OPINION:
Portland protesters have been on a roll for more than 100 nights now. But last Saturday, the reverberating sound of a gunshot on Southwest Third Avenue brought screams of defiance to a halt. As the mace settled and surprised screams quieted, the body of Aaron “Jay” Danielson lay still on the street. A few minutes later, with confused protesters and police standing over his body, Danielson passed away.
Danielson, a white supporter of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer, was allegedly shot by Michael Reinnoehl, a White self-proclaimed ANTIFA supporter. It’s important to note that details confirming Mr. Reinnoehl’s involvement and whether Danielson’s death was directly subsequent to a protest-related conflict are still pending.
If evidence does connect Mr. Reinnoehl to the killing, Mr. Reinnoehl will serve as a prime example of yet another White person acting as fodder for anti-protest critics — and will drown out the Black community’s legitimate lamentations against injustice.
For the average American, images of a burning city and scenes of mass property damage already diminish the legitimacy of the protests. If Portland protesters want change, then the last thing they need is to be seen shrugging about the violence they’re perpetuating.
To be sure, the “Trump 2020 Portland Cruise Rally,” which brought to the streets the staunchest of Trump supporters, did increase tensions in Portland. Many videos are circulating on Twitter showing Trump apologists clashing with Black Lives Matter protesters, using mace and paintball guns. But that certainly doesn’t legitimize Mayor Ted Wheeler’s post-incident claims that Danielson’s blood is on the Trump administration’s hands. His is merely a partisan response that once again shirks responsibility for the havoc White racial justice sympathizers have been wreaking on Portland’s Black people.
And that, in and of itself, is one of Portland’s main problems. White protesters are disproportionately engaging in violent or provocative social stunts that end up dragging the national spotlight away from the original focus of the protests: ensuring another George Floyd death doesn’t happen. And they refuse to admit any fault for the damage that they directly cause.
According to an email I received from the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office, out of the 803 protest-related cases brought before the office since May 29, nearly 80 percent of cases involved a White person. On the whole, it’s not Black protesters committing violence and delegitimizing these protests. It’s White people.
Regardless of the district attorney’s recent dismissal of protest-related cases or the questionability of why protesters are being detained, it’s clear that the aggressive actions of White protesters are attracting the attention of Portland PD and commandeering the media’s portrayal of what an average Portland protest looks like.
For me and my fellow Portland denizens, the archetype of a racial-justice protester is not an African American raising their fist, it’s typically a White opportunist spewing vulgarities under the guise of racial equality.
Some would argue that White protesters need to have an aggressive presence in rallies because they possess a higher platform to be heard and are not met with biases that would prevent them from acting out. That’s fair, but subsuming Black voices and using an appropriated platform to virtue-signal, as White protesters have done in Portland, is hardly helpful.
It seems, too, that more aggressive behaviors are apparent in protesters that live outside of the city in nearby counties, which makes sense. Those people get a free pass to inflict damage without having to face the repercussions of vandalized local businesses, increased tensions with the police, and torn-apart neighborhoods.
The boldness that non-local White protesters can have while rioting seems analogous to the theory of risk compensation. Just as a person who wears a seatbelt tends to drive faster because they feel safe, so too does a non-local White protester take more risks during a protest. A White protester from out-of-town is insulated from the consequences — the kind that will befall an African-American exhibiting the same behavior.
If White protesters are sincere in their intent to build up Black communities they should strive to find the balance of being seen showing solidarity in peaceful assembly and not heard drowning out the voices of African-Americans.
In an era of hypercriticism, it is already hard to determine what is legitimate, especially across the aisle. If they want long-lasting cultural changes, social-justice proponents in Portland — Black or White — need to distance themselves as far as they can from violence.
I’m a White man in Portland, and there’s obviously an irony in my writing that Black voices need to be heard. But this is how I believe privilege should be wielded in this moment of change. White folks looking to support this issue should use our security properly — not to burn cities, but to pass the mic to Black voices in the effort to bring peace and justice for all.
• Tanner Aliff, a Portland-based Young Voices contributor, is a former mental health observer for Providence Health, and is currently a research fellow analyzing the impacts of COVID-19 on the U.S. economy and health care system. Follow him on Twitter @taliff5.
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