Conversation

#NoKings

There's still time. Even in the East. Get out there and be visible.

This will be the perfect on-ramp protest for you, if you've never done it before.

Get out and walk on YOUR streets for the first time, without permission. Get out and ignore traffic lights at YOUR street corners, without permission. Feel that power? Of loads and loads of people who agree with you generally?

That's the power of civil disobedience. You did that. How did it feel? Good? Then you did the protesting right. That's what it is. It's being willing to ignore a law that gets in the way of your ability to express your feelings about the government.

It's the small stuff, but just doing that single thing is more than many of you ever did before. You're good people. You wouldn't break the law.

Well, traffic laws, maybe, after all, they're not "crime", are they? They're "traffic offences" in your experience. Something you can laugh about with your friends.

So...if that resonated, you're white. Hi! It's you I want to talk to. I'm also very, very white. I'm English-born, Canadian-raised, white beefeating beef.

So I want to remind you that for many other people, doing what you're doing today is much more risky than for you. That's why you're needed. The more of you there are at the rally, the more the police will stay hands-off. That's how it works. The police are, basically, on the side of whiteness.

You can refuse to be, by going out to protests.

I've been an organiser for 33 years for queer rights. A lesson or two:

This is a great on-ramp, it's broad, safe, visible, and likely to be police-proof. Too many normie white people about. That's you.

So being out there is itself an act of resistance. It's saying, "not in my name, you aren't hurting these people here, today."

From there, it's a short emotional hop to understanding that's what other protesters are doing: following ICE, looking out for their neighbours.

"Not in my name, not here, not today."

G'luck.