The woman who refused to give in to Black Lives Matter protesters demanding that she raise her fist in support of the movement in a viral exchange outside a Washington, D.C., restaurant spoke out about the encounter.
Lauren Victor, an urban planner and photographer, wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post on Thursday. In it, Victor said that she has marched repeatedly in support of the BLM cause, but she noted that she also believes that “it is never okay to coerce peoples’ participation.”
She began by warning readers not to “lose track of the underlying incident,” which she said was the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. She was accosted by the protesters one day after Officer Rusten Sheskey fired several shots into Blake’s back during an arrest. Blake’s family said doctors believe he is paralyzed from the waist down as a result, and Wisconsin authorities and the federal government are investigating the incident.
1) In a scene that played out several times Monday, a Black Lives Matter protest that began in Columbia Heights confronted White diners outside D.C. restaurants, chanting “White silence is violence!” and demanding White diners show their solidarity. #DCProtests pic.twitter.com/fJbPM76vb0
— Fredrick Kunkle WaPo (@KunkleFredrick) August 25, 2020
Victor said that as the protesters approached her in D.C., she asked “who they were and why they were marching,” but “no one would answer me.” Video shows the protesters surrounding Victor with fists raised while yelling slogans at her, including “No justice, no peace,” and “White silence is violence.” Many of them, including Victor, were wearing masks as a precaution against the coronavirus.
“In retrospect, I would have done the same thing even if it was crystal clear to me who they were and what they stood for. If you want my support, ask it of me freely. That’s what we do in a democracy,” she wrote. “I have actively participated in protests since this event. I have experienced nothing coercive from my fellow protesters, nor toward bystanders. I wholeheartedly support the Black Lives Matter movement; however, I also support an individual’s choice to participate in a protest, or not.”
She added in the piece that she was fearful in the moment, but that her “instincts” were telling her that the crowd was not “inclined to perpetuate violence with more violence.” Victor added that even though she was afraid, the sight of the protesters led her to feel “great hope and appreciation.”
