Riots don’t make any sense

They are every kind of ridiculous

Every kind of counterproductive

If you’ve been in one, you know 

I’ve been in more than one

They do everything wrong

We do everything wrong

Every liberal critique by every liberal ever...

Who wouldn’t be caught dead at a riot...

Except to protect windows or call more cops...

Was right...

There weren’t planning meetings, 

With breakout groups

We didn’t agree on slogans,

And paint them on signs,

While someone played their favorite protest mix

No one took notes...

No one made a list of black owned businesses...

No one made copies and passed them out,

Asking who would make sure that didn’t go wrong

No one submitted a grant proposal

Or shopped around a mission statement,

Soliciting edits

No one did any of the things we’ve been told

We are required to do, to change things

The younger people in the riot

Haven’t met anyone in any of those groups

That do all of those things right

Those anointed groups are painfully small

And sometimes hard to find

And sometimes hard to join

The older people in the riot

Have watched those groups

Slowly fail or run in circles

Or do their best in one of many many lanes

Against too many odds and too many rules

Some of the people in the riots

Are in those anointed groups

Started and built those groups

They hide their faces not only to stay out of jail

But to protect reputations, budgets, and turf

Then go to work the next day

Tired

With tear gas still in their nose

With another trauma thumping around their chest

Lying about what they did last night

Trying to do the emotional math

That makes people who don’t see them

Still somehow their friends and comrades

I’ve watched people put up posters

And wonder if they made a difference

I’ve watched people phone bank

And wonder if they made a difference

I’ve watched people organize massive protests

And organizing drives

And wonder if they’ve made a difference

In those riots, i didn’t wonder

I’ve never seen such immediate obvious change

Next day change

Instant change

Systemic change

Change we didn’t ask for

Change we didn’t know to ask for

Riots work

The skateboard smashing a bank window

Raised hundreds of thousands of dollars

For anti racist non profits

The flaming Mercedes dealership

Got Cops fired

The Target stripped clean

Got more groups more volunteers

Than any phone banking ever could

The teenagers running into the flaming pharmacy

With a list of medications

Desperately needed on the block

Got the charges dropped

faster than the best movement attorney ever could

Riots are a fucking mess

I’ve never felt in such danger

I’ve never met so many people

Not sure if they would survive

So determined to find the most dangerous

Direct route to cataclysmic transformation 

Every time

I’ve seen cops pointing guns

At me, people I love,

Or strangers I’m now ready to die for

Every time, we do everything wrong

Every time, there is a horrible cost

Every time, we win

Every time

Riots work