Change at Last

I don't know all the history of Waycross.  But at least in my memory, this is their largest, most successful protest rally, thanks to the efforts of some very dedicated young people, led by recent Ware County High Scholl graduate, Riley Brown.

I recently finished a book by Lawrence O'Donnell, Playing With Fire, about the 1968 election.  Protests and riots at that time, particularly the intense emotional reaction to Martin Luker King's assassination, led to white backlash centered on "law and order." This surge of anxiety fueled the racist campaign of Alabama Governor George Wallace, and for Republican Richard Nixon to focus on law and order issues.  Law and order, of course, was a euphemism for control of minorities.

I'm old enough (now 65 strong!) to remember the Detroit riots, of both '67 and '68.  I remember clearly the reaction of the middle schoolers around me.  Many of the guys seriously thought that black people from Detriot were going to march all the way to our home town of Bridgeport, some 150 miles away, and burn our town down, and kill any of us that were not smart enough to have superior weaponry.*

The consequences of this was the election of Richard Nixon and the beginning of the Southern Strategy, appealing to scared white voters in both the south and the north (in 1972 Wallace won the Michigan primary, a horrible foreshadowing of Trump's 2016 squeaker win in Michigan).

I'll be honest.  When the protests began, I thought, uh-oh, here comes the white backlash, particularly when the networks focused on the looting.  Here comes the rise in Trump's poll numbers.

But... it didn't happen.

Over time, it became clear that the protests were overwhelmingly peaceful.  The looters were not directly associated with the protestors - they were mostly criminals who were taking advantage of the chaos.  A tiny, tiny fraction were extremists, white supremacists (including racists posing as left-wingers), and a smaller fraction who were anarchists.  NONE WERE ANTIFA, because it doesn't exist, at least not in the way the Trumpeteers think.  Antifa is not an organization but an identifier for anti-fascists, whose major thing is to protect people from the violence done by fascist/racist groups (who REALLY do exist).

Looking at the protests, one is overwhelmed by the fact of how DIVERSE they are.  It is Jesse Jackson's rainbow coalition come to life.  This time, African Americans are not alone in their rage and anger.  One can see that even in the picture above of the Waycross protest.

I was struck by a story that Rev. Al Sharpton told at George Floyd's memorial service in Minneapolis.  He spoke of how he went to a protest decades ago and was assailed by a young white woman screaming "Go home, N-word!" and how in Minneapolis he felt a tugging at his sleeve, and looked down and saw a young girl and he braced himself for what she had to say, but what she had to say was, "No justice!  No peace!"

So, maybe this time, we have turned a corner.  Maybe this time, real change will come.

As a reflection of this, I am fascinated by the fact that Trump's poll numbers have actually fallen during this crisis.  Of course, he has behaved very badly.  Roughly forcing out protestors with chemical agents just so you can have a photo op in front of a church for whom you did not get permission (indeed, even forcing out the clergy of that church), did not go over well.

Don't get me wrong.  The empire will strike back.  There is a lot of noise around the misconstrued phrase "defund the police," and as usual, the Republicans are much smarter and Machviellian in naming things than Democrats.  I hope to post about this in more detail later.

Bravo, Riley Brown, and all the people of Waycross who stood up for justice and what is right.  I'm sorry I wasn't there, but know you have my full support.

This time, finally, maybe there will be change at last.

I pray it will be so.

*it wasn't until years later that I read enough to know that the violence of those riots in Detriot largely came from the police, not the protesters.  I'm speaking here of violence against people and not that against property.