2020 George Floyd Protests - "Why can't you just protest peacefully?"

That logic would work if "being remembered" was the purpose of a protest. Its not. The purpose is to accomplish change. Now, did any of those accomplish change? No. All they did was show that people will just ignore or deride peaceful protests. Peaceful protest works when the people youre trying to convince have a conscience, and racists sadly dont.

Also, you are aware that all of those had riots and other violent protests, right? Like, a lot of them. The Suffragettes had major arson campaigns, the civil right movements had riots and of course the black panthers, and the LGBT rights had the famous Stonewall Riots.

If you look through history, you will not find a single rights movement that didnt have violence at some point or another. Because they are inevitable, and crucial. If people arent heard, if regular protests are like pissing in the wind, then violence is the only language left to speak. And for how much people want to say "oh riots totally dont work", the truth is that they very much so do. Not immediately. But they make it clear that regular protests can no longer be ignored. Without Stonewall, LGBT rights would never have been achieved.

1. Violent protests don't work (see Baltimore and Ferguson), and it's a dangerous belief to think they will because then any group of people will think they can just resort to mass violence if they want the system to make specific changes for them. Do you really want racists armed with guns shooting up downtown because 'minorities can vote' and they think destruction and death will get the results they want? It's a scary can of worms that turns a democratic nation into a arms race where laws are decided by which side has more firepower.

2. A lot of innocent people and animals have been harmed by violent protests who have nothing to do with the conflict. Meanwhile, the wealthy are egging them on from the safety of their gated communities.

Anyways, to me, destroying your community and attacking innocent people just…just doesn't sound like a good way to enact positive change. We need to stop destroying lives and starting building again.