I had to reread King Leopold’s Ghost and The Scramble for Africa when working on my book. The extent of the cruelty is impossible to overstate.
The other context to Confederate leader statues in the US is that the vast majority of them were not installed and placed in the years immediately following the war. Instead most went up from the 1900s to 1920s (and even later) as a sort of “Jim Crow Laws live here” signifier.
magnet
4337
A large peaceful assembly intended to support BLM is not illegal. If someone were arrested despite that, then I would surely support them and condemn the police.
A large peaceful assembly intended for religious expression is illegal, at least in some places. So if someone were arrested in those places, then I think I should condemn the law.
It is under curfew, and it is in places outside of where police say protesters can go. I mean, turn on your television. Besides that, it is probably ‘illegal‘ in many states in that it violates the Covid rules for assemblies of large people. Police are choosing not to enforce those restrictions, which is almost certainly what would happen if millions decided to go to church en masse.
Sure it’s a legitimate target. Is it wise to be protesting it now, with a pandemic, which will surely kill people that might otherwise not die? Maybe not, but I guess everyone will have to make that decision for themselves.
Are those people violating any pandemic rules in Brussels? I genuinely don’t know.
magnet
4341
Ok, but that only strengthens my argument. If I am unwilling to condemn those who risk Covid spread and break the law to support BLM, then isn’t it hypocritical to condemn those who risk Covid spread and break the law for religious reasons?
Are there people who condemn the one and not the other? There are people who condemn the attempts of politicians to interfere in the rules in order to create a controversy, which is not at all the same thing. In any event, the pandemic-based complaints about the protests are largely a right-wing talking point and I don’t really grasp why some people on the left want to help to magnify them.
The 1st amendment only requires that assembly be peaceful, not legal. Many civil rights demonstrations in the 60s violated numerous Jim Crow laws.
Despite strongly wanting to see the BLM protest end or least be much smaller, I certainly won’t support arresting people for violating some health code at a BLM protest. The 1st amendment is too important.
@magnet brings up an important point, the 1st amendment equally protects “religious expression” so I can not see enforcing one but not the other.
Don’t really know but I can’t imagine that they’re just living life as if nothing was going on, Belgium has a pretty serious death toll for it’s population.
On that topic, I quite enjoyed this Wikipedia update. Sadly gone now.
CPI Security stepped in it today- with their CEO complaining about black-on-black crime, and the Panthers and NCSU both dropping them (primary sponsor for both)
magnet
4347
Yes, me! In the early lockdown days, I was infuriated by parishioners who insisted on attending services despite being ordered not to. Now I think I judged them too harshly.
Nesrie
4348
I have asked repeatedly, and I am done being nice about it. This is not a cause. This is my life. I am not a cause, and there is no cause. This is the reality many of us are forced to live, so stop calling it a cause. It’s insulting and completely inappropriate. It’s no more a cause than you waking up each morning wanting to breathe is a cause.
Black Lives Matter is about the right to live, literally. And those trying to mix COVID-19 concerns, and belittling it to some sort of cause are just so woefully ignorant of what the situation is really like in the day to day for those who endure this horrific hate and onslaught of oppression that includes being killed for… nothing.
None
4349
They acknowledge how unfair it is to live in fear. How unfair it is to have their lives in the hands of others. But seemingly only when it pertains to Covid and not when trying to right the wrong of generations of systemic racial oppression.
Aceris
4350
I don’t see how your reality is relevant to the protests I’m referring to.
Says mischievously Well there’s Brian Clough’s statue in Nottingham…
Maybe. For my part, I think people can worship in private without assembling, but I don’t think that people can protest in private without assembling, so I don’t think they are the same. But, also, I’m not religious, so probably I’m not the most objective about it.
Belgium appears to be mostly re-opened. There don’t seem to be any restrictions on outdoor public spaces.
