Black Lives Matter Signs
In Edina, a collective member received an anonymous letter requesting the removal of the BLM sign in their yard. The two-page typed and mailed message begins, "This request is a kind gesture to help keep harmony between neighbors in our little Edina village."
The opposition listed in the letter and statements used to restrict voter representation is the same rhetoric used in the 1950s to segregate and separate:
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Marxism
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Blacks too powerful or wealthy
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Tied to crime
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Belief in white supremacy
We were grateful that this letter allowed us to come together as a community. We explored our commitment to Black Lives Matter and what those three words meant to us individually and collectively.
Below are responses from our community.
We invite you to put up a BLM sign. Talk with your family and friends. Unlearn and learn. Speak Out. Take Action. Let's do the difficult work of hearts and laws so that our children's and grandchildren's legacy is antiracism.
Community Responses
I noticed that the letter writer wanted to take a tone of reasonableness and imply they were from the center. Even stating that they had contributed to BLM and would be just as upset to see a Trump sign. This attempt made me think of Martin Luther King’s letter from a Birmingham jail.
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I encourage you to read it. I would like to highlight this from his opening paragraph:
“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice."
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“A negative peace which is the absence of tension”. It would be so easy for me to take this path, to remove the offending sign, continue reading.