Attending BLM protests?

[ALifeDesign]

I am wondering if anyone has attended today or planning to go to any of the protests being organised around the country this weekend.

I am debating going tomorrow. I would maintain social distancing and wear a mask. In ordinary times I would be there without a second's thought but these aren't ordinary times.

Some photos from today on Twitter look well organised, distanced etc.

I wfh and live with one other person - currently furloughed - who would also be at the protest, so I feel we are low risk of spreading.

I'm still a bit torn. So I suppose AIBU to attend?

Face coverings aren’t a rule... our Government when they said people can go back to work never enforced this. This info around face coverings is very inaccurate and to be honest you would need a medical mask for it to work not something you have ordered from Ebay. The government are at fault if they didn’t want protests to take place they should of announced this and enforced this. So many things lacking here. Yet again we are not at the core issue

So many without facial coverings

I think quite a lot of people masked, at least part of the time. Everyone needed to be masked, at all times, to protect others.

Other public health advice on how to protest in a mass gathering more safely were ignored, however, including making silent protests, using noisemakers instead of chanting etc.

@cyclingmad I'm not scared of the virus. I'm a strong, healthy woman. It's likely if I caught it, I'd be fine. I'm taking all the precautions recommended to protect other people who I may spread it to if I'm catch it.

Sorry but not every black person or POC would agree. Some feel that it is irresponsible and that there are other ways of promoting the issues. It has already received global traction.

There has been talk about whether extra measures should be taken to protect the health of BAME people and dismay that the recent report investigating the causes for the discrepancy in severity of infection among minority groups did not include or go far enough in suggesting protective measures that could be taken, but frankly this undermines such suggestions.

I mean do BAME need extra shielding or protective measures or not?

for many black people this is the first time in their lives that the issues black people face are being discussed, globally, across the world, and being treated as serious and endemic

I’m sorry but if you have sympathy with this issue then please try to see that protesting seems like the most sane thing in the world right now
It is eye opening for the world there is no good time for tragedy it is unfortunate the platform opened during a pandemic. I was to cowardly to go it's understandable you did.

I did look up the bLM movement, lots of nice plentatives
(we believe in supporting each other, being all gender inclusive, wanting less violence.), no actual action, or suggestion of how to make it happen. (Besides marching.)

White on this thread people screaming that black people shouldn't protest against their oppression.

Even Ben and Jerry's understand the issue:
twitter.com/benandjerrys/status/1267875868673794048?s=19

No we are not suggesting don,t protest, There are many ways to protest.

White on this thread people screaming that black people shouldn't protest against their oppression I apologise if it comes across like that.
If it wasn't for the virus I'd have went to protest too. Unfortunately the tragic murder of George Floyd had to happen to create this movement I am fully behind it. In 2020 oppression needs to be stamped out and everyone has to support it.

I wouldn't uphold corporate PR as the last word in social justice myself.

Some BLM groups have deferred their right to protest at this time, citing public health concerns. There is not a monolith of unqualified support for mass gatherings at this time, even from within the activist communities.

It's the virus that has confused the issue, for want of a better way of putting it. Were it not for the pandemic, I think support for the protests amongst all but hardline, overt racists, would be unequivocal.

What's been eye-opening for me is that demands for intersectionality - particularly from within the feminist movement - the whole 'my feminism will be intersectional or it will be bullshit' schtick - are very quickly disposed of when convenient.

Many groups experiencing systemic prejudice and discrimination are instead, routinely excluded by 'white allies' from analysis.

So that's interesting. And makes me wonder why I'm busting a gut to be intersectional, considering the impacts of race, class, age, disability, religion in my feminism, while so many self-described anti-racists simply ignore their own sexism, ableism, ageism, anti-Semitism, their prejudices against others....

pelleas
I agree with you.
As long as they remained peaceful which was clearly the intention.
I notice Belfast managed a socially distanced protest. All stood in squares.

It's difficult as the (mostly young) crowds have seen scores of adults breaking lockdown so why should they bother? I am sure many people will blame the protests for a rise in COVID rather than the beach goers etc.

I totally agree with those that have protested and have been on many such marches. However where I live the R rate is over one and I am a carer for my parents in their 80s

@Smileyaxolotl1 Yes I saw that in the news, it was very well managed in Belfast and that was how it should be. If protests all over could be managed like that, then there would be no reason to say that the protests shouldn't go ahead.

Well people in Belfast would be quite au fait with what can happen if you don't obey British rules. A. You get gunned down or B. You get arrested.

What happened when they did March? Bloody Sunday.

Have they finally learned their lesson Smiley?

Went Wednesday and it was really calm and peaceful.

In regards to covid 19,
Police have been working throughout mostly / mainly without mask. And I haven't read or seen them ending up in hospital or huge amounts of them sick.
And before people state that they aren't in contact with the public who have it, they actually attend a home of a person who had it still without masks etc.

I'm not saying there isn't a risk but to me it is no different then attending Asda/ Tesco.

The government are at fault if they didn’t want protests to take place they should of announced this and enforced this

Errr, they did announce it - over and over
As for "enforcing" prevention I'm not sure how that would look? Does anyone seriously imagine it would have gone well if they'd tried to prevent people asembling, or worse still attempted to disperse them once they had?

White on this thread people screaming that black people shouldn't protest against their oppression.

You know I think this goes back to the earlier arguments at the start of lockdown regarding people's ability to assess risk.

So as I see it, police brutality against black people is cruel, wrong in every way and a risk for my sons and frankly everyone in my family including myself.

But the greatest risk to black lives at this point is Covid 19. The greatest risk to my life was catching Covid 19 nearly 3 months ago.

As a black woman the thing that is negatively affecting my quality of life right now the most is Covid 19.

The thing that is likely going to be affecting my already poor respiratory health going forward is Covid 19.

The thing that's going to affecting my earning potential may be having caught Covid 19.

Statistically in this acute phase that is it. Police brutality is shit and needs to be addressed yes, for sure. But not at the greater risk of actually killing black people now.

Few if anyone at these protests will be significantly harmed by the police, statistically the greatest danger to Black lives will be from potentially catching covid 19.

I was and am pretty anti-lockdown, but massive gatherings of thousands of people doesn't make sense during the second biggest pandemic since the Spanish Flu, especially when many of those people are more vulnerable in comparison to their caucasian peers protesting with them, who ironically, have the 'privilege' of being less likely to get seriously ill.

The fact of the matter is I think most protest went on peacefully. Despite images of a bike being thrown at a horse this is not the case for ALL

The government can’t be bothered to enforce anything at the moment so I don’t blame anybody if they want to protest if they want it’s their own choice.

Whether or not the protests were peaceful is irrelevant. They will have increased the spread of covid19. BAME are more vulnerable. This is the height of irresponsibility. Maybe you are young and fit but what about your mum or dad or grandparents, uncle, aunt or elderly relatives, the lady at the corner shop or a nurse in hospital? I guess their lives don’t matter.

@catspyjamas123 I don’t think it’s a case of it doesn’t matter to be fair about the matter I think the protest is the least of my worries. I work on the frontline btw. So don’t assume because I have a different opinion to you. Lockdown is basically being phased out is it not? Borris didn’t stick to his word of deaths of rising he would put us back into lockdown. Shops are opening on the 15th, schools are opened now or have you conveniently forgotten these issues. When the sun was out and people were enjoying topping up their tans and having BBQs were you also outraged...

Also BAME are not more vulnerable I don’t believe it what is your evidence other than lack of vitamin D that’s been reported? There’s not enough research and if that’s the case why is it that ALL other ethnic Countries that also have BAME are not dying of the COVID like the UK

Yes, I also think the people who went to the beach or around Ikea were idiots. I’ve not been to a shop since March. I am going to continue to stay as isolated as possible.

The evidence that BAME are more vulnerable is the statistics. It’s not something I’ve chosen or invented. I don’t want anyone to become ill when they don’t need to be.

Racism and police brutality isn’t acceptable but nor is reckless spreading of a pandemic. The lockdown isn’t over and it is illegal to meet with more than six people from different households outside. Mass gatherings are banned.

I am entitled to an opinion without it being implied I am a racist. I think the people who protested against the lockdown and the people who burned down 5G masts because of conspiracy theories were also idiotic.

I’m not protesting against lockdown but it is laughable to say the least and it has been poorly organised to say the least. Based on these things we may as well come of it as it was a shambles as time went on.

The lockdown isn’t over officially but it is being phased out or am I missing something?

You can’t believe everything you see on the news. I can personally tell you that COVID is complex a lot of tests have come back with false results, some times Drs are having to diagnose COVID with other methods such as chest x-rays instead of the swob that has been taken. We are going on a whim they don’t actually know.

Statistics the same ones that the government didn’t include all deaths and include nursing/Care homes? Each to their own! BAME is not accurate and I’ve seen personally from dealing with it.