06 Jul 2020 When Anti-Racism Protests Turn Racial
If the current protests destabilizing America are really supposed to end racism, then the words of Terry Crews should be revered. Instead, the former professional athlete-turned-actor has been vilified for warning protestors to check themselves to ensure that demands for racial respect don’t morph into beliefs of racial supremacy.
While the radicals are calling Crews awful names, Project 21 member Rich Holt says that Crews’ statements are “critically important.”
Crews, who currently stars in the television show “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” had tweeted about how the protests over George Floyd’s death need to get away from pitting races against each other. He asserted that “defeating White supremacy without White people creates Black supremacy. Equality is the truth. Like it or not, we are all in this together.”
But in warning about what he feared was “dangerous self-righteousness,” Crews earned people calling him an “Uncle Tom” and worse.
More recently, Crews tweeted: “If you are a child of God, you are my brother and sister. I have family of every race, creed and ideology.” He added: “We must ensure #blacklivesmatter doesn’t morph into #blacklivesbetter.”
For this, some on Twitter alleged that Crews had succumbed to “right-wing narratives,” and that he was “crazy” for suggesting that newfound racial power could lead to race-based demands, segregation and threats against other races.
Rich believes Crews makes a point. No one is going to come together, Rich suggests, if the extreme demands of protest leaders and their willing followers begin splitting people further apart:
Terry Crews actually makes an excellent and critically important point.
Given the number of whites who have been killed in the name of the Black Lives Matter movement during protests after George Floyd’s death, you have to wonder if racism isn’t taking a dangerous course. The continued assault on whites – such as race-exclusive safe spaces and forcing whites to “check” their privilege – should make us all worry about how this anti-racist movement has itself become a very racist one.
War on white people isn’t the answer to improving the lives of black people and the historic discrimination we have faced. It is only through the upliftment of education, a love for our fellow man and assimilating fully into our non-hyphenated American identity that we can move beyond racism.
Amidst all the controversy it has stirred up, Crews – to his credit – has vowed not to shrink from the fight. He tweeted on Independence Day: “Knowing this reality – I stand on my decision to unite with good people, no matter the race, creed or ideology. Given the number of threats against this decision – I also decide to die on this hill.”