Trouble The Narrative.

Scroll through social media, and you will be sure to find a million photos of Martin Luther King Jr, dressed up, holding hands with other Black Americans in gorgeous black and white photos. Above or below, Im sure you’ve seen captions that echo the sentiment: This is how protesting is done the correct way.

When I have posted support of the rebellion, I’ve personally received plenty of challenges like, “What would MLK do?”

Both types of posts serve to imply that there are easy answers to this present moment in history.

But I want to encourage us to Trouble The Narrative. It’s time for you to move beyond simplistic, convenient narratives and wrestle with complexity and nuance.

It’s easy to believe that the 1960s had only one leader, MLK, and that he led the perfect protests and that those protests are what led to change. As much as I honor King, that is entirely ahistorical. The 60s were filled with protests like King’s but also rebellions (riots) like the ones we’ve seen over the last…