In response to the murder of George Floyd, we've seen an incredible rise in activism
across the country in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. To some white people—especially
the ones still waiting on their copy of White Fragility to come in the mail—why is it
not here yet?—this level of protesting may seem new. But it's certainly not the first
time people have organized to respond to racial injustice. I asked Mike Brown to take a look
at how these methods make change happen. Turn on any news channel and you’ll hear
the condescending language used to describe the Black movement in America.
- Violence. Anarchy. Riots. Looting. Chaos. Black Lives Matter and these other domestic
terror groups. These are violent people. Destroy, damage, arson–
Time out! Because Do the Right Thing feels relevant as ever, why is everyone just focused
on riots?! To find out what’s actually happening on the streets, I talked to Patrisse Cullors,
who co-founded Black Lives Matter. - When they call us terrorists, it’s way
more about their projection and has nothing to do with us and our leadership. I cannot
tell you how many times we have gone to protests and everything is great. We’re chanting,
we’re passionate, we’re rageful, we’re crying, we’re loving on each other.
Yeah. Because I think that, our people, we always make joyful noise. Peaceful protest,
joyful noise. - Yes.
But to some people they don’t get that it’s joyful.
- They don’t. They just hear the noise part of it. So we’re
out here making joyful noise and then a group of uninvited gym teachers shows up to our
party and it turns into this: - The police show up and they escalate all
of the energy. They start rubber bulleting, they start tazing people, they start tear-gassing
people, they show up in riot gear. Well, you know what they say: dress for the
riots you want. Yes. Police are instaging a lot of this violence. But protestors are
also justifiably angry and taking action. The idea of riots. You know? It's not the
first move for protesting, right? - Well, I don’t call them riots, I call
them uprisings, are pretty much the last resort. Okay, hold on. Let me write that down: “uprisings.”
Look at the PR genius at work. Uprisings. Okay.
- Really what you’re seeing is years and years of a community having done all the right
things, that went and talked to their councilmember, talked to their mayor. They’ve asked for
all the reforms, and they’ve seen the reforms don’t work.
So when the reforms don’t work, we have to protest. Who’s the expert on this? Reverend
Barber II. He’s a pastor and he’s about that action.
- I’ve been arrested 13 times. But I’m nonviolent, and I believe in nonviolence.
‘Cause some people want—, they think peace is the absence of noise and not the presence
of justice. They want you to have a nice parade. You don’t
get to tell me, I got this, “Will you please just give me my rights and stop shooting me?”
You don’t get to say that! Yeah.
- You don’t get to do that. There’s no decibel level on First Amendment rights.
Reverend Barber says that if the media wants to cover this violence, then they also need
to cover this violence. - And America has to be real careful with
who she calls violent, because when you deny health care, that’s violent. ‘Cause people
die. When you deny living wages and 700 people die a day from poverty, that’s violence.
Okay, you preachin’ now. - You undermine voting rights—have mercy,
Jesus—that folk died for, and then because you suppressed the vote, people get elected
who then protect violent police departments. That’s violent. My job is to say to America,
“Justice is the absolute deterrer for riots and for social unrest.
And to get to justice we need to fix the system. Activist Kimberly Jones, who went viral last
month, explains the problems facing Black Americans using white people's favorite capitalist
family pastime: Monopoly. - For 400 rounds of playing Monopoly, I didn’t
allow you to have any money, I didn’t allow you to have anything on the board, I didn't
allow for you to have anything. And then we played another 50 rounds of Monopoly, and
everything that you gained and you earned while you were playing that round of Monopoly
was taken from you. And they are lucky that what Black people are looking for is equality
and not revenge. Listen, you just woke a lot of people up.
Some of us still napping. And for one, I will never be able to look at Monopoly the same
way again. Ever. - I’m sorry!
I will never trust that white man in a monocle and that little mustache. I will not trust
it. I will not. - You shouldn’t. You shouldn’t trust him!
I shouldn’t trust him. - As the game is, I don’t think that it
is winnable. I think that what’s gonna happen is we’re gonna have to create a new board.
And creating a new game board is something we’ve seen work throughout history. It’s
even considered patriotic. - American history started with a riot. We
wouldn’t describe it that way today, Boston Tea Party.
- No taxation without representation! Like we learned this from y’all! We thought
this was safe! This is what we’re supposed to do!
We’re using the same patriotic tactics across the U.S. today. And surprise! Those strategies
still work. - This conversation about defunding the police,
we are winning. We are actually winning. So we have the opportunity at every single level—from
our local, to our state to our national level—to divest out of the ways in which Black people
have largely been harmed. We accomplished a lot in just 5 weeks. But
there is so much more to come and it’s gonna take everyone. Especially you, white people.
- Racism is not a Black problem that white people need to empathize with, it’s a white
problem they created that they need to fix. We need accomplices. An accomplice is somebody
who actually is willing to risk their own comfort in order for liberation of Black people
in this nation. How do we start building power?
- We need to have Black folks who are able to take elected office. We need Black folks
who are able to not just be the entertainers, but are in control of entertainment. When
I’m talking about building power, I’m just simply talking about the ability for
us to determine our own destinies, and right now we don’t have that.
And as we take control of our destinies, we need to remember that fighting for equality
is being on the right side of democracy. - When people are protesting, and crying out,
and mourning in the streets, what they’re literally saying is, “We still love this
country enough to believe change is possible.” So as we head out into the street, let’s
all remember, always Do the Uprising Thing.