Monday, July 6, 2020, Melrose, MA. Held a sign for 90 minutes on Main Street. Here are a couple of encounters:
Had this conversation. Does it show why I need to be there?:
• “All lives matter”.
• “Does this sign say they don’t”?
• “You won’t feel that way when they start cutting you up”.
• “Your ignorance is showing”.
• Then I said “I’m guessing next you’ll tell me there’s no longer any racism in America”.
• He closed his window at that point. His wife had said something. Probably told him to.
Had someone tell me my sign was racist, that how would little white children feel about me telling them their lives don’t matter. I replied that her ignorance is showing. Her response? “I’m from New York”. Yeah….
Had a Trump supporter stop and tell me that if I really cared about black lives I’d be working on stopping them killing each other in New York and Chicago (note: just the assumption that all the violence this past weekend is black on black is racist). I asked how well his president is doing with that. Didn’t go well. I said thank you, have a good day, and walked away. He said something else, I have no idea what, so I yelled at him “Fuck Trump”. He replied with what was clearly a threat. I ignored him and after a bit he drove away. And yes, I get things. When I stood near his car I stood in a way that was conscious that he might have a gun. And had he gotten out of the car? I was being watched by a couple of people, one a woman of color. She thanked me for doing it. And? I won’t go into it, but I would have let him know that, well, I won’t go into it.
Weird encounter today. Saw the Trump supported from the July 6 post. He stopped again today. I thought, god, here we go again. His first words? I want to apologize, I came across as an asshole. What followed was a nice chat, including us agreeing that one of the problems in this country is people not listening and a lack of respect. His words when he left “god bless you”.
I’ve worked on the website https://846challenge.net as well as holding a sign and reading to educate myself.
Monday, July 6, 2020, Melrose, MA. Held a sign for 90 minutes on Main Street. Here are a couple of encounters:
Had this conversation. Does it show why I need to be there?:
• “All lives matter”.
• “Does this sign say they don’t”?
• “You won’t feel that way when they start cutting you up”.
• “Your ignorance is showing”.
• Then I said “I’m guessing next you’ll tell me there’s no longer any racism in America”.
• He closed his window at that point. His wife had said something. Probably told him to.
Had someone tell me my sign was racist, that how would little white children feel about me telling them their lives don’t matter. I replied that her ignorance is showing. Her response? “I’m from New York”. Yeah….
Had a Trump supporter stop and tell me that if I really cared about black lives I’d be working on stopping them killing each other in New York and Chicago (note: just the assumption that all the violence this past weekend is black on black is racist). I asked how well his president is doing with that. Didn’t go well. I said thank you, have a good day, and walked away. He said something else, I have no idea what, so I yelled at him “Fuck Trump”. He replied with what was clearly a threat. I ignored him and after a bit he drove away. And yes, I get things. When I stood near his car I stood in a way that was conscious that he might have a gun. And had he gotten out of the car? I was being watched by a couple of people, one a woman of color. She thanked me for doing it. And? I won’t go into it, but I would have let him know that, well, I won’t go into it.
Weird encounter today. Saw the Trump supported from the July 6 post. He stopped again today. I thought, god, here we go again. His first words? I want to apologize, I came across as an asshole. What followed was a nice chat, including us agreeing that one of the problems in this country is people not listening and a lack of respect. His words when he left “god bless you”.