Tag Archives: for discussion

White People Show Up For Black Lives Matter In L.A. If only all of America thought like these people. The L.A. Times just did a piece on the White People For Racial Justice group, which made a splash in LA over the weekend by rallying around racial justice during the CicLAvia event. Demonstrators handed out yellow “Black Lives Matter” balloons and chanted “Black Lives Matter” but the L.A. Times writer noted that the group met with some annoyance: I frequently heard people wondering aloud why people would demonstrate at CicLAvia. At one point, as the demonstrators chanted “Black Lives Matter,” a group of riders stopped to chant with them and show support. But minutes later, another group rode by, slowed their bicycles, and shouted “All lives matter!” at the group. How annoying is that? Some people have zero empathy for the struggles of others. The L.A. Times writer conducted a brief interview: Here’s the brief rundown: Why they came to CicLAvia: This is a progressive vision of an eco-friendly, bike-friendly LA, and safety for people on bikes. And we want to push that vision to say, what would it look like if L.A. were safe for black people? What if it were safe from police brutality? So we want to push that to people that are progressive and liberal and that want a different kind of L.A., and we want to make sure that L.A. is racially equitable as well. Who they’re trying to reach: For the most part, it’s other white people. We want to say, hey, we know that you’re thinking about these issues, we know that you’re impacted and shocked by the killings that have happened in the last year. And we figure that you may not know what to do, but you want to do something. So we’re here to say to other white people that there is a way to get involved. On the response from CicLAvia participants: We’re a group of white people, so it definitely creates a lot of attention. Dominant culture among white people is not to talk about race, not to mention white privilege. So we figured we might as well make a splash. Hit the flip for more photos. Continue reading →