Experienced 2020 Project

I worked from home and was isolating heavily in 2020 and was still too scared of the virus to be out much. But gods, the energy of the uprising was crazy. It genuinely felt like something big was happening. The cries of the Ferguson uprising bubbling back up louder. Now it feels so memory holed.

I felt like 2020 was the closest I ever felt to belonging. The "return to normal" was more traumatizing than facing off with Nazis. I miss feeling loved and cared for by my neighbors. I miss fighting beside them. I hate what the fear of Trump did to liberals. Now they're back to blaming us.

After protesting across the PNW in 2020 and trying to build mutual networks, I burnt out. The trauma of it hit me in winter. I'm nearly agoraphobia now. I saw how much hate people had. Yet the love between protesters? The community care I witnessed? I've never experienced anything more moving.

I was in pdx day 60 when they really started over using expired tear gas, people passed out from it as they ran. I remember that the next morning street sweepers came by and swept it all back into the air. People couldn't breathe. It was unsafe for kids. And people put flowers in the gate.

my manager at Facebook showed concern for my mental health in the face of protests and police violence. of course I was fired in October

My brother got diagnosed with cancer the week of the protests (I was in hs) and I also went to a religious Zionist hs and lost all my "friends" because I supported the protests. The racism was insane, people were doing blackface and posting the most racist bullshit.

Y'all should definitely follow and contribute thoughts to this project, if applicable

Yes, I remember this. Very odd season lol.

For health reasons, I couldn't protest in person, and I felt like I was unable to get catharsis from my anger and grief. In some ways, that has propelled me and sustained my anti-racist learning and work long after many people I know stopped their brief, performative studies.

The murder of George Floyd finally got through to my husband about the problem of white supremacy in our country.

My friend asked if she could bring her nephew to one of the Seattle protests since school was out for the summer. I couldn't recommend a 12 year old being there after what we had been through. I'm glad they never came, that week was bad.

I went to a lunchtime demo in the park and left when I had run out of social battery. The cops ended up accidentally gassing each other later that night while trying to quell an obedient crowd who was on their way to their cars. I missed it by an less than an hour

I gave a group of friends a primer on how to act at their first rally and then shuffled them out the door so I could stay in bed hating myself for being too sick to join the struggle.

I have never been more hopeful than I was, standing in front of the 3rd Precinct as it was lit aflame. This place represented police violence that had harmed my family for my entire existence, as a Native woman growing up in South Minneapolis. The flames felt like a glimmer of hope.

I stopped people from breaking into and burning down buildings simply by letting them know that I saw them and asking them not to burn the down. I saw other people do this too. Finally, we had to stop because the police were shooting rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades and tear gas at us.

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I got into arguments with my dad about going into the streets as a medic. He kept saying that we weren't black, so it wasn't our struggle. I asked him if he really believed his local police weren't racist and he finally said "please be safe, cities are burning"

Over the course of one summer, a lot of people in the Midwest decided to stop pretending they weren't racist. I went no-contact with my family who were all insisting that Black Lives Matter and Antifa were "the real problem," divorced my husband who was supporting Kyle Rittenhouse, & moved away.

Between COVID and the protests, going out to march in a mask was the only out I got. I got tired of canvassing for politicians who didn't make real change. I tired fast of marching to no effect. I sought out organizations where I could help with real direct action and eventually found IWW.

I really enjoyed screaming "QUIT YOUR JOB" at cops

George Floyd was murdered a block and a half from my house. For months after the Minneapolis PD would prevent first responders, ambulances, from entering the neighborhood to punish all of us. State terrorism and collective punishment, crimes against humanity.

The #1 thing that stands out in my memory is watching a Facebook stream of the local protest and hearing one of the participants yell "suck my dick, with all due respect" at a cop.

I was living long distance with my wife who was in Buffalo. very close to Martin Gugino who was shoved by police and cracked his head. down the street from a car driving into a cop. Americans told me it's not my place to be scared or upset.

During a time of crisis/opportunity, democracy or consensus can't always happen. As protests grew and police rioted harder, there wasn't democratic/inclusive/ representative decision-making about how to respond or what to burn. Political, strategic, tactical education before-hand is so important.

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Live close enough to the 3rd that we could hear the people screaming as cops shot at them (lethal, non-lethal; doesn't matter). Years later, watched the final episode of "Andor"; got to the shot where you can hear people screaming from a distance outside the town and i broke down sobbing