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Protesting With Firearms Looks Very Different Depending On Your Race

The Black Panthers carried guns to save their community from police violence. Michigan demonstrators carried guns because they wanted haircuts.

Two members of the Black Panther Party are met on the steps of the State Capitol in Sacramento, May 2, 1967, by Police Lt. Ernest Holloway. Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images

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That’s a strong picture above: Members of the Black Panther Party on the steps of the California state house in 1967, armed with loaded rifles. Was your reaction physical? Did you squint your eyes, contort your face, tilt your head, maybe rock back in your seat a bit? I can imagine it, because that was my response when I saw this picture:

Photo: JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images

A group of White men, in masks, open-carrying AR-15 and AK-47 rifles on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol less than two weeks ago. What they were protesting wasn’t gun-control legislation, as the Black Panthers had been, but state governor Gretchen Whitmer’s “Stay Home, Stay Safe” executive order. At the time of the protest, it was one of the strictest measures put in place across the…