Where Have We Heard This Before?

COINTELPRO is an acronym that will forever be etched into the history of the 20th century civil rights movement. This FBI covert operation was aimed at disrupting and taking down the leadership of major groups within the struggle ultimately to “neutralize” the work and prevent any possible progress for Black liberation. Inserting agent provocateurs into the camps was a common strategy of the operation. These provocateurs used more than surveillance measures. Their work led to the murder of Black leaders like Fred Hampton who was gunned down in his bed, in his own home by Chicago Police Officers. You must understand this history to understand the conversations going on during this current protest. White supremacists are still at work destroying buildings during this current uprising and trying to derail the movement.

We are suspicious of violence within protests because of operations like COINTELPRO. We absolutely should be. Black people want justice. We demand liberation. We have no inherent desire to destroy property or harm other human beings. HOWEVER, I think it is time that we add some nuance to these narratives that approach what we are seeing with the need to legitimize an old and worn out trope of “good and peaceful Black people.” This is particularly important because this current movement is in danger of being destabilized by a desire that has never worked for us and has historically harmed us. It has always been, in addition to white supremacist operatives, the exercise of the “good Negro” that has crushed Black uprisings. Those who benefit from “securing and calming the city” have also included those who scratch their heads and shuffle their feet while the masses continue to be downtrodden. The governor of Minnesota is asking for national military presence in Minneapolis white Black leaders stand by his side! This will usher in the potential for further harm to Black people. Further, it is good Negroes who give license to liberal white politicians to pacify leaders in the heat of the moment with no real improvements to the Black community put into place in the years following.

The destruction of property and violence you are witnessing in cities across America is not solely the work of agent provocateurs or white supremacist, though there is significant evidence to prove some are at work. But, Black people are tired. The new faces of people you “have never seen before” could very well be an awakened number of Black people who for the first time in their lives decided to put their lives on the line by going out into the streets. This is not totally the work of outside agitators. Just because you’ve never seen them before does not mean that they are not native citizens of a city of thousands. That is why it is so important that we not let the actions of white supremacists be so superimposed on this revolution so as to silence our cries. Black people have been agitated by injustice for far too long. What really must stop is the true source of the agitation. Yes, I’m concerned about organized operations against protestors but we must ask ourselves why the sudden shifting from the murders to this major discussion about “loss of property” and “outside agitators”? Is it not possible that genuine anger, genuine pain, has stirred otherwise peaceful citizens to the point where they feel they have nothing left to lose? I agree with my girlfriend who asked these questions: What’s a peaceful protest in Atlanta? Is it one where they go eat at Paschal’s afterwards?”

I have seen this too many times before and have heard the language too many times. “Why do they have to destroy buildings in OUR neighborhoods?” (Check out Phipps Plaza, downtown Chicago, NY - major properties) The next strategy is to push Black leaders in front of the camera to call for calm and regretfully to label protestors as thugs and criminals. Over 400 years Black people have had to endure torture and murder while being called beasts who cause white people to utter the “feared for my life” defense. What we are witnessing is more than destruction of property. I will not allow the politicians to reduce our sorrow down to American materialism. What we are witnessing is the sheer, raw, anger of Black people who refuse to be indifferent to the steady trauma, oppression and murder at the hands of white supremacy. And IF property is destroyed - by whomever - in the midst of this expression of righteous anger we cannot morally, theologically let that become what we lift up as most important. We cannot allow this narrative to be the mechanism used to lull us into agreeing that “yeah, we need to call in the military now.” THEY WERE MURDERED!! We must rise up against that in whatever ways we can. The phrase “peaceful protesting” once made sense to me. No more. I hear it now as a mechanism to assuage white liberals who are too cowardly to make any significant investment in our liberation. You cannot tolerate the killing of Black people and only running to the protest because the murderer has been caught on camera. This type white liberalism works in tandem to those provocateurs now on the ground trying to destroy the movement.

Cornel West is right, “We are witnessing America as a failed social experiment.” Resolving this requires a clear look not at the crabs in the barrel but at the systems that put the crabs in the barrel. It requires more than press conferences with Black talking heads used as cover to the real criminal workings. It requires immediate and sustained change to policing in America. It requires immediate and sustained change minimum wage guidelines, to educational systems, and to public policy. Unless and until those things get our attention more than property burning, you may bring down the flames but you will never extinguish the fire. The country is lit! Will true democracy rise from the ashes?