retract_color_BLM_arrest

Retraction: Color and Teressa Raiford' ‪#‎blacklivesmatter‬ Arrest

For someone who shoots their mouth off as much as I do, I've not had to do this too many times, but, I have to make a retraction on something I posted yesterday about the arrest of Teressa Raiford Mazique, a Don't Shoot Portland leader, in a protest memorializing the anniversary of Mike Brown's murder in Ferguson.

Somebody who was there posted to the effect that white allies who had been just as active in blocking traffic as Ms. Raiford were not arrested, yet she and the person filming her were. I went off the deep end and assumed that the two darkest POC in the group were who got arrested. I got called on that statement by another person who was actually there. I was wrong on that specific. Teressa and the photojournalist who were arrested were not the darkest people in the group. Apologies to anyone hurt by my mistake.

On the other hand, BLM and Don't Dont Shoot Portland, which I very strongly urge others to join and support, are targeted on account of vicious systemic racism, which includes color prejudice and cultural bias.

I was certainly right about one thing. All of us who live in Portland know that every single day, the Portland Police give a pass to thousands of people obstructing traffic in much more consequential ways for purposes the City considers more benign, such as bicyclists going slow in groups or riding naked, developers closing streets for construction for hours at a time without permits, noisy drunks getting out of bars, first friday, last thursday, St Patrick's Day, etc, etc, etc.

Whereas, if anything should be privileged in this way, it should be 1st amendment activities, Mayor Hales and the Council privilege partying and condo-building over political protest. A court has even ruled that naked bike riding is a traditional cultural activity in Portland, so it is privileged in relation to laws about nudity.

So, to sum up. Yes, color was involved. The way our elected officials allow protest against the systemic racism of our city, state and country, that takes and impoverishes black lives to be more harshly crushed by police than naked bike riding or condo-speculating, or just drinking in bars, color has EVERYTHING to do with that.