LABELS: They don’t apply

I admire and support the young people who ventured out to protest for BLM in Sandpoint. As a mother of three sons, it breaks my heart to imagine one of them being treated like Floyd. Fortunately, they are all white. Two open carry and one was protecting local businesses. That puts me in an awkward position!

I reluctantly have learned to honor people’s right to bear arms. However, hearing accounts of harassments of young peaceful protesters by camo clad men with semi-automatic rifles and guns using racial slurs crosses the line for me. So does blanket labeling of open gun carriers as “gun toting idiots who are trying to bully us all into submission,” who are bent on starting a fascist movement similar to Nazi Germany. White supremacy presence in our community doesn’t mean that we label everyone who open carries an irresponsible vigilante.

Racial injustice is not metered out by bad individuals or events. According to Dr. Robin DiAngelo, it is a systemic discrimination by one group that doesn’t perceive itself as a “race” — sanctioned by legal authority and institutional control. As white people, we all perpetuate that discrimination whether we split ourselves into good/tolerant progressives and bad vigilantes/racists or good patriots and bad antifas/communists.

I commend Sandpoint Police Chief Coon for holding a community meeting to engage the community in dialogue to address these deeper roots and would hope that Sheriff Wheeler will do the same.

GABRIELLE DUEBENDORFER

Sandpoint