The Hopefulness of the BLM Protests

For literally years now I have felt destabilized, low, depressed. I'm a natural optimist, but my thoughts have not been easily turned from darkness. I noticed over the weekend that something new had dawned--hope. Seeing people of all stripes taking to the streets--in places like Medford and Pendleton; everywhere, really--is enormously healing. I've realized that this depressive state has been born from powerlessness. For the first time in a long time, I feel some strength coming back, some hope. 

It was interesting to listen to Ta-Nehisi Coates talk about this moment with Ezra Klein and hear him express hopefulness as well. Of course, white folks aren't used to powerlessness; we don't have a lot of experience with its force. Ta-Nehisi is therefore more eloquent and insightful about this than I ever will be. I encourage you to give it a listen. Meanwhile, a short excerpt.

"That illegitimacy that black folks have always felt about police in their communities I would now argue has been nationalized. Large swaths of [white] Americans now feel--not even necessarily that the police are illegitimate, but that Trump is the police. And they feel about Trump the way we feel about cops. This is somebody that rules basically by power."

"I would prefer that situation to 1968, where we were alone and we were in our little ghettos and in our neighborhoods, and we know something about the world and we know what the police do, but other folks can't really see it."

Know hope.