By Keegan Waller
Since last summer, the media attention around the Black Lives Matter movement has waned, but that does not mean that the work is done or that the problems these protests shine a light on have been solved. On Saturday, more than 100 people gathered downtown for a vigil after someone set fire to a Logan family’s BLM sign. This is yet another act of violence happening against anti-racists all over the country, and a reminder that Utah is not free from the hate and bigotry that is widespread throughout our country.
Unsurprisingly, there has been no accountability so far, and according to one of the vigil speakers, Mario Mathis, the Logan police who responded to the family’s 911 call acted apathetic about the situation. As Mathis said in his speech, it is undeniable that the police would act differently if it were their own families whose signs had been burned, whose property had been trespassed on, and who felt rightly threatened by those actions. And it is likely that if the situation were reversed, and if a person of color had gone onto a white person’s property and burned a thin blue line flag (or God forbid, an American flag) that the investigation and the ultimate consequences would be severe.
The large crowd size relative to Logan’s population was encouraging, but it is clear that our town still has plenty of room for growth. In a metropolitan area that still acts like a small town, where members of the Mormon Church make up almost 90% of the population, it is impossible to spend a day driving around town without seeing thin blue line flags and MAGA signs that call for “No more bullshit,” even months after the election. While the speakers, who ranged from Utah State students and professors to BLM activists from Salt Lake City, shared their own experiences with racism and the microaggressions they face on a daily basis in Utah, there were near constant interruptions from people driving by on Main Street. Drivers blared their horns in an attempt to drown out the speakers’ voices. Every few minutes, someone would roll down their window and shout, “All lives matter” at the crowd. One person opened his passenger side door and leaned out while screaming homophobic slurs and telling the crowd to “Get a job.”
This was a far tamer reaction than has been common at protests around the country. There was zero police presence, and other than the drive-by shouting, there were no racist counter protestors. After the vigil was over, Lex Scott, the founder of BLM Utah, told me that compared to what they deal with in Salt Lake City, “This was basically a Disney movie. In Salt Lake City, we get surrounded by 200 white supremacists every time we go out in public.” But this does not mean that Logan is somehow a mecca of anti-racism. This brand of racism may be more subtle, but it will not go away unless people keep speaking up and holding their friends and neighbors accountable.
Black Lives Matter. Every Damn Day.
USU's Young Democratic Socialists of America 