Thread by @benjancewicz

#TheresePatriciaOkoumou
@BreeNewsome
Gloria Richardson
Ella Baker
Daisy Bates
Mary McLeod Bethune
Elaine Brown
Shirley Chisholm
Angela Davis
Fannie Lou Hamer
Rosa Parks
Jo Ann Robinson
Sojourner Truth
Harriet Tubman
Ida B Wells

The Dora Milaje have always been real.

This list also represents how badly white people have failed at ending cycles of violence they’ve committed.

#TheresePatriciaOkoumou is a Black Woman Immigrant.

She stood up when others wouldn’t. That’s not something to be excited about. It’s an embarrassment to everyone else.

It white people who created this mess.
It should be white people doing the heavy lifting, in non-performative ways, to clean it up.

And yet the list for white people who’ve put themselves on the line is much much shorter.

We could end lack of equity.

If we wanted to.

If you don’t have the conviction of John Brown within you, the list of Black women throwing themselves in the path of violence to make change will inevitably get longer.

It’s up to us to decide what our legacy will be.

If you really don’t know what this looks like; I can give an example.

In all my time covering and participating in protests, I’ve only seen it done effectively once.

I was in LA when the police brutally murdered #JRThomas in front of his family, after he called 911 to ask for medical help during a bipolar episode.

The #BlackLivesMatter LA chapter came and supported his vigil.

As people began to prepare to march from the vigil, an activist got on the mic, and instructed the white people in the crowd to form a perimeter around the Black people mourning in the middle.

The activists instructed the white people to not be aggressive in any way to police.

And it worked.

Like an amoeba, the crowd shifted and formed a protective wall around the activists and mourners, began marching through Pasadena.

The activists explained that Black people were most vulnerable to police violence. And the white people listened.

When we got Main Street, the crowd blocked the busiest intersection, white people locking arms to form a fence, as the activists delivered their message via megaphones.

And one point, a vehicle tried to drive through the crowd, but the fence resisted.

The police never gained physical access to the protesters and mourners in the middle.

The whole thing passed without any violent incident whatsoever, with a crowd somewhere around 3,000.

This is the bare minimum of what white people can do.

I’m tired of the wringing hands.

Black women, First Nations women, Trans women, Latinx women and anyone else who’ve been oppressed are not your saviors.

Stop standing by while they’re crucified.