Silence is ‘complicity’
As massive crowds take over streets across the United States in support of black lives, "white silence is violence" has become a recurring theme, a push to spread awareness that discrimination in a country built on racism extends far beyond police brutality.
The recent police killing of a black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis and the protests it triggered have revived long-simmering criticisms over the historic complacency of white Americans towards the systemic racism undergirding their lifestyles.
Krista Knight, a playwright who protested this weekend in Manhattan, was among the many demonstrators wielding signs with slogans like "complicity" to indicate their solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. It's the first time the white 36-year-old has marched for the cause, but staying home "is like sending the message that I don't care."
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of the white man who shot dead Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old black youth, in Florida. Since then, it has grown rapidly worldwide. But it was often ignored by white Americans, who are statistically affected the least by such issues -- including police brutality, as well as housing, education and healthcare disparities.
According to Candace McCoy -- a criminologist at the City University of New York who has written on protest tactics -- "one of the major differences in these protests, compared to others in the past 30 years, is the significant percentage of white people protesting on behalf of equal rights for black people."
The marches are attracting older generations as well. Some 49 percent of white Americans now say police are more likely to use excessive force against a black culprit -- nearly double the 25 percent who said so in 2016. And 78 percent of all Americans consider the anger triggered by George Floyd's murder "fully" or "partially" justified.
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