I am currently reading the autobiography of the late Jim Lawson titled, Nonviolence: My Life of Resistance, Agitation, and Love. He was, in many ways, one of the most important figures of the civil rights movement. A disciple of nonviolence and a committed Christian, he dedicated his life to challenging not only white supremacy, but the underlying violence that organizes our way of life. He insisted that we could live together differently and that we could respond to hate with an enveloping love. Reading the manuscript offers an insider account of an historic moment in the country and an inspiring spiritual autobiography of a life that, for all intents and purposes, was saintly. And here I am thinking about William James’s definition of saintliness in which spiritual emotions become the center of gravity in a person’s life even in the way they treat so-called enemies.
I'd like to see national boycotts...even the mild Tesla boycotts were effective. The EU has been far more unified in this regard, and Tesla sales plummeted there as a result.
We have seen clients and partners leave law firms that capitulated to Trump.
Everyday Americans must be able to summon the resolve to boycott the Trumpiest corporations.
Such large protests create community among so many who feel isolated, alone, and fearful in their convictions. Is it enough? No, of course not. Is it a necessary step in the building of social consensus and collective will? Yes.
As a Black Latina woman, here in Los Angeles, I needed to see what I saw this weekend. I needed to see White folk take the lead. I needed to see White folk fight -- and my goodness Lord, was it an absolutely sight to behold! It wasn't just resolve, but it was the joy that they brought to the fight too. Here, near my home, I walked a few blocks from my house and saw a neighborhood, filled with a sea of people, singing, chanting, laughing, loving... I'm tearing as I write... because for a brief moment, I saw a glimpse - a faint glimpse -- of the America I was told to believe in all my life. You ask so simply, what's next? For me, personally, it's reclaiming my joy and my hope in the possibility of America. Now, look, I know how it sounds, but for me -- it matters so much! I was so proud walking into work this morning where some people are Trump supporters and most of us are not. For the first time in a long time -- I stood a little taller, a little prouder - "Yeah, gurl, this is still our country...". A fellow co-worker screamed from the doorway as I walked from the parking lot. "Yes, it is! Amen, child, Amen!" My hands all up in the air like we were praising at church! What's next is continuing the fight in whatever way that means for each of us. But not from a place of depression, sadness and suffrage -- but with a new-found energy that we might have thought we lost, or in my instance, forgot I still had. That belief in who we can be -- I needed that reminder! I will keep fighting. And now, knowing that my White FAM is also in the fight, I just feel better is all. I feel stronger. I feel renewed. Yeah, I'm not confused it's still a long uphill battle -- and I still believe it's going to get worse before it gets better -- but I have to say, it feels so much better knowing we're not alone. And I saw it with my own eyes... I saw the love of humanity this weekend. I saw Right versus Wrong. I saw Love versus Hate. Yeah, I saw it all with my own eyes child, and I'm renewed!
I believe that violence at least tends to beget violence, and so feel very cautious about how to define it. Because I suspect, for one thing, that when you refuse to give a bully (read frightened person of no actual conviction save that he's so inferior or worthless that he has to best someone else to feel okay) what he wants: the power over, the 'respect' he gets from besting someone vulnerable, the escape he thereby gets from the emptiness inside, he will, eventually wither away. I think this is how Gandhi defeated all of those brass button Brits in India. When Indians began showing their utter lack of regard the Brits began to doubt themselves and their right to India. Of course, he famously advised boycotting a lot of British products and put his money where his mouth was by spinning his own yarn, which others would weave into cloth, for example. So economic boycott + active and passive resistance, plus sheer numbers of people willing to be jailed or even shot and refusing to go home thereby gumming up the works. Could that be one method? I'd like to see some creativity, here, like someone piling up junker cars to block access to target retailers' parking lots or surreptitiously jamming their customer doors. Putting water in their delivery van tanks. Postering the walls outside their banks and other financial institutions. Figuring out how to jam select social media feeds via covert action. We are smart, we are agile, and we have courage. Let's figure this out, one action at a time. Signed, an old White Lady who will stand up for my fellow patriots no matter who their great-great grandparents were. Even if they were southern enslavers like mine. Even if they were Chinese railroad builders, or the Mexican citizens of California before it was California, or black folk who were grabbed off the street of Africa and forced into hard labor by immoral business interests, or Native Americans who lost both their empires and their culture to white carriers of disease both psychological and physiological.
Yes, our collective thinking must all consider what else can we do in addition to peaceful protests, rallies, and lawsuits. Every hole we poke in their foundation destabilizes their power, but being strategic versus their target practice is also a way to persevere through the continuing challenges. On a positive note, the crazed response that arrived in all CAPS in the middle of the night as usual seems to come more from fear and anger than from actual strength . . . I’d say we are succeeding. In the words of Curtis Mayfield, We must “Keep on pushin.”
I'd like to see national boycotts...even the mild Tesla boycotts were effective. The EU has been far more unified in this regard, and Tesla sales plummeted there as a result.
We have seen clients and partners leave law firms that capitulated to Trump.
Everyday Americans must be able to summon the resolve to boycott the Trumpiest corporations.
Such large protests create community among so many who feel isolated, alone, and fearful in their convictions. Is it enough? No, of course not. Is it a necessary step in the building of social consensus and collective will? Yes.
As a Black Latina woman, here in Los Angeles, I needed to see what I saw this weekend. I needed to see White folk take the lead. I needed to see White folk fight -- and my goodness Lord, was it an absolutely sight to behold! It wasn't just resolve, but it was the joy that they brought to the fight too. Here, near my home, I walked a few blocks from my house and saw a neighborhood, filled with a sea of people, singing, chanting, laughing, loving... I'm tearing as I write... because for a brief moment, I saw a glimpse - a faint glimpse -- of the America I was told to believe in all my life. You ask so simply, what's next? For me, personally, it's reclaiming my joy and my hope in the possibility of America. Now, look, I know how it sounds, but for me -- it matters so much! I was so proud walking into work this morning where some people are Trump supporters and most of us are not. For the first time in a long time -- I stood a little taller, a little prouder - "Yeah, gurl, this is still our country...". A fellow co-worker screamed from the doorway as I walked from the parking lot. "Yes, it is! Amen, child, Amen!" My hands all up in the air like we were praising at church! What's next is continuing the fight in whatever way that means for each of us. But not from a place of depression, sadness and suffrage -- but with a new-found energy that we might have thought we lost, or in my instance, forgot I still had. That belief in who we can be -- I needed that reminder! I will keep fighting. And now, knowing that my White FAM is also in the fight, I just feel better is all. I feel stronger. I feel renewed. Yeah, I'm not confused it's still a long uphill battle -- and I still believe it's going to get worse before it gets better -- but I have to say, it feels so much better knowing we're not alone. And I saw it with my own eyes... I saw the love of humanity this weekend. I saw Right versus Wrong. I saw Love versus Hate. Yeah, I saw it all with my own eyes child, and I'm renewed!
I believe that violence at least tends to beget violence, and so feel very cautious about how to define it. Because I suspect, for one thing, that when you refuse to give a bully (read frightened person of no actual conviction save that he's so inferior or worthless that he has to best someone else to feel okay) what he wants: the power over, the 'respect' he gets from besting someone vulnerable, the escape he thereby gets from the emptiness inside, he will, eventually wither away. I think this is how Gandhi defeated all of those brass button Brits in India. When Indians began showing their utter lack of regard the Brits began to doubt themselves and their right to India. Of course, he famously advised boycotting a lot of British products and put his money where his mouth was by spinning his own yarn, which others would weave into cloth, for example. So economic boycott + active and passive resistance, plus sheer numbers of people willing to be jailed or even shot and refusing to go home thereby gumming up the works. Could that be one method? I'd like to see some creativity, here, like someone piling up junker cars to block access to target retailers' parking lots or surreptitiously jamming their customer doors. Putting water in their delivery van tanks. Postering the walls outside their banks and other financial institutions. Figuring out how to jam select social media feeds via covert action. We are smart, we are agile, and we have courage. Let's figure this out, one action at a time. Signed, an old White Lady who will stand up for my fellow patriots no matter who their great-great grandparents were. Even if they were southern enslavers like mine. Even if they were Chinese railroad builders, or the Mexican citizens of California before it was California, or black folk who were grabbed off the street of Africa and forced into hard labor by immoral business interests, or Native Americans who lost both their empires and their culture to white carriers of disease both psychological and physiological.
Yes, our collective thinking must all consider what else can we do in addition to peaceful protests, rallies, and lawsuits. Every hole we poke in their foundation destabilizes their power, but being strategic versus their target practice is also a way to persevere through the continuing challenges. On a positive note, the crazed response that arrived in all CAPS in the middle of the night as usual seems to come more from fear and anger than from actual strength . . . I’d say we are succeeding. In the words of Curtis Mayfield, We must “Keep on pushin.”
Criminalizing Peaceful Protests: https://youtube.com/shorts/Gwfo2HNlAWY?feature=shared