Issue 14, Volume 17

ANONYMOUS

This article is a response to a piece entitled “On Violence,” which appeared in Issue 14, Volume 17 of De Minimis. The author of that piece warned against the use of violence as a form of protest; they express concern that people who see violence as a legitimate form of process “celebrate the destruction and damage visited on communities and norms of social cohesion.” 

This is not the case.

Issue 14, Volume 17

REGGIE BANKS

I try to be wary of using overly dramatic language when discussing complex issues, although like anybody else I am frequently imperfect. Whilst strong rhetoric has a vital place in political advocacy and building responses to injustice, I worry that otherwise well-intentioned people run the risk of distilling questions of how to solve difficult problems into unhelpfully sensationalised and divisive camps. Sometimes however, events simply demand to be talked about in such a way and scrolling through my newsfeed today I came across an aphorism so appropriate that it had to be shared.

This week the world watched America burn. 

Issue 14, Volume 17

WOLFGANG HENDRICKS

As we watch Minnesota burn following the death of George Floyd, from afar, it may be easy to incredulously dismiss these events as those that could only occur in lawless America with their guns, MAGA hats, and shocking welfare system. But with over four hundred First Nation people’s deaths in custody, and a hugely disproportionate Indigenous incarceration rate, it is time Australia took a good look at itself. 

The custody death of Cameron Doomadgee in Queensland 16 years ago prompted racially-fuelled unrest of our own, but very little has come of it since. The current protests across the States must serve as an essential prompt for us to examine our own track record.