I keep hearing people say, when describing our current reality of random and often brutal sweeps based on ethnic characteristics, when we see masked thugs roaming our streets searching for “law breakers, when we see that their violence is always justified by the government as reasonable and appropriate law enforcement, that “This isn’t who we are.” Really?

I have been one of those people mourning the loss of my America, an America where the 1st and 5th Amendments were honored, an America where protest was semi-celebrated but mostly tolerated. I have often assembled to peacefully petition my government and demand redress of my grievances. I always knew there was some assumption of risk, that peaceful witnessing could turn violent—either by demonstrators or the police.

At my first protest in 1963, a policeman hit me with a Billy club while I was standing on a sidewalk in Torrance. I was shocked more than hurt by his violence and the enmity in his eyes. Most shocking was his calling me a N****Lover.”  In that moment, the courtesies and rights that I thought were mine were suspended, and I was left with the substantially reduced rights of a Black man. I learned that my rights were contingent on the perception of those in authority. An N****Lover clearly was not entitled to full rights.

At another protest, this one in Anaheim, I  was indeed trespassing on public property at the convention center. I was physically, if only partially, blocking access to an arms exposition. I was arrested and detained, but not booked. This was legitimate. Part of civil disobedience was to pay the consequences of our disobedience and put the law on trial. In the beginning, under the tutelage of MLK and from the examples of both Gandhi and Thoreau, our duty was to be peaceful and not resist. Asserting a “Non-negotiable demand for amnesty was not contemplated. We contracted for consequences. In Anaheim, both the protestors and police acted properly.

In Berkeley in the 60s the  vast majority of antiwar protestors acted peacefully, if occasionally rudely. But there were “Utzers,” provocateurs who wanted violence. They often got their way, and both sides escalated into self-righteous violence. The “Blue Meannies” often got out of control. However, despite the violence, we didn’t really fear for our lives. We knew we might be subject to rough treatment, but not life-threatening. We were pretty secure in our middle-class white privilege—even if we didn’t use those words.

Today seems very different. Though theoretically, ICE and DHS are looking for the “worst of the worst,” they are also stopping, frisking, harassing, sometimes beating and often spraying with pepper-spray, stunning with stun grenades and clubbing bystanders of all ethnicities. The right to peacefully petition our government for redress of grievances is not applied to brown people and the white people who support them.

But, the defenders of this suspension of Constitutional rights object that the protestors are not entirely peaceful but are rude and provocative. Besides, MAGA folks are now beginning to assert that there is no right in our Constitution to protest. A word search will not find “Protest.” They argue that only completely peaceful and polite gatherings are protected. Step off the sidewalk, shout a vulgar epithet or try to come between ICE or DHS agents and their intended prey, and you are impeding a federal effort, breaking the law and could be labeled as a “Domestic Terrorist” and guilty of sedition. Despite our history, protest can no longer be assumed to be covered by our Bill of Rights.

Are these truly an unprecedented abridgment of our rights and legitimate expectations? Well, no. Dr. King would recognize this totally unacceptable thuggery, and he would see the rescinding of our rights as the old normal and completely precedented for People of Color. MLK would instantly recognize that the right to assemble and peacefully petition the governments, both local and federal, was often abridged and ignored. He would remember that to protest, you had to have a permit. To march, you had to have a permit. He would testify that the southern sheriffs and their elected bosses in the government would never issue those permits. Thus, the gatherings to witness for civil rights were almost always illegal, and the demonstrators became the criminals, and the police were seen as the brave patriots defending our “American way of life.” Segregation.

No one in the civil rights community would be shocked that Jonathan Ross,  the killer of Renee Good, was immediately cleared of having committed a crime and then praised as a “brave patriot” by Trump and his lackeys in “his” DOJ and Homeland Security. What is shocking to me and my ilk, is that they are treating White people with the same shameful disregard for our rights with which they have always treated people of color.

Black Americans, Brown Americans and other People of Color have been and still are subject to being stopped by police, often for pre-textual reasons—a broken taillight or something dangling from a rearview mirror. They are stopped if they don’t “look like they belong in the area.” They may be stopped for driving a beat-up car in a good neighborhood or an expensive car that’s not associated with people of color. A double whammy.

I have always held that hate, oppression, Antisemitism, and Islamophobia never stay on the intended victim. These kinds of hatred are toxic, viral, and inevitably infect every other group. We should not be shocked, but we should be disturbed and offended that the poison of persecution has now spread to white people. Having now lost our automatic privilege, it is past time to: Wake up! Stand up! Speak up! Show up!