I can't do a lot of thinking or working lately. The circumstances don't allow it.
But I can't help but be bothered by the internet finding yet another of Martin Luther King Jr's quotes to say what they want him to say.
-- Brandon O'Brien https://wandering.shop/@therisingtithes
Thread. Especially:
Riots are indeed unfortunate for all the reasons we currently know. But so are protests. You'd imagine that in a world that insists upon a right way to call for justice, it would be said just as loudly by those who condemn riots that they shouldn't need to protest this at all. ..
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When Dr. King said that he hoped to avoid a riot, he was saying he wished that a protest would be heard enough. It would appear that African Americans still have not been heard enough. ...
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One can hope that a community in pain would not have to rely on the last resort of hoping to be heard, and still acknowledge that, as Kwame Ture intuited, unless your opponent has a conscience, being heard will turn to other, more dire measures. ...
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Let's be sure of another thing Dr. King said:
"Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention."
Anyone decrying the fire of a riot but doesn't give a damn about the quenching waters of justice is merely ignoring the suffering of their neighbours. ...
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Here are some things I imagine are worth reading for this context:
https://wandering.shop/@therisingtithes/104258862390945857
The news guts me in a way that rattles my ability to think or work. I am in pain.
But I know this much: when someone is crying out for you to listen--listen to their pleas to breathe, listen to their pleas for justice--and you do not listen, you do not get to judge how they aim to hold your attention.
There's more. Read it.
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