I have an acquaintance that joked about a Facebook meme going around in Republican circles about a protester eater. Apparently (I haven’t seen this dumb thing), this street machine drives down the road, running over protesters and spits them out the back, like a reverse brick-laying machine.
WTF is that?
This is going around the interest within “conservative” circle just days after a semi-truck plowed through the streets of Nice, France, mangling bodies, squishing brains out onto the pavement?
Where is this hate coming from? How can one even feel this way about people sticking up for themselves, even if you don’t agree or like them (racism)? What about a peaceful assembly of a person group that is different than yourself makes you laugh at the idea of assassinating these people?
Even if you look down on someone because of the nationality they were born as (NOTE: Race isn’t a choice,) you should respect them and what they stand for, if the cause is noble, if the shoe were on the other foot. What if the black majority in South Africa turned the tables on the white Caucasians there and took control over the whites? Would this same person be against the hypothetical protesters against an oppressive, black government?
This can be applied in any scenario where you’re the outsider. Just because you’re not the oppressed doesn’t mean that any grievances or, addressing of the situation is wrong. The very same gun rights and religious freedoms you so cherish doesn’t mean that those who don’t endorse racism and bigotry are not human beings and should be plowed down.
If the other-than and us-vs-them mentality is supposedly justified in your head, where does it end? I have brown eyes, and maybe you have blue. If there were laws against brown-eyed people, can I count you out on speaking up for me?
I myself am not religious, but when the Westboro Baptist Church were in the courts fighting for the right to demonstrate their hatred against the non-religious, gay people and dead soldiers, I surprised my friends by saying that I hope they win in court. I wasn’t hoping for Westboro to win; I was hoping for the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to win. If Westboro can’t protest with filthy signs and spiteful words, then lesser serious expressions can be stifled.
Black people (and white people, believe it or not) are speaking up against being killed, being pulled over, being singled out, and being harassed because of their color. Anything this serious is “black and white,” but do indeed touch on other issues such as income, job opportunities, school quality, personal encouragement and interaction and bad leaders, so we can’t just say to “cowboy up.”
There are many issues that need to be considered, but the one we’re dealing with now is a corner of the same boulder: people being killed by the police. Thug or preacher, single mom or doctor, no one deserves execution. No one! And that is why people are protesting now, the right to live, and the right for due process.
And for those that are against this idea, then you are against the United States Constitution because it’s Amendment 1 in the Bill of Rights. You know, sandwiches in between your religion part and your gun part:
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
* This article was written by a non-black
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Photo: GettyImages
