It is May 2020.
A chant, “this moment is different,” has been heard, seen and printed from these weeks of protest. Protesters have embraced this chant, echoed in the mouths of Obama and official spokespersons for Black Lives Matter. Attached it to another, that declared, “unlike our ancestors, we will not sit down.” The two slogans are related. Their message has one target: the efforts of ancestors. But this is what they suggest: that somehow those in the present moment are more strong-willed, more prepared, more tactical to seize a moment their ancestors might have accepted, or to which they would’ve acquiesced. Organizing a protest of 150 deep in a small Texas town known for Klu Klux Klan activity, they felt embolden, especially after a planned counter-rally by the Klan never materialized. They have also had enough, “unlike our ancestors.” That’s why “this moment is different.”
Depending on which ancestors they were invoking, to show them how it’s done, it’s important to remember the Klan, a home-grown white terrorist organization and successful corporation, targeted mainly isolated and unarmed folks. Rarely, I repeat, rarely did they venture into African descended communities that had clustered together and that were armed. It’s easy cry, “KKK No Way!” It’s far more important to be a community willing and able to defend itself.