This weekend, somebody damaged a statue of Frederick Douglass in Rochester, New York. The protesters are starting to eat their own.
This is what happens with mobs. They stampede easily. And stampedes aren't easily stopped. They certainly can't be reasoned with.
Take the protests in central Arkansas over the holiday weekend. People showed up at several Walmarts in the North Little Rock-Sherwood area to shut them down. Some were chanting "No justice, no peace!" Some held signs saying "Defund the police!"
Some of us thought these protests at Walmart were mostly tactical. You know, go where the people are. The scouts and local basketball teams sell raffle tickets and ask for donations in front of Walmart stores. If you're going to protest in Arkansas, the local Walmart certainly has more traffic than the state Capitol building. But it turns out these particular protesters actually have a beef with Walmart the company, if not Walmart the staging area.
"Walmart is a mass corporation that has taken from the inner-city communities for too long," one activist told the paper. This activist had a list of grievances she shared with reporters, including something about Walmart using prison labor.
Prison labor?
First things first: Walmart is a mass(ive) corporation--the largest private employer in the world. It employs more than 2.2 million people. You'd think that those 2.2 million people might have a different idea about their employer, and if they didn't, they'd be employed elsewhere. But what do they know?
And what has Walmart "taken" from inner-city communities? For every dollar the company takes at the checkout, from any community, a dollar's worth of goods goes out the door. And more. The company just donated $100 million to end systemic racism in America.
But back to "prison labor," because we had to look that one up. Some of us follow the news close enough, especially when it comes to Walmart and other Arkansas-based businesses, but "prison labor" nearly gave us whiplash.
But there it was, in an AP story last month. (Touche, y'all.) Walmart Inc. told the press that it would review a policy working with suppliers:
"The nation's largest retailer said a 'small number' of its U.S. suppliers use voluntary labor as a part of prison rehabilitation programs as permitted by law," the AP story read. "The company's policies 'strictly prohibit involuntary prison labor' and these programs pay inmates 'prevailing wages,' the company said. It said that voluntary programs provide 'positive, private sector job training and marketable skills' to help them get back into society."
Can this be the program the protesters want ended?
It seems that inmates who volunteer inside prisons to participate in programs to help them with job training--so that they can make a living once on the outside--is exactly the kind of thing a progressive thinker would cheer. But a progressive thinker can't just be a progressive. When that happens, sans thinking, statues of U.S. Grant, Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi and, yes, Frederick Douglass come down.
This year hasn't been easy on any of us. Some, granted, have it harder than others. But the rest of this year is going to be damn-near impossible if We the People don't start thinking things through. It would help, perhaps, to talk things over before staging a protest. Just so you know what you're talking about.
We can't leave it there without a mention of another sign at these protests, this one saying "Defund Walmart."
That would be a neat trick. Walmart is not only the world's largest private employer, but its total revenue from last year was around $524 billion. As for its employees, the company says 75 percent of its managers start out as hourly workers. And in every Walmart, you can find those posters that show how much that single store has donated to charities in the community.
But for the sake of science, let's say there was a way to defund the company. What would a world without Walmart look like?
You'll have to get your groceries, medicines and car batteries somewhere else. The market would take care of that. The 2.2 million people working at Walmart would have to find jobs elsewhere, and they likely would.
But would the next company selling groceries, medicines and car batteries--and employing those 2.2 million people--also create that new center, and spend $100 million on it, to address racism? Would the next company spend part of its profits on nutrition programs and healthier eating initiatives? Or promoting women farmers? Or to put employees through college, or even in-house training academies that teach leadership? It's not that hard to find what Walmart funds in its stores and in its (many) communities. All it takes is a Google search. And just a little curiosity.