Racial activism pitfalls...

So I wanted to take a moment to try and offer some insight from what I have seen as an activist since 2008. I was part of Occupy Detroit and Occupy Flint. I marched and camped in both locations. And I learned a lot. I have also lived in racist places and places with high racial tension. The strategy has to be carefully weighed. And I am going to ask people to bear with me a moment. And not allow yourself to jump to any conclusions about me. There are people here who know me and apparently others who don't. But lets get this out of the way. I grew up originally in the ghettos, both in the trailer park ghettos of the south, and the inner-city ghettos of the north. By having a life like this I have seen the full spectrum. I had friends in Florida I had to play with generally in secret as the racism is blatant enough that they name local plants after racist slurs. But I also lived in Pontiac, and when I was there it was a place very unfriendly to white people as well. The "Nation of Islam" was allowed to do a presentation at my public high school to inform the white people present that they were the marked race of cain, and inferior. And that the mixed race people in the group were "abominations". I wish I was making this up. But it ended up affecting a lot of racial relations. Racist groups have something in common. They tend to go into poor neighborhoods and explain to everyone there that all of their problems would go away if they just got rid of X other group. This is also the method the nazis used against the Jews in Germany. It's easy to get oppressed people to hate. Obviously. So they exploit that. They also tend to seek out individuals with emotional issues, people who feel isolated and try to exploit that. The racism becomes their place to belong. Yes, racists themselves are often victims. Recruited and exploited into what is really a "cult". I have been trying to figure out the best way to explain this. Take it for what you will. But be strategic in what way you fight racism as what works in one place will not work in all. And there are pitfalls to be aware of. 1. Don't get so caught up in your passion to fight racism that you start seeing it even if there is none. Anything that gets people emotional, particularly groups of people can produce the sociological/psychological effect of an "Inquisition" complete with "Witch Hunts". And people in a group who want to get rid of maybe a rival or whatever can start leveling false allegations to try and get someone ostracized. Think critically. There is certainly racism to be found. But don't find yourself so hyper focused that you end up blinding yourself. 2. The most effective way to fight racism, is to humanize people of color to racists. There is a man I hope you all study who's name is Darryl Davis. He is a black man who actively seeks out KKK members to befriend them. He spends time around them and is kind and patient to them. Eventually these men often give up racism entirely. And I am talking about high ranking KKK racist officials leaving because of him. He doesn't get up in their face and shout things at them. Quite the opposite. And it works. It really works. It's not about being submissive to them, it's about demonstrating that their fears and hatred are ridiculous. When that becomes clear, they lose all interest in racism. Racism can tap into primitive "tribal" instincts that are still in our subconscious. You don't want that reaction. You don't want to look like an opposing tribe. You want them to realize we are the same tribe. So for example it is not always effective to confront people because you can invoke a defensive reaction and then they are not listening. This is the opposite of what you want. You may be able to shout at some people and they will retreat. You think they really changed their mind? 3. Be mindful that some people get involved in activism to be "cool". It becomes trendy to be woke. And this comes complete with cliques who can literally become snobby about it. As in their activism is better then your activism. What generally follows is a tendency to start analyzing everyone to see who gets the most "oppression points" and as ridiculous as it sounds this can get out of hand really quick. I would watch it devolve into being almost "fashionable" to start tallying up all of the ways you are oppressed and then start to use this as leverage in conversations. There is something to be said obviously about making sure that marginalized people are given a loud voice. This is important. With that in mind however, it cannot become everything about every conversation. Sometimes a person of color may be wrong about a given subject and a Caucasian person may be right. This does happen. But "Check your privilege" can be abused. I have seen it happen over and over. And it divides groups up and renders them ineffective. People start using activism as a situation to create a new hierarchy. You end up going to activist meetings and some of the activists in the group start reminding you of the popular kids in high school looking down their noses at people. And if you piss them off they arrange to humiliate you or drive you out. 4. Anger/hate is seductive. And it actually can hinder your effectiveness. Stress is scientifically proven to lower your IQ. Do not allow your goal of equality to instead become a goal of revenge. Not only will it not work, it will destroy you as a person. You are against the ideology of racists. Not white people. I have watched reasonable racial activists become radicalized in ways that even lead them talking about their race as superior. And then eventually they start talking about white people as inferior. And then they are lost. Do not become what you seek to oppose. Malcom X figured this out right before he was killed by his own people. Research it. This was Darryl's Joe rogan show, this may be too long for some people so I will link the Ted talk below.