I’m going ahead and publishing this now. The weather has gotten interesting north of here—apparently a tornado near Beaver Falls—and a severe thunderstorm warning has been posted for at least very close to my area.
George Floyd
Hey, fellow white ppl, Defund the Police is not your slogan and so it's not yours to fix or sanitize or make "palatable" from a "branding/marketing" strategy. It's a BLM plank, so roll with it, learn to explain it, which Wonkette proved can be done in a single headline. pic.twitter.com/VhwpeOpxXX
— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) June 10, 2020
When we're dealing with profoundly embedded and structural racism such as in U.S. police forces, I don't see how you escape the need to tear them all down and rebuild from scratch.
The question is how to do this when pervasive racism extends far beyond the police. https://t.co/lF4vKvfRKB
— David Benfell, Ph.D. (@n4rky) June 10, 2020
With so many examples of how humanity is not ready for anarchism, it’s quite a surprise to read an account of how a community protected itself without the police and without replicating the problems of the police.[1] I don’t know how sustainable this is or how widely applicable, but it’s quite a story and certainly worth looking at.
Meanwhile Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor looks more broadly, both historically and topically, at the issues the U.S. needs to address[2]—and of course, won’t. I had not seen her article when I tweeted my response to Chuck Wendig above, but I think we’re on the same page.
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, “How Do We Change America?” New Yorker, June 8, 2020, https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/how-do-we-change-america
Hahrie Han, “What Happened When the Minneapolis Police Lost Legitimacy?” New York Times, June 10, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/opinion/floyd-minneapolis-police-protests.html
- [1]Hahrie Han, “What Happened When the Minneapolis Police Lost Legitimacy?” New York Times, June 10, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/opinion/floyd-minneapolis-police-protests.html↩
- [2]Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, “How Do We Change America?” New Yorker, June 8, 2020, https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/how-do-we-change-america↩