As we consider the events in Minneapolis and Kenosha, let’s take a minute to consider that these events are part of a pattern that’s gone on for many years. It’s not just a case of the disproportionate killing of Black people by the police, it’s also white supremacy showing itself in many other ways, some of them quite obvious.
We could go all the way back to the Black Panther Party, one of the first major mobilizations after MLK and the Civil Rights era. Over 50 years ago, the Black Panther Party established a Ten-Point Plan. Under Fred Hampton’s leadership they offered many constructive programs and engaged thousands of people — so J Edgar Hoover & the State’s Attorney for Cook County (Chicago) conspired to get rid of him; on 4 December 1969, they stormed Hampton’s apartment and murdered him while he slept.
A few years ago, officials rerouted the Dakota Access Pipeline to minimize risk to largely-white Bismarck — by moving it to cross the lands of the Standing Rock Sioux. When the people protested, a force of militarized, largely white ‘law enforcement’ officers fought their protests with violence.
The latest iteration of the annual Sturgis motorcycle rally, which is in some ways a celebration of white supremacy and (White) individuals’ ability to ignore the law, was tacitly welcomed by the government and businesses of South Dakota.
- NOTE: See follow-up at Sturgis & Coronavirus
More recently, we’ve seen protests at or in government buildings,. When armed, mostly-White protesters demanded an end to measures designed to contain the coronavirus pandemic, they were ignored or welcomed, but BLM protests were met with police violence.
So let’s not act surprised when we see blatant examples of white supremacy reinforced by state authority and weapons in Kenosha — It’s been going on for decades.
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