An Opportunity to Change - Ms Taylor Phillips

I want to give everyone reading this an opportunity to read what I have to say and change your opinion. This is broken down into what I think are the most compelling arguments I have found that are AGAINST Black lives matter, hopefully my answers force you to examine your own complicity in racist systems. This isn’t a comprehensive rebuttal of every argument against BLM, but these are the ones I hear most often.

***I do not speak for all Black people just because i’m Black***

I also want to invite you to reach out to me ([email protected]). ESPECIALLY if you are genuinely open to changing your opinions. All I can offer is my own views but i’m willing to talk. Please keep in mind not every black person you know is open to having this kind of dialogue so don’t reach out to your one black friend after reading this lol.

I have seen so many people that seemed afraid to voice there support for BLM, I think of every influencer post that started with “I wanted to speak out in support of BLM but I was afraid I would say the wrong thing”. People with genuine intentions are scared to say anything because they aren’t used to being vocal about racism. So this is a personal plea to make it ok for people to change their opinions/views. We aren’t going to get anywhere if we gatekeep the revolution.

“RIOTING IS DESTRUCTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE”

Let’s start at the top, of course rioting is destructive, don’t get any disagreement from me. But imagine if you ask nicely for something everyday, something that everyone else has for free, and every day you are rejected for no reason. Imagine doing that for 150 years. At a certain point you have to ask yourself the question “does asking nicely work?” nope. The rioting has mostly stopped in the recent weeks, THE PEACEFUL PROTESTS HAVE NOT, so why aren’t we seeing the same amount of news coverage? Rioting is destructive, but it certainly got everyones attention.

Also a friendly reminder that this country was built on riots,(boston tea party, the burning of Black Wall Street, the great railroad strike) we are just a little more forgiving to these I suppose because they succeeded.

I would also just like to throw in the mix that those who have not experienced 400 years plus of slavery and discrimination have no right to say how angry I should be allowed to be.

Personally would I riot, no. But do I see why it happens, yes and I do not look down upon those who did/do.

“ALL LIVES MATTER”

I’m sure you have heard a million explanations why this doesn’t make any sense. I just want to say incase you haven’t, no one has ever had to say that your life matters if you’re white, it just does. It’s a birth right. For Black Men and Women it is not a given, we have to fight for the bare minimum that are lives are worth SOMETHING. If my house is on fire and yours isn’t are we going to hose them both down to be fair?

“NOT ALL COPS ARE BAD”

Im glad you brought it up because this is something I have been wanting to talk about for a minute. Let’s first take a quick trip in history and accept the fact that our modern day policing is built off of the slave patrol, designed to control minorities.

Slave patrols helped to maintain the economic order and to assist the wealthy landowners in recovering and punishing slaves who were considered property.

A quote from the law enforcement museum website:

” After the Civil War, Southern police departments often carried over aspects of the slave patrols. These included systematic surveillance, the enforcement of curfews, and even notions of deciding who could become a police officer. Though a small number of African Americans joined the slave patrol turned police force in the South during Reconstruction, they met active resistance”.

Ok so can we agree that our modern notion of “police officers” is built on a deeply racist and unjust forms of surveillance towards Black people? Good.

So fast forward to now. We have witnessed over and over again Black men and Women brutally murdered by police (I don’t think that is up for debate).

Your dad is a cop, your friend is a cop, your cousin is a cop, you know them! They aren’t a bad person! Sure. I am not claiming ALL cops are bad people. I am saying that the CAREER of being a police officer is inherently racist and even the most well intentioned person cannot combat an entirely racist system alone. I believe there are well intentioned cops, but intentions are not enough at this point. Four cops stood by while George Floyd COULD NOT BREATH, there was no good guy in sight, enough Black lives have been taken by cops to say that the good guys are few and far between when the time really calls for it.

So what do you want Taylor, defund the police, crazy Lib!!!

Yes. But hear me out. Defund the police sounds scary (don’t worry you can still call 911). I do not believe we should settle reform a system based on racism. Reform isn’t enough. We need a new system. So defund the police as we know them, YES, but create something new that is a system that works better to respond to all types of crime (not just violent). I am not going to outline all of this because i’m not running for office (yet) but here is a bunch of links to plans that I think are pretty good:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/06/us/what-is-defund-police-trnd/index.html

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/06/19/what-does-defund-the-police-mean-and-does-it-have-merit/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2020/06/09/the-movement-to-defund-or-disband-police-heres-what-you-need-to-know-now/#16879a857f1a

“BLACK ON BLACK CRIME/BLACK CRIME/IF THEY WEREN’T COMMITTING A CRIME THIS WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED”

Oh these are good ones. Let’s start with Black on Black crime. People love that one.

When someone commits an act of terrorism against in the United States, which rightfully leads to anger LITERALLY NO ONE SAYS, “Well what about how many Americans kill other Americans each year?”

I do not deny that black on black crime exists. HOWEVER most crimes happen between people who know each other or live near each other AND people who live bellow the poverty threshold.

The poverty rate is MORE THAN TWICE AS HIGH FOR BLACK AMERICANS THAN WHITE. So what did you think was going to happen?

Ok i’m done with that argument, but if you genuinely believe that Black people are living in poverty at 2x the rate of white people for any other reason than systemic racism (learn the difference between systemic and systeMATIC please, link at the end!!!) please reach out so we can talk about it.

Black people are not committing more crimes than White people. Black communities are overly surveilled and targeted which leads to them getting arrested for more crime.

For all my white Anacortes parents reading this, YOUR CHILDREN ARE DOING DRUGS, the only reason they are not arrested for it is because the cops are not conducting night raids on the frat houses at WSU.

If they weren’t committing a crime this wouldn’t have happened. Is the punishment in a court of law for having weed, death? Is the punishment for bouncing a check, death? Is the punishment for playing with a BB gun, death? Is the punishment for running from the cops, death?

We BARELY legalized the death penalty in the states that have it. So why are we so ok with people carrying it out in the streets? Without a judge and jury?

“VOTING FOR DONALD TRUMP ISN’T RACIST/BEING REPUBLICAN DOESN’T MAKE ME RACIST”

Fun Fact- I was a Republican my whole life until Trump ran for office. I come from a military family, a conservative family, and I genuinely believed it. I educated myself (I think pretty well) and still wanted to vote Republican. I don’t think all Republicans are racist. The anti-protest to BLM shouldn’t be Republicans? It should be the KKK. Thats the problem. I am protesting for Black rights, and you’re protesting for Trump across the street, so what do you want me to think you stand for (let me fill in the blank it makes Trump supporters look synonymous to anti-black)?

You can be Republican and not be racist. I know a lot of Dems will disagree with me on that one lol. Check out these guys https://rvat.org/ Republican voters against Trump. The Republican party stands for things outside of what Trump has made it (a joke). Take back your party Republicans, stand for something real.

Ok now that I have given the conservatives a little moment, let me tell you why voting for Donald Trump IS condoning his racism, which in turn makes you racist.

I don’t want to make this too long because he has a very LONG racist history. This post covers them ALL:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/06/trump-racism-comments/588067/

We can’t have a racist President and somehow say we have made progress combating racism. Trump is racist, he makes the KKK feel comfy going public with their views, he is not representative of American people. VOTE HIM OUT.

TO CONCLUDE

Ok just to close, racism should not be a political issue. No one should be ok with racism. If you have any questions or comments or disagreements with any of these points you can FB message me, DM me on Insta, or email me at [email protected]. I will respond to all the messages I get and I will keep them private. I am trying to encourage you to change your views. Maybe some of this information is NEW, you just learned something and now you feel differently, awesome (I know they certainly didn’t teach me this at Anacortes High School). Let’s change.