Loren Terveen

... explaining that toxic masculinity isn't saying that dudes being into the gym is a bad thing, explaining what white fragility means, even what "systemic" means (I had family that thought it meant the racism was intentional, which might be true but misses the point)...

So while I get that "abolish the police" might not elicit the full picture of what is being proposed in someone's mind, I also wonder if some of the "ugh, that's the wrong term" response is a combination of willful ignorance + power structures that incentivize that ignorance...

... or outright denial of what terms actually mean, as defined by the people who live, experience, and study those concepts. Just a hunch though.

I think the root of both of these questions is that people who have power (whether that be white people or mayors) need to listen to Black voices. It's not that the mayor just used the wrong term, it's that by using the wrong term he showed he wasn't listening.

I find the defenses of the term "refund the police" unconvincing. People have to explain what it means, i.e., not the actual meaning of the word "defund." This is a slogan. A good slogan should bring people in, and almost compel then to agree. Remember the"death tax"?

And maybe Jacob Frey wouldn't agree to the *term* because he knows it's unpopular, and using that term will be counterproductive to doing what actually needs to be done... Where, by the way, he agrees with the protesters to a very great degree.

isn’t that the script to successful protest though? you can’t protest for the compromise position