Responding to Common Arguments Against Black Lives Matter

Roughly three weeks ago Black Lives Matter protesters gathered at Grey’s Monument in Newcastle, near where I live, as part of the activism sparked by the murder of George Floyd. Not long into the day a ‘counter-protest’ turned up calling themselves ‘Defenders of Newcastle’ who said they were there to stop BLM protesters taking down the statue of Charles Earl Grey. Grey was prime minister when slavery was abolished in the British Empire, so it seemed absurd to tear his statue down. Only, the protesters never said they wanted to take the statue down; Grey’s monument is a good spot for a protest, like the BLM protest there the previous weekend — plus the statue stands on a 135 foot-high column so unless protesters had brought a crane, or intended to choreograph into a human ladder, Grey was not coming down. With police separating the two groups, DoN protesters started to shout ‘scum’ at BLM protesters, who began to shout it back, until it was a chant going both ways.

After seeing this I wrote an angry facebook post (because that’s how the person of 2020 is supposed to express anger isn’t it?). The post ended with something like, ‘If you support Defenders of Newcastle you’re a fucking idiot’. Which expressed my feelings, but I’ve wondered since whether this post isn’t also part of the problem. Many of the people against BLM think protesters are…