— from Governor Jay Inslee —
As people gather today to protest the unjust death of George Floyd, I hope they do so peacefully and safely. Everyone has the freedom – and the right – to demonstrate and speak their mind. However, violence and destruction have no place in Washington state or our country.
Together, we grieve for the death of George Floyd, and many, many others. The events in Minnesota and across the nation the past few nights have been stunning and illustrate how inequity causes people to lose faith in their public institutions.
The trauma inflicted on generations of people of color must be acknowledged, and more must be done to correct it. Feeling second-class in one’s own community does not make people feel safe. Insecurity hardens into anger.
I fully support the right to free speech and peaceful assembly. I applaud every Washingtonian standing for what they believe in, but we must do so in a way that allows space for these important and necessary discussions, not in a way that inspires fear.
If you choose to protest today, please be safe and peaceful. These are important issues that deserve our full attention, without distraction from violence and destruction. Without solutions to inequity, the long road to justice will run even longer.”
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I am proud that you are my govenor. You are doing a really great job!
This is a general comment, reflecting on all the public figures I’ve heard respond to the outbreaks of violence that have just erupted, including Mayor Durkan’s last evening’s comments while declaring a curfew on downtown Seattle:
My take is that finally people felt they had something they could control, and because of prior suppression, they allowed their angry emotions and actions to take over.
We have been hit with a disease we cannot control, COVID-19. it has made us fearful, doubtful, suspicious, accusatory, and generally unsettled….prone to
acting out. We have also had restrictions placed on us by our “governors”, “laws”
that go against our natural patterns of interactions with each other and our environment. The excuse to rebel for many came in the form of the wrongful death of George Floyd. And rebel they did, transferring their frustrations and fears due to the Virus and things they can’t control to racial inequalities. Do we call that runaway sublimation?
There’s still no place for violence anywhere.
P.S. A third aspect we can’t control: We tried to control Pres. Donald Trump with impeachment; it didn’t work. So now he is an added threat and danger that we cannot control…until November.
I’d also like to clarify my first comments: I am speaking about the underlying reasons for the severity and violent nature of the demonstrations, not the demonstrations themselves which are legal.
Frustration from Covid lockdowns? An excuse to rebel?! Respectfully, you might have overlooked the fact that 4 centuries of discrimination, oppression, exploitation, and murder might have reached a tipping point for a few people. With the knowledge that no hope for justice or equality exists in this system for people of color, where 57 years ago MLK’s “I have a dream” was filled with hope, now there is only rage.
Governor Inslee’s response warms my heart and soul – leadership at its very best.
Anger from the disenfranchised never comes from a feeling of having any kind of real control, but rather, having no control over systemic bigotry and long history of suffering injustices and violence. The people who took advantage of “control,” unfortunately, were hate groups and people with white privilege, as well as the police – because they are who have the control.
The people who can’t take any more and boil over at the injustices are victims of oppression and much worse – they get blamed and are called criminals because they finally snap – while the real looters grab more and more wealth and power from the looted masses – especially blacks and other “non-whites.”
I agree with Luther Bliss, that things are at a boiling point for oppressed black and other “non-white” people – and covid-19 has tipped the dominoes over for people who’ve been treated violently for centuries – the dominoes were falling and have been falling long before this – this pandemic is a major tipping point and its ripple effect will be felt for generations.
(continued)
Hopelessness and despair in the face of a long history injustices boils over into riots and looting against the systemic unfairness of it all. Unfortunately, a lot of businesses that didn’t deserve this destruction of property got hurt – but did blacks who’ve died under the boot of police violence or mob violence deserve it? Did indigenous peoples, who’ve had everything taken and treaties continually broken by whites, deserve their fate? This has to be faced full on – riots don’t come out of nowhere; they come from a breaking point fueled into rage by the despair of no hope left.
Trevor Noah (the Daily Show host) https://youtu.be/v4amCfVbA_c
made eloquent commentary about the ongoing looting of Blacks in America that I believe should be required listening for us all. He should know, growing up in South Africa with generations who lived and died through Apartheid. I challenge any of us with white privilege to watch and listen to his speech, and ask ourselves how it would feel to be George Floyd, or any black man or woman who has feared and felt this pressure and violence toward them every day, long before Covid-19. Blacks aren’t the only “race” who have undergone this violence by whites, as our 400 year history of white dominance in the New World shows.
The dispossessed aren’t “using” the tragedy of Covid-19 to control anything because they know they have no control; the tragedy of the virus is pushing them over the edge sooner, but most of us will also be pushed over the edge with the prolonged economic crash. All the more reason to stand up and demand justice for all – but not just because our own hides are next to be at risk – because we won’t know peace without equal rights and justice (and reparations). And if ever we need each other across all “manmade” boundary lines, it’s now.