Performative Rage is Not Activism

Slogans like A.C.A.B. personalize a systemic problem — and that makes change harder

Image credit: Laurie Shaull, Flickr, used under Creative Commons license

Here’s a heads-up, which may come as a shock to some: radical activism is not about seeing how many four-letter words you can cram on a placard. It’s not about spray-painting BLM on a Starbucks, or breaking restaurant windows with your skateboard because “fuck capitalism.” And it’s not yelling A.C.A.B. (All Cops Are Bastards) at police, especially if that yell springs from a white mouth — a mouth that can yell that at cops precisely because it’s white.

At that point, it’s just an ugly display of privilege and arrogance masquerading as something meaningful. It’s performative revolution, not the real thing. Frankly, as we prepare to enter the second year of the recent and vital upsurge in the movement for racial justice and Black lives, it’s long past time to bring down the curtain on this particular show.

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