I have a question that I've been thinking about for a couple days... Let me be clear that it's just a question and slightly playing devil's advocate with myself but something I've thought about nevertheless.
What is the goal of the protests?
People have pointed to civil rights protests in the US over the last century, but the protest's goal was clear: the civil rights act, an end to segregation in law etc. The important thing being that they campaigned for something specific, a change in law to ensure equality was a legally protected right.
As Amiga has mentioned in terms of NI, there was systematic and legally enabled opression of Catholics. Protests and the civil rights movements had a finite goal: to protect catholics from discrimination under the law.
In that vein, what is the end goal for these protests? As far as I know, there is not really any legal change needed here (i may be wrong, please call me out if I am), it is a social change needed. I understand why people need their voices heard, but for progress to be really achieved there needs to be an end goal that can be defined and worked towards. This may just be indicative that this movement needs a MLK or Malcolm X to point it towards something specific.
If that end goal is a bottom up change in the public discourse to eliminate racism from society, are protests the best way to achieve that, or is discourse around the issue? I dont know...
If it is a demonstration of solidarity with those who have experienced racism, what happens once the protests stop? Are we just going to immediately go back to how we were? Or does it prompt discourse? Thus, is discourse and understanding the real instigator for societal change rather then protesting?
Long story short, I think that, in order to achieve real societal change here, and try and bring an end to the discrimination that has plagued all societies on every continent and towards virtually every group, there needs to be promotion of a conversation about why those problems still exist and how to solve them, with the racist people that perpetuate them, rather than simply condemning them and leaving it at that... which is something I think has been missing in this movement.
There is nothing rational in being racist. It is something that comes from hatred and is intrinsically emotional. We need to adress where that hatred comes from and solve those problems if we are to achieve something here.
You can, of course and as many have, make the argument that some people are intrinsically hateful and there is no reason for it, and thus you shouldn't engage with them. But then racism is unsolvable surely.
I'm attatching a ted talk below, I really do think that every single person on this thread needs to watch it.
For me at least, the attitutde demonstrated in the talk demonstrates how to achieve real, long lasting change.
I would be surprised if any racist person has seen the protests and suddenly decided that they are not racist. There is only one way to solve societal racism: discussion.