The “Kick me in the nuts til I cry” girl.
A conversation with a “well-meaning”, presumably liberal woman who reached out to me days after an email-leak proposing 4 separate protest/demonstration ideas to disrupt, bring attention to, and/or raise money for the people of Palestine.
I’d have said some things differently myself if I could, but I’m sharing this because I think this perspective is important, particularly for people in the Tipper community who call themselves supporters of Palestine. I still have liberal tendencies myself that I’ve yet to entirely grow out of, as I, too, grew up in the United States.
1. Their initial message to me, days after the email leaked to Reddit.
2. It's hard reading back on this because I was, in many ways, acting at least in part out of self preservation, which I am not proud of, because this is about Palestinians. In 1-1 conversations I try and communicate tactfully using whichever language I feel would be most effective. That's why I'm adding these notes under each slide to clarify and reaffirm what I believe to be "correct".
3. Click on this image for sources on these claims (not enough room in this caption to leave all of that info)
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5. The initial email I responded to (where my reply went viral on reddit) read as the following (coward): What’s up Keota! Big fan of your music and the political action you’ve taken recently. You are quite brave. Wondering how I can get involved in the upcoming protest? I have been involved in socialist / anarchist causes since occupy Wall Street and have tix to RR both days. Happy to supply posters, signage, or anything else needed to help the cause. BassMusicBoi
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9. Obviously we can't all hold the correct position right away. This greatly pains me. Hopefully even the mere *idea* of this protest happening ultimately contributed to this person arriving at their current perspective, which was the intention in the first place.
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11. I regret saying "It's OK" here--I think her and I both know it's not. None of it was. But her reply gave me hope, nonetheless, because it more or less confirmed my hypothesis going into this that disruption would ultimately lead some people to arrive at a more useful understanding of why disruption is important in times like this.
12. Here I offer some advice. I try and get in what I can because I know attention can be fleeting on this topic. When I said "thinking in terms of decades", i mean this, of course--but that should never be an excuse to "take one's time" as far as taking actionable steps to wedge one's self in the gears of the machine that facilitates something as unthinkable as genocide.
13. Here I offer some more advice. Not specific or unique to the issue of Palestine but I still think largely important to mention. The separation of families (by way of chasing the "American Dream") is possibly the greatest psy-op of all time, all in the name of individual prosperity--something truly antithetical to community in every way, and subsequently, organizing and achieving actionable change, etc.
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15. I offer more "basic" advice (having difficult conversations), some of which was arguably sounding like "liberal-cope" on my part (how we all play different roles) but still valuable perspectives to have if it means winning someone over and not having them feel there is no other way they can contribute besides literal militant or direct action.15.
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17. Please email me @ keota-music@pm.me if you have any resources, orgs, books, etc, you think I should add here as I further build this website and make it more of a portal for like-minded people who want a better world for all.
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19. What can I say? I'm a softie
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