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LONG THREAD ALERT!
Being on such sensitive issues, and frankly, of life-or-death importance, I am sure that some of my views may be unpopular, and I understand my responsibility to evaluate and evolve them mindfully, which is ultimately the point of this thread.
Being on such sensitive issues, and frankly, of life-or-death importance, I am sure that some of my views may be unpopular, and I understand my responsibility to evaluate and evolve them mindfully, which is ultimately the point of this thread.
At first, I was sad to see a community physically damaged by rioting... but I remain infinitely more heartbroken and enraged by the events that triggered it. And so I’ve been reflecting.
The rioting didn’t bother me out of “fEeDiNg InTo SteReOtYpEs”, and I wasn’t concerned for multi-billion dollar companies like Target that will be just fine.
I felt bad for the small businesses that, despite various forms of insurance, might possibly not be able to afford to recover. It wasn’t about valuing possessions, but livelihoods. And it was never about valuing those things MORESO than murders of the innocent.
But after contemplating my own thoughts, and taking in other people’s, my mind has turned a corner, and now I understand several things;
Firstly and most importantly being this: I am probably only even capable of being upset over anything other than systemic racism and murder due to my privilege. I feel appalled through conscious empathy, not out of fear for my own life.
I CANNOT judge the actions of people going through a pervasive and unrelenting trauma that I literally have no capacity to ever experience myself first-hand.
Second, I can feel and say that I don’t value material property over black lives, but the reality is that belief / intent is meaningless instantly upon being factored into the outcome.
The outcome is that criticism of the movement automatically moves the conversation away from the thing that lead the movement to exist.
And if you disregard that reality, do you really care more about black lives? No, and if I or anyone truly believes in stopping what lead to the movement NEEDING to exist in the first place, then focus must be kept right where it belongs.
As I watched things unfold, it obviously recalled similar escalation of events in past cases, from Ferguson to Baltimore. I’ve watched as the marginalized and the oppressed are still ultimately let down time and again.
As a removed spectator, I was hit with an aching, sinking feeling of hopelessness and futility. If this is what we must resort to, and still no justice, then what’s the point?
And with that mindset, I focussed on smaller pictures as a coping mechanism. And then I came to the realizations stated above.
I remembered that the ones taking action are acting from that very feeling of betrayal, but deeper than I could know, and who undoubtedly have strong doubts of their own that they are fighting.
I remembered that action will take many forms, and my own action may differ, but what matters is WHY we act; the cause itself, and it MUST grow, not be cut down by bad faith reservations. I remembered that fear of futility was not an excuse to embrace it.
I’ve seen and heard so many others who never had doubts or reservations. They’ve reached me and been an inspiration. So this thread of my own is for anyone who needs it. It’s for people who know right and wrong, and feel paralyzed now.
(It is NOT for people who DO value property over black lives, or who do not value black lives at all. They can fuck off, and I don’t have anything to say to them.)
There is no dispute whatsoever that George Floyd was unjustly killed by brutal and homicidal force. There is no dispute whatsoever that racism is not only alive and well, but public and accepted, and deadly.
If you are deeply disturbed by these facts and want to see change, then you must evaluate what you really want to commit to. Do you want to criticize those taking actions you don’t agree with, or do you want to fight for the vital truths that we all DO agree with?
“But why can’t I do both?” Because in this instance (which is of life and death), one prerogative can absolutely harm the other that we’ve laid claim to all agree is more important.
You’re entitled to your beliefs, and you can take action how you want to. (Ways how: https://bit.ly/3cflMcm )">https://bit.ly/3cflMcm&q... But every action taken by us all is for the same belief: BLACK LIVES MATTER.
Don’t do the work of divide-and-conquer from within FOR white supremacy. Don’t do the task of diverting attention from the lives stolen from George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless more FOR white supremacy.
Do what’s right, and fight, support others who choose to fight, and if the reason someone fights how they choose to is lost in translation, translate it. Remind others just how we got to this point. I’ve been.
