You can sense it in some quarters of the burgeoning racial justice community — a feeling of dread that the movement has stalled a little over a year since the murder of George Floyd.
For most who express this concern, the evidence they point to is the fall-off of public protest since last summer.
“Why aren’t we in the streets every week?” many demand to know.
Naturally, they have their own answer. Most people they insist “weren’t serious” about change and were only performative activists — unlike them.
They, of course, are ready for the revolution.
Because sure they are.
These are people who believe the movement is protest and protest is the movement. They think marching and screaming through bullhorns and flipping off cops, and shutting down traffic is the work and that only these tactics can bring change.
More to the point, they seem to believe such tactics do so magically as if the mere presence of people in the streets causes lawmakers to capitulate to the demands of the marginalized.