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An SPD squad car burns in Seattle, WA (courtesy of KOMO News)
“It is as rational for community’s capitalism deems superfluous to rebel as it is profitable for capital to keep them in their place.” ~JACOBIN
O, how like a song our country is!
How vibrant, how diverse in its melody,
How beautiful its rhythm,
Like a refrain, it comes back to where it started,
But what a terrible refrain it is,
How cruel, how violent, how heartrending its rhymes.
Our country is like a beautiful but tragic song. It is
a land of incredible diversity, of unparalleled ingenuity, and amazing
resilience. But it is also a sick country. America is a country that struggles
with a disease far more infectious than any corona virus: racism. Racism is a
terrible ailment, and a harbinger of violence, war, cruelty, and hatred.
Today, our
country endures yet another of its familiar yet no less painful refrains.
George Floyd, an innocent black man, was brutally murdered by a band of
heartless thugs in uniforms. They had absolutely no cause to see him as threat,
as Floyd had done nothing wrong. Like so many African Americans who met a violent
end at the hands of murderous police, Floyd’s sole crime was being a black
person in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Every time we are confronted with yet another in a
series of such racist incidents, they are always so evidently brazen, and so
unbelievably cruel. They are unquestionably indicative of a system that is
endemically racist and specifically intended to oppress black and brown people
in America. And yet, somehow, white America refuses to see what is so blindingly
obvious.
Even when the US is not consumed in the fires of
racial riots, it is a country that systemically oppresses and suppresses the
spirit, the humanity, and the lives of African Americans. America is really a
land of two countries, with one in which a white majority enjoys greater
access to healthcare, better options for education, and a degree of
social-economic security, whereas black people are denied all these things.
White Americans will take to the streets when
confronted with the slightest inconvenience in their daily lives, but African
Americans are expected to suffer oppression and deprivation silently. When they
dare to complain, they are painted as opportunistic, arrogant, and obnoxious. When
their anger and resentment explode into rioting, blacks are scapegoated as
irrational and violent.
We refuse to give the disadvantaged even a modicum of
assistance to alleviate the material and emotional suffering they endure every
day, but we waste no time in sending out uniformed thugs to beat them back into
submission. This is what it is like to live in a country that is extremely sick,
a country where capitalistic materialism is valued more than the lives of
fellow human beings. We are a country that cares more about flat screen TVs
being stolen, or storefronts vandalized, rather than asking why this is
happening, and trying to see the bigger picture.
We are woefully incapable of extending empathy to
those that have been suffering for so long.
Capitalism incentivizes us to be this way, for it
makes us too comfortable. Because all that matters are that we satiate our
materialist urges, regardless of the cost in human lives, human decency and
dignity, we see change as an imposition. And so, when anything dares to
challenge our status quo, be it a pandemic or an anti-racist protester, we see
ourselves as the oppressed, though we - white America- are the most privileged people of the land.
We are made too comfortable, too comfortable to stand
for the rights of our fellow human beings, because the qualities encouraged in our
system are cruelty, greed, brutality, stupidity, ignorance, and selfishness.
Whites don’t care in principle about the lawlessness,
or the looting. That doesn’t bother them one bit. After all, they had no hesitations
in defying the express orders of law enforcement to stay home, and violently
resist any efforts to make our country a safer, healthier place to live. 'Law and order' is suddenly cast into the flames as soon as it requires helping ALL Americans, and requires a TINY concession
from white America that they are too privileged to accept.
After all, the most prolific looters are the richest and
the whitest Americans in history, whose MO is to relentlessly strip
this country of hundreds of billions of dollars of its people’s wealth. But
when Wall Street criminals loot, that’s fine, because they use lawyers, lobbyists
and bribes rather than bricks and crowbars to commit their crimes.
And anyway, they are smart, because they are exploiting
the system like a smart businessman would. They aren’t greedy soulless daemons
but are just ‘good businessmen’. Its therefore not only their right,
but their moral prerogative to sell their country out in any way they can, so
that they’re one step ahead of the other soulless bastards they compete with.
But when poor, angered, and desperate people of color
take to the street to voice their well-founded grievances, we resent them. We denounce
them when they loot, when they raise their voices, when they march, because we are
offended that they dare to show even a hint of agency in a system that is
designed to suck it out of them. To whites, the rioting is the problem,
because blacks need to ‘know their place’ (they are incapable of seeing that this
is the exact problem).
In its present form, our system is evil, and a
mutually denigrating affair for the humanity of all involved, but blacks suffer
the most. Our status quo must be burnt down, ripped away, and rebuilt from the ground up. At
this point, radical change is desperately needed to right the course of this
country. But for that to happen, white people in this country MUST make themselves
uncomfortable. They mustn’t allow themselves to be led into a stupor of
privilege that blinds them to the human suffering their society perpetuates
daily.
If you are white, now is the time to do something, now
is the time to say something. Don’t be silent. Don’t tolerate casual racism any
longer. Be proactive and be an ally in any way you can. Call out your friends
and families on their racism, participate in a march, donate to the bail of protesters. Don’t be silent, and reject complacency. The rulers of this country crave your apathy, and
revel in your silence, for they know it means change is impossible. Don’t give
them that pleasure. Fight back.
But crucially, don’t make this movement about
yourself. Don’t use your platform of advocacy to stroke your narcissistic
impulses. We shouldn’t get credit for being decent humans – it should just fucking
come naturally – so reject the order that tries to lead you off the path of
empathy and understanding.
Do not ask for praise or credit, only ask what you can
do today, and do all you can, for that is what is needed of all Americans, and that
is what we must do until we come to the reality we want to see in this world. In
a time of unparalleled polarization and disunion, we must buck the trend-line of
history by showing unwavering unity in purpose, and relentless devotion to our
cause.
We can live in a world that is kinder, that is more
generous, more empathetic. We can live in a country where all Americans have justice,
and equity, where a black man like Floyd inhabits a bright future, rather than
a graveyard.
The question is, will we stick with that vision? Will
you still march long after Floyd is but a bullet point in your daily newspaper?
For that is what is required. People must march even when it isn’t on record,
when the only people to see you are the mounted cops armed with truncheons. Change
has never come in any other way.
#BlackLivesMatter
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