What a braindead take.

By calling out ICE as masked thugs you’re calling them exactly what they are thereby stripping them of any legitimacy they may have in people’s eyes by being part of the government. As for caling them gang members, that’s exactly what they are. They’re members of the biggest gang - the government.

Only a racist person who believes in race would automatically think of non white people when they hear “masked thugs”. Anyone who isn’t racist and doesn’t believe in race just pictures thugs with masks.

The counter to racism is to realise that race doesn’t exist, not joining in believing in this arbitrary social construct. Once you adopt this view you stop seeing race everywhere. If you’re anti-racist but you believe race exists and you see it everywhere in everything then you’re part of the problem.

i think you’re taking the wrong point. I understood it as ice just being cops, and this is a cop problem , not just one specially evil group.

at least that was my reading.

ngl there is racist connotations in the way people label ICE as “masked thugs” or “gang members”.

What other meaning does this have? Especially when the OP goes on to call “masked thugs” and “gang members” racialized terms of criminality.

ICE also aren’t just cops, they’re an escalation past that and calling them just cops is minimising it in my opinion. One of the things stopping there being even more people out protesting or fighting back is that many people see them as just law enforcement acting within their remit.

many people see them as just law enforcement acting within their remit.
<literally the other night

Yeah? I didn’t say that I thought that or that it was correct.

… but you can look both in crossposted 🧵s and live reactions to this outside threadiverse for a wider concensus

OK. I’m not talking about many people here. I’m talking many people in general, in the population.