On Sept. 1, in reporting on the conclusion of the BLM march, the East Oregonian opinion was, “While there was a definite sense of anger, there were no explosions of violence, a signal that at least here in the heartland, people can still voice differing opinions without throwing fists, popping off gunshots.”

With all due respect, this sounds like a white perspective from someone who wasn’t actually there. Would a Black reporter have come to the same conclusion?

The only thing that kept HollyJo Beers and her 3 Percenters’ violence at bay was the presence of our dedicated, overworked police force. Believe me, attempts to incite violence were made at the back of the line. Your own reporting noted firearms spilling out on the ground. The police were the sole reason outright blows and shots were not initiated. Bravo to our great Chief Roberts, who made an impassioned plea for order and an end to racism. Bravo to our police force who protected BLM lives from the AR-15s pointed at us while we marched.

The report continues, “Violence did not mar this event and therefore people listened. The voices of protest — on either side of the political fence — were heard. … It is when such protests become violent and disruptive that the overall aim is lost. Then people stop listening.”

Is having a semi-automatic machine gun waved your way not violence? Is having someone curse you and tell you to go to hell not violent? Pistols falling on the ground a sign of all’s well in the hinterland? Please.

Yes, much shouting of “USA” and “Whiners” and “Black Lives Matter” was heard. But no one was listening. Believe me, you can’t listen much when a gun-toting “patriot” is telling you to eff off for just standing there flashing the peace sign.

Finally, since the movement represents all people of color, when the editorial claims, “(W)e are not descended from fearful men (Women too? A better choice would have been “ancestors”) but from people (there you go) who created a whole new nation out of thin air.” Our white ancestors created nothing that wasn’t violently taken from all American Indians by disease, liquor and gunpoint.

I appreciate our local newspaper immensely. But sometimes the institutional “whiteness” of Pendleton can unhelpfully skew reality. The more we as a nation can drop the ongoing “American Exceptionalism and American Innocence” drug we whites have been eternally high on, the more true and actual “listening” will hopefully occur. Thank you, Chief Roberts and your overworked staff for protecting me.

Matt Henry

Pendleton