Why I protest with Black Lives Matter in San Luis Obispo

August 26, 2020

James Papp

OPINION by JAMES PAPP

One summer I spent ten weeks doing upscale finish carpentry for a Lake Superior cabin-garage complex we began to refer to as the Garage Mahal. Staying at the neighboring cabin was a Midwest business executive named Mather, and I asked him if he was related to Increase Mather, the Puritan clergyman and president of Harvard College. When he said he was a descendant, I pointed out that in 1692 his ancestor had interviewed my nine-times-great-aunt Abigail in her prison during the Salem Witch Trials.

As we talked more about our backgrounds, I realized that all his ancestors in the intervening three centuries had persisted as professors and bishops and other grandees, and mine had persisted as small farmers and craftsmen—until my working-class parents moved as close as they could afford to the local UC campus, and my sisters and I were able to take advantage of a public higher education that in the 1980s was still affordable and accessible.

When I think about the 300 years that it took my family to climb to the middle class, I can’t help but think of other families who were enslaved for the first 175 years and were Jim Crowed, covenanted and redlined for the next 100. Then America did a couple of decades of affirmative action to try to make up for those centuries but soon changed its mind.

All of these are reasons why I protest that Black Lives Matter, because for so many centuries in this country the official and unofficial policies have been that Black lives didn’t matter: didn’t need to be free, have voting rights, have equal schooling, ride in the front of the bus, live in the same neighborhoods, join the same clubs, or marry who they wanted. Of course all lives matter; give me a break. But if you think we live in a country where centuries of discrimination have been wished away with pixie dust, and we don’t need to work to achieve equality, and equality isn’t healthy for a society, you should look at current statistics. All men are created equal, but Black babies in America are stillborn at twice the rate of White babies, which puts a damper on creation.

I had a lot of talks about race with Archie McLaren of Wine Classic fame in the weeks before his death. Archie grew up in Memphis; his grandmother grew up with a slave sleeping at the foot of her bed. Archie’s first wife was Black, a fact that necessitated them being hustled out of Mississippi ahead of the KKK in 1969, even though it was two years after the Supreme Court had struck down anti-miscegenation laws in Loving v. Virginia. Richard Loving was a white construction worker; his wife Mildred Jeter, the daughter of a black farmer. The Lovings were charged with “cohabiting as man and wife, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth.”

With Archie I concluded that the greatest trick the White ascendancy ever pulled was convincing working-class Whites that their interests lay with plantation- and factory-owning Whites rather than with working-class Blacks: in effect dividing an economic interest group along racial lines. The Civil Rights Movement triumphed over legal discrimination during my childhood, but during my entire adult life, economic inequality has been growing and social mobility shrinking in America, across all racial lines.

The poor have gotten poorer, the rich have gotten exponentially richer, and the middle class has lost its spending power, which is a huge factor in the decline of local retail. Inequality has further exploded during COVID, as Blacks, Hispanics, service workers, and agricultural workers have been hit disproportionately in livelihoods and lives lost. Meanwhile the stock market booms.

So I’ve protested with 3,000 others in front of the County Courthouse. I’ve protested with three others on the corner of Madonna and Los Osos Valley roads. I’ve been on marches organized and peopled by a variety of groups: NAACP, Race Matters, Students for Quality Education, a local gardening club, and random kids who text others.

I hear some snark about Black Lives Matter protests. In some circles it’s probably all snark. In other circles there’s no snark. We tend to stick to our circles these days. But Karen Velie and I are in an intersection of circles, so she asked for my inside take for CalCoastNews, and I’ll call it as I see it.

Snark 1. The protesters are all White. (Not true. Young protesters’ race is all over the place: Black, White, Asian, Indigenous, and a lot of mixture. Which is maybe the point of desperately wanting equality.)

Snark 2. None of the Black protesters are from here. (Not true, and I don’t see why that should matter. You don’t leave your First Amendment rights in the U-Haul.)

Snark 3. There was never any discrimination in San Luis. (True if you listen to Whites. Not true if you listen to Blacks, Hispanics, or Asians.)

Snark 4. Some protesters have done illegal things. (If true, it doesn’t impugn other protesters or the protests. The Supreme Court’s unanimously ruled in NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co. that protesters, like everyone else, have responsibility only for their own actions.

Karen asked me to address her and Josh Freidman’s article “Protesters demand money from San Luis Obispo business owners.” I have to say that “name calling, another request for money and a personal visit,” though unpleasant, doesn’t sound like extortion, and a text promising someone is going to write “an official letter asking” for “donations to local and national black lives matter agencies,” if genuine, and if the letter was ever written, doesn’t sound like extortion, either. People send me official letters asking for donations all the time, and I throw them away. They come in person, and I say no. And I can’t tell you how many people call me names. But if business owners think the law has been broken, they should call the cops.

Karen and Josh have reported that some protesters called for boycotts of some merchants, particularly those who boarded up back in early June. Boarding up came across as creepy, and threatening a boycott for boarding up comes across as creepy, but they’re both perfectly legal. In NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., the Supreme Court pointed out that boycotts as an “expression on public issues” rest “on the highest rung of the hierarchy of First Amendment values.” But maybe we should all move on to a more productive discussion.)

Snark 5. All protesters have done illegal things. (I confess to jaywalking with intent. The cops know where to find me.)

Snark 6. The protesters don’t have jobs. (Told me by a counter-protester who also apparently had nowhere better to be. Yes, protesters have jobs and businesses but grab an hour on evenings and weekends and other times they’re not working to say what they believe in.)

Snark 7. The protests are inconvenient. (Racism has been a 400-year-long inconvenience in America, not just for people of color but for our whole society. And our history of protest goes back to the Boston Tea Party, which was certainly inconvenient to tea drinkers. So if it takes some brief counter-inconvenience for us to end racism, that would be worth it, wouldn’t it? Let me compare the hours I’ve sat in traffic for no better reason than someone was trying to text and drive and got into a fender-bender, or to the noise I’ve had to endure from party people on the plaza.)

Snark 8. The protests are ruining business. (With a pandemic that has killed almost 200,000 people in America and no one from the White House down to SLO City Hall willing to take the steps to eradicate it, with an economic downturn like no one has seen before, and with SLO County having record heat and the worst air quality in the country, I’m not sure why the protests get the blame here. As a downtown business owner, I’m always hearing complaints as to why people “don’t come downtown anymore”—of which my favorite is “There are too many people downtown.”)

Snark 9. The cops have spent too much money policing the protests. (I think the cops have overreacted, but in a department with 559 sets of night vision goggles [for the next vampire invasion?], that doesn’t surprise me.)

Snark 10. The protests have gone on too long, and the protesters are losing our sympathy.

The protesters are not protesting for sympathy, they’re protesting for change, and nothing has actually changed except sympathy. Legislation in Congress is stalled. In the California legislature, numerous bills have been introduced but not passed. And in SLO, the City Council decided to form a committee to consider a task force to think about suggestions. That struck me as lame, but the city bureaucracy likes to make sure the council never does anything on its own unless it’s meaningless.

I remember the night the Rodney King riots started in LA. I was writing the footnotes to my dissertation as choppers hovered and smoke rose from the horizon. Sixty-three people were killed, 2,383 injured, 12,000 arrested, with $1 billion in property damage. I thought then that protesting was silly and instead set about forming committees and task forces. But 28 years later, I realize little has changed for the better and much for the worse. The only time I’ve spoken at the SLO protests, it was to apologize for waiting 28 years.

So I say, yes: let’s bring the protests to an end, but not by snarking about them or putting up BLM signs. Let’s figure out how we can bring about real change.

As a policy wonk, I look at budgets, and the budgets make me furious. Since I was in school, I’ve seen California’s higher education budget drop by half and its prison budget double. That’s an issue for every working-class person of any color, because it’s not only cheaper for the state to send our kids to college than to prison but a hell of a lot more productive for our whole society.

I’m furious that SLO proposed a regressive sales tax increase that will hit poor and unemployed people and struggling retailers the hardest.

I’m furious that when I’ve pointed out to the SLO City Council that we’re building housing only for the rich, not the poor, I’ve been told I can’t use the words “rich” and “poor,” because they’re “trigger words.”

That’s why I’m out there running for council. Because I’m an optimist. Because if this is the moment that everything can shift for the better on race and class—if we can have a more equal, more open and more productive society—I want to be there putting my whole back into it.


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“let’s bring the protests to an end … Let’s figure out how we can bring about real change.” I agree, and am concerned that the riots occurring elsewhere and accompanying media, are placing folks in the Deep South and elsewhere, at risk. There are some very real, violent, angry racists in this country. Excellent article.


So violence and destruction are ok no matter who they hurt? This kind of activity will never solve our problems. When you preach hate like these people do you will never stop racism.


Comparing J-walking to blocking the freeway is minimization and deflection rather than a solution. When you sit on a balloon it bulges in a different space. When the freeway traffic stopped, the cars a 1/4 mile back are forced to go through town adding extra traffic hazard to folks downtown and any emergency vehicles have a slower route to a fire or a hospital. As a politician you’ve got to show you are on the pensive side of the bell curve and you can anticipate two+ questions in advance. You are furious. So, that’s the nature of your character rather than a cool problem solver. The rest of the article is a pity party for having under achieving ancestors that felt comfortable just getting by. All but one of the black deaths at the hands of LE prompting protests are due to blacks resisting arrest. Do we give other ethic groups a pass for resisting arrest? The absence of fathers in the home may or may not be the main cause. I can play the blame game too. Maybe BLM should be pushing for everyone not to resist arrest to save lives rather than yelling and projecting spittle at people having dinner. Another self righteous liberal is not going to fix the underfunded pension issue. And when single family zoning is eliminated by your party, the developers and wealthy landlords are going to exploit that prime SLO real estate too.


You forgot how many black lives have been lost to violence at the hands of black people in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Detroit and most recently Portland. BLM does not care about black people.


What a bunch of clap from Papp. Anecdotally, a family friend of mine rose from poverty as a Dominican immigrant and became a retired lieutenant in the police department and recently took ownership of a successful winery. There are millions of those stories. Black small business ownership is at an all time high as is all people of color. Unemployment for those of color is at an all time low. The Marxists of BLM are setting race relations back decades. This is white guilt. Get over yourself.


Every time I get done reading one of Professor Papp’s opinions I feel like somebody whacked me in the head with a cast iron frying pan. I’m not for or against Professor Papp’s opinion because I am never sure what his opinion is. The internet is full of information on persuasive writing, check it out.


This is ridiculous – It doesn’t take hundreds of years to climb to the middle class. My family did it in ten – from not speaking a word of English to working for some very prestigious companies, and owning local businesses. Stop using your race, sex, or sexual orientation as an excuse. People will ALWAYS make excuses, no matter what. My black friends and family members have actually climbed the ladder faster because they were offered more opportunities – they’ve even joke about it.


Show me one minority who has worked their ass off as hard as me and/or my family have and not made it in this Country. I’ll wait.


Travel this country off the interstate, go to the small towns, go to the Mississippi Delta, ride a monorail in Chicago in the winter, step into a black store in the black belt in the South. You can feel the fear until you speak, then they folks know you are from the north, and they are safe.


Go to Havana Cuba and you will find out what kind of life you will have if the Marxist get control of the country. The government there provides you with an education, small food subsidies, and health care. What they don’t have is internet, clean water,

a functioning sewage system, trash disposal, modern construction equipment, safe places to live, freedom to express themselves, and the ability to leave, People in Cuba would love to trade places with all the US Progressives. I prefer to be able to choose my own doctor, travel the world, have clean water, a functioning sewage system, less government control (and less handouts) and most of all FREEDOM. I love this country!


That has not been my experience in the Deep South.


First, let me applaud you and your family’s success. Your family’s story is what America is all about and why we are still a beacon for the rest of the world. As Ronald Reagan put it, “A shining city on a hill.”


But, I think you misunderstand Mr. Papp’s point. The current middle class in America is, historically, a rather recent occurrence. In the 19th Century, about 90% of America’s population lived on small farms which usually could feed about five people with some extra to sell at local markets.


As the nation became more industrialized, a small white-collar middle class began to emerge, mostly clerks and middle management in factories. By the 1920’s this small middle class had become quite prosperous, but much of their gains were wiped out by the Great Depression.


During the 1930’s, things were quite grim for most Americans and although FDR established many worthwhile programs which aided the poor and working class, it wasn’t until after World War II and the advent of the GI Bill that America began to see a widespread middle class. Unionization, a 40-hour work week, desegregation and a variety of other factors brought the middle class to its largest number in the 1980’s.


So, what Mr. Papp is saying is that his family really didn’t reach the middle class until he went to college—which was essentially free in the 1980’s. At that time a good definition of a middle class family was probably that one member of the family had a livable wage that would support a family of four, they owned a house with a mortgage and had a modest savings.


Unfortunately, for many Americans today, my above definition alludes them. Many people have to work two jobs with both wife and husband working full time, and even then they may not make end’s meet. When you add race to the situation, things are even worse.


At $171,000, the net worth of a typical white family is nearly ten times greater than that of a Black family ($17,150) in 2016. Gaps in wealth between Black and white households show the effects of accumulated inequality and discrimination, as well as differences in power and opportunity that can be traced back to this nation’s inception. The Black-white wealth gap reflects a society that has not and does not afford equality of opportunity to all its citizens.


Obviously, for you and your family, things have been better and your hard work has produced enough prosperity within a short amount of time that you are middle class. As I said, I applaud you. But, I think what you are suggesting is that simply working hard will put you ahead. I know workers who work hard from sun-up to sundown and can still only afford the minimum of accommodations and essentials.


If you’d like to read an excellent book about the middle class in America you might read Stuart Blumin’s “The Emergence of the Middle-Class.”


We all are responsible for our destiny. We need to stop teaching our children to become victims. You tell them they are going to be victims they will become victims. exWGemployee you are absolutely correct. I have watched as many migrant farm workers have worked hard and achieved great things. They always told me that they did not consider themselves victims and considered anyone treating them as such an insult. They didn’t want handouts because they also saw them as insults. Handouts don’t help people they lead them down a road of dependence just like drugs.Life is not an easy button. Easy buttons are for lazy people.


I know who I won’t be voting for.


It doesn’t take 300 years to climb to the middle class. Newcomers to this country achieve it quite frequently. The reason the middle class population changed in 300 years had more to do with surplus energy available to modern America provided by its domestic energy supplies than anything race related.


So you’re advocating making “energy production” a public common for the benefit of all?

Electricity built manufacturing hubs in our great cities. One could argue that the labor unions that followed created the middle class.

5 day 40 hour work week, safety rules, higher wages, and bargaining power gave the masses the ability to earn a paycheck with enough disposable income to purchase luxuries like…electricity. The consumer economy was born.


Slavery existing in 1776; then the “Emancipation of 1864”; then Jim Crow Laws, lynchings, race riots until around the mid-1950’s; then the southern protests and urban riots in the 1960’s and 1970’s; then George Wallace’s campaign in 1972, being stopped from success, by an assassin; then Lee Atwater’s GOP southern strategy in 1972 onward, again more racial murders; then in 2008 a black president, and whoo dawg, now the racists are back again; and shooting after shooting of black citizens by poor quality “officers of the law”. Clearly racism has been alive and well in the USA for almost 300 years, and has been holding people down for all that time.


Slaves owned by DEMOCRATS!


As the Democratic Party became the party supporting civil rights in the 1960’s, the Republican Party created a racist strategy to gain the support of southern whites. This was Lee Atwater’s Southern Strategy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_8E3ENrKrQ


Lining in the past Mazin.


In less than four years, Trump has done more for African Americans and people of color then team Obama/Biden accomplished one eight.


Criminal justice reform, black college funding, lowest unemployment numbers for people of color, inner city enterprise zones, aid packages for native Americans…


Just a point of correction in your timeline George Wallace campaign for President was in 1968 not 1972 and the same year that MLK jr and RFK were assassinated lots of riots protests bombings ! Nixon won ! sad sad times! He made a Harvard Professor the most dangerous man in America! A man who spent a brief time in San Luis Obispo. Did not like the housing and took off for Algeria! When it is all sorted out nothing changes it just recycles


Wallace ran for President in 1972 as a Democrat. He was shot on May 15, 1972. Wallace won the Florida, Michigan, Maryland, Tennessee, North Carolina primaries, and came in a close second in Pennsylvania, Indiana and Wisconsin primaries. He was arguably the front runner for the Democratic Nomination prior to the attempted assassination.


Excellent. I applaud you. Keep the faith, brother.


Excellent words Mr. Papp. Easily the best opinion piece I’ve ever read on this site.


Again, are you being sarcastic?


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