Is it just white people who object to the protests?

[malificent7]

I am white...i support the protests...several of my white friends are horrified by them. Are any non whites against them and if so why?
Aibu to feel that the incensed are scared of loosing their white priveledge or feelings of supremacy?

@Glowcat If you have a large group of people congregated for any cause whatsoever, there will always be one or two who derail it. Fact. We're humans and we're terrible. Human nature always prevails and that's why we can't have nice things.

When it comes to the police, the odds of someone stepping out of line should be much lower. I'm not saying that's true, I'm saying it should be. I mean, we screen them and we train them. The standards they follow should be higher than for any random human in a mass gathering.

I'd like to think that there are still people who join the police because they want to do good in the world, and it's unfair to tarnish them by the actions of people who passed though the training without being identified as wholly inappropriate to do the job. But it's increasingly obvious that reforms are needed to ensure police can carry out their role in a way that is safe and fair to everyone.

I'm not trained in any kind of defence, but as a complete civilian, even I can tell sitting on someone's neck is unlikely to have a good outcome, and if you're only arresting someone, you don't know yet whether they're guilty or not, so need to make every effort to preserve life and dignity.

The magnitude of what needs to happen to change things for the better just seems overwhelming. And I can't see something this huge changing overnight - like I said, proper reform is needed. I believe in the concept of law enforcement, but not the reality. It needs fixing.

@KenDodd I hate this. Racism exists when people are silenced. Everyone should be allowed to have an opinion. When everyone is allowed to join in, then real conversations can happen and education can happen.

@PennyInMyPocket I think the protests have done a huge amount to alienate anyone who is neither black nor white. This includes mixed race people (who struggle to fit into one world anyway) and East Asians (who are currently subject to appalling hate crimes because racism against anyone who looks vaguely Chinese is apparently OK in the pandemic).

All racism is terrible. Period. Let's stand together and say it's unacceptable, rather than shouting down anyone who hasn't experienced 'the right kind of racism' or who happens to be white. The shouting is just so divisive - the world is a mess, and we need to all pull together and acknowledge everyone's experiences.

Can I humbly point out that making disparaging comments or spreading ill-informed stereotypes about any racial group IS racism? There are no exceptions.

As per my post above:

"Reaction formation is a psychological defense mechanism in which a person goes beyond denial and behaves in the opposite way to which he or she thinks or feels.

Conscious behaviors are adopted to overcompensate for the anxiety a person feels regarding their socially unacceptable unconscious thoughts or emotions. Usually, a reaction formation is marked by exaggerated behavior, such as showiness and compulsiveness.

By using the reaction formation, the id is satisfied while keeping the ego in ignorance of the true motives.
Therapists often observe reaction formation in patients who claim to strongly believe in something and become angry at everyone who disagrees."

it is not just white people who object to protests at this current time.

A virtual protest to took place on Sunday evening as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, on the fifth anniversary of the burial of Sheku Bayoh.
The move came after Mr Bayoh’s sister, Kadi Johnston, who is a staff nurse, urged people to protest digitally due to the pandemic.

However getting the news of this virtual protest out there was difficult because instead everyone would rather argue about what went wrong at the protests in public that did take place.

How many of you on this thread knew about this movement on Sunday evening? I keep reading you support the cause and peaceful protests but what are you actually doing to support the cause and peaceful protest?

www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/sister-death-custody-victim-sheku-22139467

I support the protests and demonstrations - my daughters and I went to our local one. It was very peaceful, people wore masks and social distancing was adhered to at all times. Even the bloke who runs the local gutter rag, who barely disguises his racism couldn’t find anything to complain about.

I do not support violence and vandalism - attacking police officers, chucking bikes at police horses and vandalising property

I support the protests (I’m white)

I worry about the impact of the protests during covid19, but I also worry about the crowded beaches and public spaces in the same way. And I’ve seen a lot more photos of protestors wearing face masks than people on beaches wearing face masks! And there’s a huge difference in necessity of protesting vs the necessity of a nice day out at the beach.

A couple of months ago some people ( mostly white republicans) were protesting the lockdown for the right to go to crowded indoor public spaces. They didn’t wear face coverings or follow social distancing. Trump praised them, called them good people.

Now people (mostly black) are protesting for the right if Black people not to be brutally murdered by the police and they’re being demonised. Trump has been inciting violence against them.

People have been complaining politely about things like the Bristol statue for years and nothing changed. It’s understandable why they took matters into their own hands. It’s a statue, not a person, they didn’t attack anyone.

Porcupineinwaiting

How do you know your relative has never experienced racism @PennyInMyPocket**

Because he specifically said he has never experienced racism - until now.

And now his mental health is suffering. All because a bunch of white thugs have jumped on the “cause”. The thugs who went out to cause violence and unease didn’t do it to show solidarity to black people. They did it because they saw a chance to be the thugs that they are!

everyone has the right to protest but doing it now is idiotic i dont care if that offends anyone-bame people are the highest risk of catching covd and th scenes in london terrfied me that thousands of people were that close to each other-theyre also going to bring the virus back in to their community and kill the vulnerable

it matters of course what is happened but shojd have origanised for a few months time not when were in the middle of apandemic

Irrespective of colour or cause I don't agree with violence and I struggle to understand what they expect to happen after this? bend down
on one knee for them? They are racist vandalizing war memorials with the phrase "fuck the whites" that really isen t helping their cause.

I htink it doesn't help their cause and it is not a great idea during CV19 to congregate other than we might get more people get it more quickly which perhaps is a good idea.

Quite a lot of people black and white don't like people to break the law as if you pick and choose which laws you follow it could lead to chaos. Eg I am not that pleased the Romans conquered my land but I didn't when up on the Roman Wall in the NE where I am from and in museums up there take down statues of the Roman conquerors who had both black and white slaves up there in NE of England I am from back in the day.

All my black and Asian friends that I've spoke to about this hate the violence and disagree with the protests due to the corona virus, especially as BAME people appear to be at a higher risk from the virus. It is my woke white friends who think that the protests are a good thing.

I'm white. Protesting at this time is a bit dumb,but I couldn't help quite liking the statue being pulled down. It shouldn't have been there, not that it makes much difference to racism now but it's a symbol. Attacking the police and calling Churchill q racist is just dumb thuggery.

There are lots of people who dislike public disorder or even crowds. Even when they know it’s in a good cause. Many people are on edge and wish that none of this was necessary. It’s not determined by ethnicity.

YABU to make this yet another “white v BAME” thread. The important division is racist v non-racist.

"Aibu to feel that the incensed are scared of loosing their white priveledge or feelings of supremacy?"

YABVVU. I've been to anti-racism rallies. I just wouldn't go in the middle of a pandemic. Has nothing to do with white supremacy.

I would support socially distanced protests, such as were seen in The Hague. I am horrified by the mass gatherings in the uk. Surely anyone who genuinely believes Black Lives Matter can not support mass gatherings in the midst of a pandemic that disproportionately affects BAME people?

"I couldn't help quite liking the statue being pulled down. "

I think it's good the statue came down, but the lack of social distance to do it was not good.

No, I have seen on social media quite a lot of all ethnicities not approving of what's going on. What I will say though is, it seems to only be white people saying "bring the army in, shoot them with rubber bullets etc". Ridiculous. Also white people are fucking horrible in general with how they speak on social media and are the ultimate keyboard warriors.

Here's an example. There was an article about Noah Cyrus and how she hates that people hate her for no reason. She is white of course. The comments section was filled with black people saying god loves you, you are beautiful, love yourself, bless you etc. Then there was a load of white people commenting saying build a bridge and get over it basically.

Thinking on it, I've never once been verbally assaulted on Facebook (I run a Facebook group, it's large) by anyone of another ethnic group but white and haven't seen other ethnic groups attacking white people.

I just think other ethnic groups minus white are generally nicer, kinder and don't resort to name calling. I am white by the way. I don't know why we've ended up this way. I will also add that it tends to be more British/American white people that are just plain nasty. Especially males aged 18-35. That is my experience. Being told it would be funny if I got run over etc.

I'm Caucasian. I applaud the destruction of the statue. I hope more will follow the same way.

History can be learned from museums and books. It can be learned from respectful commemoration. Statues of long-dead racist perpetrators of the slave trade do not add anything meaningful to that process. They serve to venerate those who perpetrated one of the biggest human rights travesties in the history of our species.

If you believe that has any place in modern-day Britain please feel free to thrill people with your [apologism] insights.

Everyone’s concern re: distancing and the protests getting out of control is understandable. Personally I was worried about flouting social distancing before attending the protests, but the thing is racism has been a crisis 400 years longer than covid-19 has. At the protests everyone was wearing masks and gloves, several Drs have come out to say that risk of transmission is minimal given people’s care and the fact it’s outside. Especially compared to all the people having bbqs with mates, hanging out on crampt beaches without protection and now back on the tube to work. I can’t help but think a lot of the white people complaining about protests were the last ones piling into football matches, pubs and racecourses when the first major spread was happening.

The protests have been peaceful and moving. There have only been minor instances of things getting out of hand but images of those instances have been latched onto and widely publicised, they do not reflect the majority.

There was no violence in Bristol according to the police themselves, no arrests were made, no one was hurt. The statue of a man responsible for 19,000 slave deaths was brought down in an orchestrated and safe manner. People were happy not angry, if you watch the videos.

I understand the demonstrations may look scary in the way they’ve been portrayed in the media but as someone who’s attended and knows lots of others that have across the U.K. they have been an amazing opportunity to show solidarity with the movement.

If the government want the the protests to stop they should lay out plans in aid of resolving structural inequality. As it stands Boris is still saying that the UK doesn’t have a problem with racism.

Disclaimer re above post: 'You' is generic; this wasn't aimed at the OP.

My white nan however fully supports them and has a smirk when she tells us she hopes they continue long enough for CV to spread to all of their families. "Ha, this will rid us of the Blacks faster than Brexit and it will take the wokes down with them!". She voted remain to try and limit black migration.

Nothing is ever as simple as it seems OP.

I am not white.

I think the timing of the protests will be very damaging in the long term.

If there is an increase in cases/the lockdown is extended, guess who is going to get blamed?

If I was a conspiracy theorist I would be wondering about deliberately fanned flames.

The Home Secretary told people before the event not to protest in large groups, although her criticisms after the event were directed only to the violent minority.

"At the protests everyone was wearing masks and gloves, several Drs have come out to say that risk of transmission is minimal given people’s care and the fact it’s outside. "

The photos I saw were very mixed. Some people adhered to social distancing and some didn't.
Did doctors really say it wasn't as bad as someone having a BBQ in their garden, because in general doctors have been telling us that the bigger the gathering, the bigger the risk.

Rioting always happens in the summer. Must be something to do with the long light evenings.
I thought they were marches to demonstrate solidarity against racism but sadly, especially with thousands of young people having been locked in for weeks, they have turned into an excuse to hurl abuse and paving at police and vandalise statues and the cenotaph. Then that is what is on the front pages not the support for BAME people.
Organisers should speak out more clearly about it being a peaceful rally and try to discourage the yobs.