Letter: After Asheville protests, what’s next?

Graphic by Lori Deaton

In the wake of police murders of George Floyd and other unarmed black citizens, white people are finally listening and showing up in defense of our brothers and sisters of color. Speaker after speaker told us what it is like to be African Americans living in Asheville, in fear of the police. Following massive, racially mixed marches despite police attacks, our mayor and City Council are listening. They have promised to remove Confederate statues, and (as many other cities are now doing) to study redistributing some funds from the police into social programs. These are important first steps.

What’s next? Whites need to listen and learn about the roots of systemic racism and poverty. The Poor People’s Campaign, led by the Rev. William Barber, had planned a Moral March on Washington for June 20; it had to be canceled due to the pandemic, but we can participate online.

From their website: “The Mass Poor People’s Assembly & Moral March on Washington is going digital! On June 20th, we will hold the largest digital and social media gathering of poor and low-wealth people, moral and religious leaders, advocates, and people of conscience in this nation’s history. A global pandemic is exposing even more the already existing crisis of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and militarism, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. 250,000 people a year die from poverty — 60% of those are Black. On June 20, the 140 million poor and low-income people across this nation will be heard! To register: https://poorpeoplescampaign.org.”

— Cathy Holt
Asheville

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11 thoughts on “Letter: After Asheville protests, what’s next?

  1. Enlightened Enigma

    lol…nothing like a ‘digital march’ ! that ought to suit the Rev. Barber real well!

  2. WNC

    Whites need to ?
    Sentence two paragraph two, you show your thoughts are
    Race baiting
    Non inclusive
    Divisive
    Judgmental
    Prejudice
    Non sensitive
    In other words you are all and more of what you accuse others of being

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    • C-Law

      Ouch WNC! Ha!

      Gotta cut ‘me some slack, I mean utter and rank hypocrisy IS one the consistent and defining “virtues” of the collectivist totalitarian.

      Not to worry, the Ministry of Truth will be along shortly to fix things.

      Here’s what a real man and credit to his race and people had to say about the “Reverend “ William Barber—

      “There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.“

      Booker T. Washington

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        • C-Law

          Yeah, I guess Hattie McDaniel was a big-time racist in your view as well…only the first “persons of color” to ever win an Oscar, and a plus-size woman at that!

          “I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry.” … I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry. My heart is too full to tell you just how I feel and may I say thank you and God bless you.” Hattie McDaniel

          Your white privileged hypocrisy is dribbling all over, might want to get that checked out…

          • WNC

            I guess if you can’t defend your statement of “whites need to listen”, then pretend my statement was toward someone other than yourself.

  3. Enlightened Enigma

    democrackkks need a permanent underclass to keep everyone oppressed with government slavery…but FIRST, we must immediately CHANGE the name of both Asheville and Buncombe County as each was named for slave owners and we can not keep these names any longer. Just like Cracker Barrel. Now Caucasian Barrel.

  4. Ross

    How about Asheville clean up the mess? That would be a good first step. It looks like trashville all over the place – or has the city just lost total control of everything?

    • Enlightened Enigma

      they never had any control….there is ZERO leadership sitting on city council and the Mayoress is a total FAILURE ,….like democrackkk LED cities everywhere we’re in shambles.

      • Lou

        Dude you need to come up with better insults. You sound like Trump…and that is NOT a compliment. Sad that American education has failed you dear.

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