I saw a video on Twitter the other week with the comment: “this is how you use your white privilege”. It was of a young white woman jumping in front of a black man to protect him from the police. It has been described as “historic”. Another person said it moved them to tears.
It is indeed an extraordinary moment of solidarity, but let’s roll it back a bit. A black man jumped a fence near the White House and got down on his knees, by himself, in front of riot police. We don’t know exactly why he did it. We don’t know because focusing on the white woman’s behaviour has eclipsed his story. Was it was an act of protest? We will probably never know.