The murder of George Floyd changed a lot in the world but one of the things that have gone on to leave an indelible mark on our society is the BLM movement. As more blacks feel as if their liberties are being threatened, they feel the need to rise up and fight for their rights but there is one instance in which they may have taken it a bit too far. It happened in Seattle where reports say a group of BLM members was marching through one of the neighborhoods telling the white residents to “give us your homes.” They say this was in protest of gentrification, an effort by big corporations to buy out lower-income neighborhoods & resell them for a much higher price in an effort to drive out those who don’t make quite as much. Last week, they spoke out against this by going out to the streets and issuing to them a call to action laced with profanity. They told them to get out of their neighborhoods so that they can go back to their lives.
Reports say that one person shouted, “pay the fee. open your purse” while another told them to “get this back. we coming for it, reparations”. He then added, “give us our stuff back; give us our equity back.” It seems many of them object to the fact that a lot of the white people in the neighborhood are sitting pretty while the rest of them were in the process of getting pushed out. They also chastised them for working for amazon and were quick to mention that Jeff Bezos is part of the problem. It seems most of the people who live in the central district work for that company due to the fact that it’s an easier commute and this has made a lot of the black residents angry. They also told them not to act like they are oblivious to what’s going on at amazon because they all know what is happening there and it seems they are fine with it. The BLM members, however, are not and this is why they are bringing all of this to their front door.
They finished their speech by asking them what they plan to do about it. In a recent statement, one of the protestors noted that they want what they were supposed to have and then some because they don’t feel as if they have been given enough. After all, they had to suffer, they feel they are entitled to have more than those who came before them. It is not clear whether the authorities were called but it does not seem as if any police intervention occurred during the incident. Reports have yet to indicate how the white residents responded to this but one would have to imagine that it was nothing short of uncomfortable for them as they had to confront their own white privilege head-on. But as it stands, gentrification has become a real problem all across the nation as low-income residents struggle to make ends meet and them being forced out of their homes is certainly not helping matters in the slightest. But whether any of this protesting will make a difference in the long run, it seems only time will tell.
