As someone who has devoted a lot of my life to direct action, I feel qualified to make this distinction.

Attempts to thwart ICE are absolutely acts of protest—they are actions with a material objective that make a coherent political statement, which sets them apart from many protests, I know. But they are acts of protest, plain and simple.

Just responding to the fact that some good people continue to describe some interventions in Chicago as not being protests.

This is how rape culture and a patriarchy works. The loudest, most extroverted men get deference from the ones who prefer to avoid conflict and want to stay in the good graces of the bully. And the consequence is whatever the bullies want to do to women, it’s allowed through complicit silence.

I hope men understand that it is very very rare for anyone who is not a woman’s lover, close friend, or relative to stand up for her when another man insults her in a room of other men. It is incredibly unusual. They may not join in the bullying, but they’re unwilling to step in to stop it.

forgot how racist she is