Excuse the rambling fatigue that fueled this post.
As much as we claim to be desensitized, we aren’t.
Imagine witnessing state sanctioned murder of black lives in perpetuity. What we saw in George Floyd, we saw in Eric Garner. What we saw in Ahmaud Arbery, we saw in Trayvon Martin. What we saw in Breonna Taylor, we saw in Botham Jean. The zero sum game that puts black folk against the odds is the ever powerful white Supremacy/whiteness that has permeated the entire globe. This is the system.
Imagine witnessing the brazen public nature of denigrating black humanity in exchange for propping up a system that exalts whiteness. The system will try and frame Chauvin as a “bad apple” who used an illegal maneuver to slaughter George Floyd, while ignoring the 18 career complaints against him — 16 of which went unpunished. The system fueled the audacity and callousness of him and the other officers to use excessive force despite being aware of being filmed. This is the system.
Imagine being punished and harshly criticized for property destruction, but met with silence when countless innocent black bodies are killed and treated with no regard, judicially. Can’t protest peacefully, can’t protest forcefully. The system wants its citizens to be complicit in its crimes through silence too. The system hates the demands for justice from black folks. The system hates when the flow of capital is interrupted, so it’s willing to sacrifice lives to prevent that disruption (COVID, looting). Property can be rebuilt, black lives can’t. The system is perfectly fine with violence though, just not from the voiceless.
Imagine being asked to go along with the system, by ignoring the system’s sanctioned violence while spewing criticism to black folks when we resort to protests (or violence). American hypocrisy is the gull that asks its citizens to ignore the violence (and looting) our government enacted in Nicaragua, Iran/Iraq, Black Wall Street, and Native American lands for capital gain and financial interest (Bolivia just last year). The system loves violence (and looting). That same hypocrisy asks black folks to ignore the Boston Tea Party, French Bastille, Stonewall, the Berlin Wall….revolts that lead to change. This is the system.
Things will get worse before they’ll get better. Acting as if we are desensitized, or if this will all go away “aint it” though.
