Saturday, June 06, 2020

A Black Lives Matter demonstration in Basel, 6 June 2020

At today's Black Lives Matter demonstration in Basel, the organizers insisted that only Blacks should speak. With two exceptions I saw, this condition was accepted. First, a white man asked an organizer for a chance to speak before quietly giving up. Soon after, a white woman spoke to the same organizer and was quite vocal when she gave up. That organizer later urged white demonstrators to accept their silence and added that she'd appreciate not having to say "no" again. I appreciated that the white demonstrators almost all accepted this opportunity to listen to the Black speakers talk about racism in Switzerland and what it means to say Black Lives Matter. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 6 June)

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