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How Can We Win

Kimberly Jones, from the video How Can We Win, David Jones Media, Jun 1, 2020

Kimberly Jones, social activist and co-author of I'm Not Dying With You Tonight, recently shared some powerful thoughts about the upheaval we're experiencing, which were recorded on video by David Jones: How Can We Win⩘ .

She explains clearly and passionately the rigged game that racism is. While I most emphatically do not condone violence, looting, or property destruction, I think it's important to try to understand the context that Kimberly Jones provides about the centuries of pent up desperation and furious anger that ignites this rage.

For the strongest experience, watch the video. For reference, here's the full transcription of her statement:

So I've been seeing a lot of things
talking of the people making commentary.
Interestingly enough, of the ones I've noticed
that have been making the commentary
are wealthy black people
making the commentary about
we should not be rioting,
we should not be looting,
we should not be tearing up our own communities.
And then there's been an argument of the other side
of we should be hitting them in the pocket,
we should be focusing on the blackout days
where we don't spend money.
But, you know, I feel like we should both,
and I feel like I support both,
and I'll tell you why I support both.
I support both because
when you have a civil unrest like this,
there are three types of people in the streets:
there are the protestors,
there are the rioters,
and there are the looters.
The protestors are there because
they actually care about what is happening in the community.
They want to raise their voices,
and they are there strictly to protest.
You have the rioters who are angry,
who are anarchists, who really just want to fuck shit up
and that's what they're going to do regardless.
And then you have looters,
and the looters almost exclusively
are just there to do that, to loot.
Now, people are like what did you gain,
well what did you get from looting?
I think that as long as we're focusing on the what,
we're not focusing on the why, and that's my issue with that.
As long as we're focusing on what they're doing,
we're not focusing on why they're doing.
And some people are like, well those aren't people
who are legitimately angry about what's happening,
those are people who just want to get stuff.
Okay, well then, let's go with that,
let's say that's what it is,
let's ask ourselves why in this country in 2020,
the financial gap between poor blacks
and the rest of the world is at such a distance
that people feel like their only hope and only opportunity
to get some of the things that we flaunt and flash
in front on them all the time
is to walk through a broken glass window and get it.
That they are so hopeless that
getting that necklace, getting that TV, getting that change,
getting that bed, getting that phone,
whatever it is that they're going to get,
is that in that moment when the riots happen,
and if they present an opportunity of looting,
that's their only opportunity to get it.
We need to be questioning that "why?"
Why are people that poor?
Why are people that broke?
Why are people that food insecure, clothing insecure,
that they feel their only shot
that they are shooting their shot
by walking through a broken glass window to get what they need?
And then people want to talk about,
well there's plenty of people who pulled themselves
up by their bootstraps and got it on their own,
why can't they do that?
Let me explain something to you about economics in America—
and I'm so glad that as a child I got an opportunity
to spend time at PUSH, where they taught me this—
is that we must never forget that economics was the reason
that black people were brought to this country.
We came to do the agricultural work in the South,
and the textile work in the North.
Do you understand that?
That's what we came to do:
we came to the agricultural work in the South,
and the textile work in the North.
Now if I right now, if I right now
decided that I wanted to play Monopoly with you,
and for 400 rounds of playing Monopoly,
I didn't allow you to have any money,
I didn't allow you to have anything on the board,
I didn't allow for you to have anything,
and then we played another 50 rounds of Monopoly,
and everything that you gained and you earned
while you're playing that round of Monopoly
was taken from you.
That was Tulsa, that was Rosewood.
Those are place where we built Black economic wealth,
where we were self sufficient,
where we owned our stores,
where we owned our property,
and they burned them to the ground.
So that's 450 years.
So for 400 rounds of Monopoly,
you don't get to play at all.
Not only do you not get to play,
you have to play on the behalf
of the person that you're playing against.
You have to play and make money and earn wealth for them,
and then you have to turn it over them.
So then for 50 years,
you finally get a little bit and you're allowed to play,
and every time that they don't like
the way that you're playing,
or that you're catching up,
or that you're doing something to be self-sufficient,
they burn your game,
they burn your cards,
they burn your Monopoly money.
And then, finally at the release and the onset of that,
they allow you to play and they say,
okay, now you catch up.
Now at this point,
the only way you're going to catch up in the game
is if the person shares the wealth, correct?
But what if every time you share the wealth,
then there's psychological warfare against you to say,
oh you're an equal opportunity hire.
So if I play 400 rounds of Monopoly with you,
and I had to play and give you every dime that I made,
and then for 50 years, every time that I played,
if you didn't like what I did,
you got to burn it like that did in Tulsa,
and like they did in Rosewood,
how can you win?
How can you win?
You can't win.
The game is fixed.
So when they say,
why do you burn down the community,
why do you burn down your own neighborhood?
It's not ours.
We don't own anything.
We don't own anything.
Trevor Noah said it so beautifully last night.
There's a social contract that we all have
that if you steal or if I steal,
then the person who is the authority
comes in and they fix the situation.
But the person who fixes the situation is killing us.
So the social contract is broken.
And if the social contract is broken,
why the fuck do I give a shit
about burning the fucking football hall of fame,
about burning a fucking Target.
You broke the contract
when you killed us in the streets and didn't give a fuck.
You broke the contract
when for 400 years we played your game and built your wealth.
You broke the contract
when we built our wealth again on our own
by our bootstraps in Tulsa and you dropped bombs on us,
when we built it in Rosewood
and you came in and you slaughtered us.
You broke the contract
so fuck your Target
fuck your hall of fame.
Far as I'm concerned
they could burn this bitch to the ground
and it still wouldn't be enough,
and they are lucky
that what black people are looking for
is equality and not revenge.

Kimberly Jones, How Can We Win⩘ , David Jones Media, Jun 1, 2020

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