The two leading ladies behind the Black Lives Matter movement took on a variety of racial topics during a panel at South by Southwest and revealed exactly why rapper Common’s plan for ending racism causedTwitter to explode on Tuesday.
The Black Lives Matter founders, Alicia Garza and Opel Tometi, explained that the fight against racism could be an impossible battle if the notion of Black people tearing racist institutions down with their bare hands serves as justification for the lack of effort by white people to dismantle the systems their own ancestors put in place.
Racism’s powerful roots dig deep into the core of American history and are guarded by powerful institutions that serve as a source of oppression and discrimination.
Somehow, in the eyes of too many, it has become solely the Black community’s responsibility to bring down an historic beast that has been viciously attacking them economically, socially, politically, mentally and physically.
With disparities and disadvantages that leave the Black community struggling to even compete with their white peers, this community is now expected to rise up and conquer a racist system by using the same systems that were created to work against them.
It’s a feat that reeks of irrationality and the two founders of the Black Lives Matter movement have had about as much of the stench as they can stomach.
During the South by Southwest panel, “What #BlackLivesMatter Teaches Us About Solidarity,” Garza and Tometi shed light on the importance of white people being proactive in tearing down the racist institutions their ancestors created.
“I think we spend a lot of time figuring out how to move white people, and just because of the social power dynamics, I don’t think that we’re best positioned to do that,” Garza, the special projects director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, told the crowd. “I think other white folks who are invested in dismantling systems of oppression are best positioned to engage with other white people.”
It’s an important point to acknowledge and the reason why Garza said the movement is always in need of more “white co-conspirators.”
Unfortunately, it also seems to be a concept that many Black stars who have been welcomed into Hollywood’s “in” crowd don’t seem to understand.
The latest example of this would be hip hop star/actor Common, who recently suggested that the solution to racism is as simple as giving a little love….to white people.
Common appeared on The Daily Show on Tuesday and explained that the remedy to racism is for Black people to “extend a hand in love” to white people.
That’s the plan.
Of course, it didn’t take long before Twitter users were presenting the “Glory” rapper with a plethora of evidence that suggests why the “hand in love” approach is a serious miss.
“Marlene Pinnock tried to extend her hands in love but they were busy being used as a shield,” one user tweeted to Common directly along with an image of a white officer brutally attacking a Black woman on the ground.
Others tried to explain to Common that his proposal only supports the very racist ideologies that have been plaguing the Black community for years.
“Common saying black people need to extend a ‘hand in love’ to white folks to end racism just perpetuates the idea that we’re the aggressors,” one user tweeted.
Self-proclaimed fans of the star said his comments easily “undid” all this “Selma work.”
Ironically enough, the very same film he was snatching awards for served as proof for why the hand in love plan of action is “historically” ineffective.
“Common just starred in a film that shows what historically happens when blacks ‘extend a hand in love’ to confront racism,” another user explained.
The reality is that the sheer necessity of the Black Lives Matter movement serves as a stellar example of why it is virtually impossible for the oppressed people to take down the systems of their oppressors using any means possible. To suggest a few hugs and kisses could forever cripple white supremacy is an unfortunate claim from the man who just won two awards for rapping about the way the Black community is still, 50 years after Selma, struggling to truly obtain freedom.
