being rocked by tremendous racial and labor upheavals, a period that would be remembered as the "Red Summer" of 1919. Riots, murder, looting, arson. Chicago too was hit by a race riot after tensions that had been boiling between the black and white communities reached a critical point when a white man at a segregated beach throwing rocks at black swimmers killed the 17-year-old black youth Eugene Williams. A white police officer not only failed to arrest the man responsible for Williams' death, but chose to arrest a black man instead. Following the riots, a city commission convened to investigate the complex factors that led to violence, the report they compiled recommended a plethora of policies designed to target discrimination and prejudice. Inaction followed. In Harlem, 1935, riots broke out after rumors that a black teen had been beaten by white employees of a shop, for some it signaled end of the Harlem Renaissance: its hope and optimism extinguished. A report, kept hidden from the public, investigated the cause of the violence, and it concluded that a confluence of systemic, discriminatory factors led to the violence. The report called for policies designed to target discrimination and prejudice. Inaction followed. In 1943, Harlem again, white police officer shot a black soldier, riots broke out. A report was written, recommended policies targeted against discrimination and prejudice. Inaction followed. 1967 race riots, Kerner Commission report, advocated for policies targeted against discrimination and prejudice, inaction followed. White violence, black reaction, commission, inaction, white violence, black reaction, commission, inaction, a cycle of violence driven by systemic factors that creates white violence, creates the frustration and anger needed for a black reaction, driving the need for an investigative commission, and centralizing power in the hands of the oppressor, leading to inaction. The same fucking policies being demanded for again and again, again and again, again and again, and nothing is done. And then people ask, "Why? What could possibly cause this violence? Why are you rioting?" As Trevor Noah and a variety of different black activists have pointed out, the social contract is broken. The people and state each must uphold their responsibilities to one another. The state must protect the natural rights and liberties of the people, must protect them from violence, must protect the equality of its people. The people, in turn, follow its laws and participate in governance. But when the state fails to uphold its side of the agreement, the people are no longer bound by a social contract. When the state not only fails to uphold its social contract, but actively works to break it --killing black people in the fucking streets, why should the people be orderly, peaceful, and lawful?

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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. John Oliver recently put out a great video (available on Youtube) about this, but you should not depend on the words of a white man to understand the experiences of black people. You must hear the experiences of black people.