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Tuesday open thread: The Battle of Montgomery


Often, if not almost-exclusively, the life of Black people in the United States is one depicted as a never-ending struggle against oppression and discrimination. It is one depicted as fighting for the right to merely walk down the street without being harassed, or worse.

And then, there's what happened this past weekend. And suddenly ribald joy breaks out.

To recap: Some white boaters at a marina on the river at Montgomery, Alabama objected to a direction given to them by a Black dock worker. They then began to beat on the security guard. So far, so typically awful.

But then, as if someone said, "Black Avengers assemble!", Black patrons of the marina started coming out from all directions, unleashing four hundred years of anger upon the miscreants. Those white people had no idea what hit them. Some were thrown into the river. Some were hit by folding chairs, WWE-style. The police arrived and began making arrests. But, as of this writing, all the Black folk had been released, while the white instigators were still cooling their heels in lockup. 

This was glorious. As a TikTok account which our own Rikyrah highlighted said, this was a spiritual experience. This was the clearest example that Black folk were not going to take white shenanigans lying down, were not going to just accept their station. The chair was a spiritual chair, a chair which carried the memories of all the Black people unjustly killed by a racists system. And, of course, Black folk made jokes about it. Because the best way to deal with daily pain is with humor.

But, enough of my bloviating. I'm just going to share some of my favorite tweets about the Montgomery brawl. This is your open thread.

 

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