Institutional racism, school to prison pipeline, racial profiling, and police violence against Blacks are serious issues.
I cannot imagine what it must be like as an African American to worry about myself or my child being subject to racial profiling, police violence and / or murder.
However, there is a not insignificant portion of democrats who don’t support rioting.
There is a difference between rioting and peaceful protests. Rioting has, to my knowledge, rarely caused people to change their hearts and minds.
I think about gay rights. Do you know what caused Obama to support gay marriage? His daughters convinced him, according to Obama.
It’s not that LGBT people rioted at Stonewall and Obama said, I support gay marriage now. Breaking stuff is not what changed Obama’s mind.
What about Martin Luther King, and / or The March on Selma. They were non-violent to the core.
As someone who cares about racial justice, I am concerned that those who would say I don’t care enough about racial justice by condemning the riots are actually acting counter productive to our own interests. And that worries me.
The people whose hearts and minds you need to change, don’t see violent riots as proof that institutional racism exists. They see it as proof that they can characterize all liberals as hooligans.
Have the riots resulted in attention? Sure. Of course. But clicks and eyeball views aren’t going to convince the people whose hearts and minds you need to change that institutional racism is real issue.
I caution fellow liberals who care about racial justice to not support actions which do not necessarily further the goal of achieving racial equality.
