BRATTLEBORO — I wrote in June urging (a bit nervously) that it was time to get beyond Black Lives Matter protests and slogans - and suggesting 15 things we should be working on to become “a sensibler and fairer country.”
It's now October, and protests and slogans still headline public efforts.
What's prompted me to write again is the “BLACK LIVES MATTER” road “mural” at the Putney Central School.
To start with, the inscription seems to me a wrong precedent for the town to have allowed. All sorts of groups or individuals might like to express themselves on public roads. On what grounds will permission now be denied to QAnon or the Klan?
My larger concern is that, beyond a point, sloganeering and raucous street-corner demonstrations are counterproductive. I know from participating that they can be community-building and attention-getting. But:
• They change almost no one's thinking. More often they arouse the opposition.
• Five months after George Floyd's incendiary death, by providing a feeling that we're “serving the cause,” sloganeering and demonstrations distract from more focused efforts that are urgently needed.
Most immediately, we must replace reactionary people in government. We must build the efforts needed to change our communities, country, and the world: efforts for racial, gender and economic fairness, climate rescue, immigration reform, education revisioning, universal health care, electoral reform, infrastructure repair, adequate housing, police reform. Putting good people in government who will work on these things is important - not just now, but always.
And, in these and other efforts, there is room for each of us somewhere. Sloganeering, at this point, is a distraction.
It has been said about the Putney “mural” that it's a wonderful lesson for the school's students. I disagree. It's indeed a fine example of community action and craftsmanship. But I think it paints a cramped idea of what citizenship means. Or could.
And what means now for those quietly already doing black lives matter work. Thanks for your example!