We live in a media landscape where news sites like Axios and Politico are eclipsing legacy newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post. These newbies are the ones now publishing all the news that’s fit to read. So today, when Axios ran the headline, “The Missing Black demonstrators in anti-Trump protests,” people noticed.
In fact, reporters and pundits spent the day spinning theories to explain the “absence” of Black protestors. But with all due respect, this Niemollerian riff explains everything:
First they came for Blacks
And Whites did not protest
Because they were not Black
Now they’re coming for Whites...
But the reason you don’t see Black protesters leading right now is simple: They’re making way for Whites to train their protest legs. After all, Blacks have been marching for generations for rights and freedoms that Whites always took for granted … until Trump 2.0.
So fear not, Blacks will join the protests soon enough. Because more than any other group, they understand the moral imperative of protesting when anyone’s rights are under attack.
That said, in his bestselling book on resisting tyranny, Yale professor Timothy Snyder says the first rule is this: do not obey in advance. Yet worse than obeying, he fled the country in advance. So, instead of asking why Black protesters aren’t protesting, maybe Whites should be asking why Whites like Snyder are fleeing.
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