Michael Williamson

                        What is Activism and what is Racism?

            Last February, a band of armed “activists” seized the Malheur National Wild Life Refuge. They did so under the pretext that the general pretext that the federal government of the United States of America did not have the constitutional authority to manage federal territory. They, under belief that their actions will lead to mass movements across the country, set up a base camp in the refuge and held patrol for potential government tyranny.

            Initially, the government, both federal and local, did not get involved and chose instead to monitor the situation until something happened. On January 26, the leaders of the siege left the refuge to go to another meeting outside the state of Oregon. They were stopped and then one vehicle attempted to get away and was fired upon. As one man, Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, exited the vehicle, reached for his gun, then federal agents fired upon him, and he died. During the entire direction of the siege, one person died.

            Initially, people met this incident with great public backlash due to the fact that months previously large protests and riots broke out in Baltimore and Ferguson. There heavily armed and militarized police cracked down on people in the streets on the pretext of reestablishing order. In contrast, the police in Oregon for the vast majority of the siege allowed the “protesters” free reign throughout the town and county. There was no true crack down despite the fact that those in Oregon were heavily armed and voiced their intent to fight back and possibly kill police officers. The fact that these protesters were armed and were white changed how the authorities treated them.

            The principle members of the siege were just acquitted of the sole charge of impeding federal employees. They were essentially terrorist and they received, the proverbial, slap on the wrist, which was not even carried out. How can these people, who actively seek the dissolution of the federal government, be treated with such caution and reverence while BLM or others protesting police brutality and systemic issues of race and poverty be treated with such force? It appears logic has taken flight from the situation and instead logic was replaced by some macabre iteration.