Between 2014 and 2020, I attended a number of protests in Boston; Portland, Maine; and Chicago. Of all the protests that I attended during that time, there are two in particular that I still remember in vivid detail.
One was in Boston in 2017, in the aftermath of the Charlottesville white nationalist rally that left many injured and one dead. This particular protest was huge; reports were that over 40,000 attended. The organizers mobilized in such a fashion that the group eventually splintered into different directions and essentially shut down the downtown area, including temporarily shutting down Boston’s downtown subway stations as protestors took to the T stations. It was a large, well coordinated action that despite the massive number of protestors had relatively few reports of arrests. It was a massive undertaking, primarily organized by Black and brown organizers in Boston but with attendees of all races.
The other protest that I attended during those years that stands out is the one I attended in Chicago in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing. I was in Chicago to sign off on the paperwork to take my father off of life support and move him to hospice care and, well, wait for him to die. It was in late May 2020 and frankly, attending a protest wasn’t on my mind.
However, the city was ablaze with tension as the nation erupted. It was sufficient to inspire citywide curfews and militarized vehicles patrolling everywhere—on some days, then-mayor Lori Lightfoot even shut down the highway entrances and exits accessing downtown Chicago in an attempt to break up protest activity. Which meant I had no way to visit my dad at his hospice facility, so I didn’t go that day. My son and I went to take a walk from our Airbnb when we realized we were walking parallel to a protest, and despite my grief and personal reasons for being in Chicago—given who I am—I had to join, I walked for two miles with the group, eventually landing as close to Trump Tower Chicago as possible given the extreme presence of law enforcement. At one point, I encountered a scene that I thankfully captured on my phone and still have: Chicago police in riot gear facing down a front line of protestors, many of them Black and brown folks. It was a chilling moment but at the same time, it was courageous. The protestors may have been scared shitless—after all, they were facing down armed cops with riot gear, batons, and guns—but they stood their ground.
As our country faces the reality that fascism and authoritarian rule is no longer encroaching but has actually landed in our country, I find myself thinking of those protests from a few short years ago. In reflecting on those protests, and seeing the footage of recent protests in opposition to Trump and current best buddy Elon Musk, I can’t help but notice a vast difference. Many of today’s current protests are far less diverse and many of the Black and brown organizers of a few short years ago are no longer on the front lines.
For many years in this country, efforts to mobilize for justice were led by Black and brown folks, particularly women and others with marginalized identities. But in this current climate where Trump came out the starting gate his first week issuing executive orders against DEI efforts and all but explicitly saying that he wishes to take us back to the era of Jim Crow, many Black folks—particularly Black women—are no longer rushing to lead any efforts.
Since Kamala Harris’s disappointing loss, the Black American diaspora has been side-eyeing our white allies and frankly feeling that our efforts are better spent working and mobilizing in our own communities. A lot of us are feeling that once again, white folks didn’t put in the work and once again they have dropped the ball because they didn’t listen to us when it most mattered.
No doubt someone will read this and feel the need to say “Not all white people” or “Not me” but here’s the thing: Individualism is so deeply ingrained into the white American experience that many white folks left their own behind for Trump and gang to pick up. For many white Americans, despite an eight-year head start of knowing what a second Trump term would entail, many of them simply washed their hands of their fellow white people whose political views they found odious. The thing is, if you weren’t actively trying to move and mobilize those folks in the right direction, they were easy picking for the right-wing disinformation chamber. Which, thanks to propaganda outlets such as Fox News and good ole American racism, has sucked in millions—new converts as well as deepening the hold on existing supporters.
Despite almost a decade of organizing for racial justice, too many white people who consider themselves anti-racists—while able to recite facts, figures, and explain white supremacy ad nauseum—never built the relational skills to work across differences with their fellow white people. Instead, too often they were eager just to be “a better white person” instead of realizing all our plights are tied together and that they can reach white people better than anyone of color can. This is where the individualism of white America hurts all of us.
Personally, there are spaces that white-bodied people can occupy and conversations they can have that no Black or brown person can be a part of. Often those are the spaces where the heavy lifting is done. Lifting that requires patience, perseverance, and compassion. Understanding that white superiority is baked into the culture and that without a compelling reason, it’s easy for many white-bodied people to never leave that comfy space.
The thing is at this moment, while white people are starting to wake up to the seriousness of the moment and for the first time ever, a plurality of white Americans need to lead the mobilization efforts. After a decade of simply following the tired line that you must follow the leadership of people of color and thinking that meant they could be passive in their activities, many white folks are ill-prepared for this moment and lacking in their own leadership skills.
Part of my day job work is working to build the relational and leadership capacity of white people in movement spaces, knowing that it was always naive to assume that Black and brown folks can always take the lead
I have to admit that some days, I am deeply disheartened at how many white people are operating at this moment. Instead of realizing that our collective days of freedom are limited, many are operating on the premise of business as usual and fitting their activism into their daily rounds. Robust weekend protests but back to the grind during the weekday. Working for change is a long game and a big commitment. Yes, the United States lacks paid time off and our insurance is tied to our employment but if these ghouls get to enact their full agenda, many more of us will be lacking jobs and there probably won’t be any jobs to replace those lost positions.
This phenomenon has been noticed by white people outside of the United States who are becoming louder in asking, “What the fuck is wrong with Americans?” Answering one such question on Threads, I replied that this is largely a white American phenomenon, where on any platform you can find a chorus of white people wringing their hands, gnashing their teeth, and explaining why they can’t do more. Or comparing this moment to The Handmaid’s Tale or any number of dystopian novels with very little sense of urgency.
This isn’t a book and the outcome doesn’t have to be predicted. Frankly, no one knows what the outcome will look like. You don’t have to accept that our ending will be the ending of a book.
I imagine for many white Americans this moment is hard to grasp. After all, oppression by our government was something that traditionally has happened to those “other people.” But in the new world order, well, unless you are a billionaire, you will soon know what life has always been like for other people, especially Black Americans.
It’s one of the reasons that most Black Americans aren’t stressing out nearly to the extent of our white counterparts. We were raised by the people who this country actively tried to destroy outright or keep relegated to second-class status. We were raised by the people who risked their lives to secure rights and equality. Many of us grew up hearing the stories of parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents who had to endure humiliating treatment. In many ways, we hold the cheat code for enduring the unspeakable but still surviving. Many of us such as myself are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans. Epigenetically, we carry that generational trauma that was passed down, but we also carry the spirit of survival. It’s also why we know that at this moment, to put ourselves on the front lines is not a way to survive—not when there are millions more white folks who have rarely ever had to risk everything for the greater collective.
A few days ago, Elon Musk stated that he thinks George Floyd’s murderer, former police officer Derek Chauvin, should be pardoned by President Trump. The first thing the collective of Black folks said across platforms was that we can’t take the bait. No doubt if Chauvin were pardoned, the regime would almost certainly expect to see protests across the country at the level of the 2020 protest, which would most certainly in this climate be a reason to institute martial law. A reason to go full apeshit on Black and brown people and for Trump tell his supporters that this was necessary for their safety and survival. The thing is, millions of white people taking to the streets isn’t likely to elicit as harsh a response as millions of Black and brown people with white allies in tow. Interesting tidbit: because Chauvin was convicted with state murder charges (the federal charges and his reason for being in federal custody were around civil rights violations), even if Trump did pardon him, he would still be cozy in a cell, just in a Minnesota state prison. So, it’s not likely ignorance at play here—Elon’s desire to see Chauvin pardoned is about helping to kickstart the race war that he probably hopes would speed up the collapse he so desires.
Nope, Black folks know the game. It doesn’t mean we are sitting pretty at this moment and doing nothing, but it does mean we are being intentional in our actions and there’s more focus on working directly in our spaces. Personally, I am in the process of working with a few local Black groups that, while not directly movement related, are doing vital work for the well-being of folks of Afro descent. Though for me, this is in addition to the work that I already do.
The majority of my readers are white, and I cannot stress how much you will need to find the courage to go above and beyond if we are to survive this moment. Who were and are white liberation leaders, dead or alive, that you can draw courage and inspiration from? I am not white, but two of my personal favorite white liberation leaders are John Brown and Anne Braden.
Online, it is popular for white allies to share, amplify, and draw courage from the work of Black and brown activists. But I worry that in doing that without looking for your own to draw courage from, it is too easy to be a bystander in the struggle for change. This doesn’t mean you can’t just uplift Black and brown voices. Yyou absolutely must but it is also important to have members of your community who are your inspiration, people who understand the struggles you face with a white identity but who choose to break the shackles of whiteness and do more.
In less than two months, the United States has shown itself to no longer be a trustworthy ally on the global stage. We are breaking alliances that have existed for decades and making friends very anxious as they realize that the country they once knew is moving closer to becoming a foe. We are decimating the markets, we are actively looking to crash the economy, and we are tap-dancing all over the Constitution. The checks and balances, along with the guardrails to prevent this very thing from happening, are all but gone. We the people might very well be the last barrier to stop this train from completely jumping the track and destroying all of our lives. In other countries that have faced coups, it was almost always the collective actions of ordinary citizens that stopped them or lessened the blow.
Despite how we may be feeling, we still have voices and power, especially for white folks. We have had almost two months to realize that as painful and shocking as this is, this is our current reality and it is time to level up. Keep posting, keep calling, keep it all up but don’t be afraid to do more. Just like the other side is flooding the zone to keep us disoriented and paralyzed, we must flood the zone for the greater good.
Activism must be an embodied experience that drives all you do, not simply as it fits into your life. We can do hard things, you can do hard things and you don’t need a central leader to give you a to do list. You got this!
PS: After writing this piece over the weekend, I started getting reports of some far more robust actions across the country, it’s good to see.
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