Press On

I can see why Black Lives Matter activists would worry that the Dallas shooting is going to undermine its cause. But all activists can do in a situation where a terrible thing happens at one of your protests is to just press on. There’s really no good reason to worry too much about the backlash over a particular incident, especially when it really wasn’t associated with your movement. If we look at the history of activism in this nation, especially in the last half-century or so, the reality is that you simply don’t know why or when a movement that seems like it has sparked will fade or why or when a seemingly moribund issue will take off and real progress will be made. Both of these situations can be represented by the brief anti-Confederate flag movement in the last couple of years, which came out of nowhere, made real changes and galvanized the country for about a month, and then almost instantly faded, allowing states like Tennessee and Alabama to create pro-Confederate memorialization legislation.

Activists can never know what is going to cause blowback against them. Such things are out of activists’ control, more or less. The only answer is to just keep doing what you are doing. The more people continue to protest against the police, the better the chances of something actually happening to end racist police violence. Worrying about the consequences of actions from people not associated with your movement isn’t going to move the ball and neither is tempering actions because of fear that they might lead to blowback. Only direct action and protest is going to lay the groundwork for the necessary structural changes.

Of course these activists already know this and I wouldn’t presume to explain this to them. My comment is more related to the broader trajectory of activism as I see it within American history and intended for general audiences like here at LGM that contain a multitude of left and left-of-center voices, some of whom are quite pro-protest and others who find protest highly uncomfortable or even counterproductive.

And the last few days have shown pretty solidly that the Dallas shooting is not creating a blowback to the BLM movement, so keep on keeping on.