The protests changed me in a lot of ways. One way was, I was by no means a class reductionist before. But the protests really woke me up to the real struggles of oppressed communities in the US and importantly, the revolutionary potential in those communities. I remember listening to Rev Left in my car and had to pull over for a minute to absorb it when Breht said something to the effect of "what did white socialists in America ever give us?! Bernie Sanders!? Fuck that! The real revolutionary potential is with oppressed communities."
I remember when I went down protesting there were 3 sides. The BLM/Left, The cops, and the reactionary militia/cop wannabes. Completely unsurprising to anyone reading this, but the cops would always let the reactionary militia do whatever the fuck they wanted while chasing after and arresting anybody on the other side for extremely minor things. Actually squaring off against the police really showed me that they're just a political institution with their own values and agenda that the vast majority of Americans have somehow deluded themselves into thinking that they're a public service