E-mail being circulated in South Minneapolis. It's worth reflection.
This was received by my friend in Minneapolis this a.m. You can see his earlier reports about living a half mile from the murder site in this post: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213501552
To our neighbors in South Minneapolis,
We are a group of white, long-term residents of South Minneapolis, and we address this open letter primarily to our white neighbors.
The last week has fundamentally changed our neighborhood and how we live. Every night, sirens blare, explosions and helicopters rumble, and smoke fills our streets. Every day, more shops close, boards go up over the windows, and shards of glass lie near the rubble of gas stations and shops. Some of you have begun going out with brooms to clean up during the day, and others of you have stayed home scared of what might become of the city. We share your fear that someone may come to harm in the coming nights, and we share your concern that our neighbors of color may lose buildings that have become community hubs.
Today, a large group of you met at various parks or talked on Facebook and Next Door about organizing various forms of community defense: you talked about organizing to put out fires, to defend local businesses, and even to restrain those breaking the law out tonight. We are deeply concerned and puzzled by this.
Why is this organizing happening now? Is it not true that had we developed community defense structures two weeks ago that George Floyd might still be alive? In fact, we can’t mince words here: it was our failure as white people to defend our neighbors which was the cause of this current unrest. We understand that fires are scary. We heard you when you said you want to keep your neighborhood “safe.” But, safe for whom? If we return to the way things were, our neighborhood will not be safe for the next Jamar Clarke, the next Philando Castile, the next George Floyd. Do you want the neighborhood to be truly safe, or just for white people and their property?
The fact that you are organizing only now sends a disturbing message to the world: the decades of redlining, brutality, and murder that happen year after year was not enough to organize neighborhood defense, but only once my home or my favorite store (i.e. property) is in danger. Let us not forget that the defense of property over life is why George Floyd is dead today. He supposedly tried to use a counterfeit bill, and the white officer took his life. The responsibility for his death lies squarely in white people’s hands. Some of you have checked in with us now that buildings are on fire, but did you check in on your Black neighbors when George Floyd was senselessly murdered?
Now is not the time to celebrate “coming together as a community.” Why are we only now coming together? To defend property? There is nothing to celebrate: we have failed as neighbors, we have failed as friends, and we have failed as members of the human community. The threat to Black peoples’ lives has been constant. What have we done to prevent our Black neighbors from being murdered that’s on the level of these new community text loops and organizing groups? You failed to mention at your meeting in Powderhorn that a pawn shop owner murdered a “looter” in defense of his shop. These are the dangers of white vigilantism and the mentality of defending property over human life. Your continued silence speaks volumes.
For those of you who would condemn the looters and the rioters, we ask you to take a good long look at yourself and your history. To those of you who think that property shouldn’t be stolen so that others can gain wealth and material goods, we remind you that you are currently standing on Dakota land. Do you think they gave it up willingly? Insofar as we white people materially benefit by owning property or acquiring wealth off of this land, we are all looters. If you are concerned about looting, then now would be the time to think about long-term strategies for how to redistribute your wealth and return the land to your Dakota friends and neighbors and the Black people who worked as slaves to build this country.
You also discussed your concerns about out-of-town white supremacists agitators. We, too, are worried about these people. We must ask, however: why now? White supremacists have long been a threat to our friends and neighbors, so why are you only mobilizing defense now? The fact is: you didn’t show up when Pimento (a Black-owned business) received credible threats from white supremacists last night. You didn’t show up to the fourth precinct in North Minneapolis when white supremacists shot five Black youth in 2015. The people who did show up broke the law by defying the curfew to defend their neighbors and are quite literally criminals. You who have failed to defend your neighbors in the past now denounce “criminal elements,” some of whom are doing the work you claim to want to do.
For those of you worried about “outside agitator white supremacist looters,” you need to look in the mirror before claiming you have what it takes to help keep your community safe. It is we —the descendants of settler-colonists, the upholders of the white supremacist system who allow police to kill Black people— who are literally outside agitators, looters, and white supremacists. If we cannot face that squarely, then we will not change. And it is our failure to acknowledge these truths and change our relationships with others that set off the riots and looting you now fear.
We understand you when you lament that South Minneapolis is in ruins and that its residents are in pain. When something is destroyed, we have a rare opportunity to build something new. We have been out every day so far to join our Black neighbors in protest and we know that it is mostly the youth out on the streets: an intelligent youth, a caring youth, but an infinitely enraged youth. And who are they mad at? Us. All of us who have said time and again that our property, our city, our stuff is more important than their lives. All of us who have no doubts that the police are there to protect us. Your interpretation of the events as the result of small groups of white supremacists prove that even as your city is being burned to the ground, you still refuse to see or hear the anger directed at you.
Will you be ready to drop your allegiances to comforting stories and spaces rooted in the systemic murder and expropriation of others, or will you let yourself be confronted by and accept the terrifying prospect of changing your material relations with the world (and for white people, this includes losing your long-held privileges)? Are you cleaving to stories about cartels and hidden white supremacists directing a national revolt because you secretly want the world to return to a normality where other people needlessly die but where you are at least assured of what tomorrow will look like?
In the coming days, we have the opportunity to imagine a new world and a new way of being with one another. We can and should organize against white supremacy; we can organize to watch the police; we can organize gardens and gatherings or anti-racist workshops. Or we can look backwards at the world we see being destroyed and try to rebuild that one. We can spend our time trying to prevent fires at Target instead of murder. The time is now to work towards the world you want to see. The time is now to envision new worlds. We thank the youth for providing us with this opportunity to grow and hope you grow with us.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Thank you for posting this.
-Laelth
