I know we've been riding fb hard in here, but I have seen some good shit from folks on there. This post by one of my friends - a white guy no less - really struck a cord.
People really forget how this country formed. How violence and bloodshed has always been part and parcel to resistance.
Slaves didn't just sit around waiting for their masters to wake up and find their humanity. They turned up, revolted, attack and killed people to gain their freedom. Abolitionists didn't just politely ask for the end of slavery. They stormed courthouses and fought with police and soldiers to free slaves and eventually, the entire country was at war with itself. The only reason we, as young black men and women, can sit here on neogaf and shoot the shit about games, anime, and whatever else is because a whole lot of people fought and died in violent conflict to gain their freedom. Our freedom. Not saying nonviolent resistance was not also effective, but the fairy tale that people spread about how the Great Negro Deity MLK Jr. rode in atop Falcor and showed white people the error of their ways before he flew off to Narnia to slay the jabberwocky is a sickening falsehood.
I don't condone violence, but I understand it. I understand where it comes from. Amirox's thread from yesterday was real eye-opening in how people would rather cling to empty platitudes than acknowledge the reality of the human experience. Accept that violence happens, and that the only way to prevent and lessen it is to address the social issues that cause it. They care more about chastising people than empathizing with them. They care more about being morally superior and preaching respectability than seeing actual good be done.
I have no desire to convince people to see my humanity or the humanity of my brothers and sisters. I have no interest in being pleasing to the white gaze, and quite frankly, I've lost so much respect for people preaching that "don't you see you're making us look like animals to them." Like they don't already see us as animals and less than human regardless of what we do.
I had to watch my city burn last night because folks like the ones on Gaf refuse to acknowledge the plight of my people. Because they care more about a store being set ablaze than the actions that led to the fire. They care more about a few cop cars than the hopelessness, apathy, and lack of opportunity that's been plaguing this city since before our last big riot in 1968. And will continue to plague Baltimore and cities like it all over the country for the foreseeable future.
We're going to be here again. I'd like to say it's going to happen in a couple years or decades, but honestly, we'll be having this conversation again this year. Baltimore is not an isolated incident - despite what idiots whose only exposure to this city has been watching "The Wire" will tell you - just like Ferguson wasn't an isolated incident. Everything that led to what happened this weekend is happening all over. I just know that another black person (likely male; sadly we don't show up for black women) will be slain in the street, and the lack of respect for them and their family, the disregard of local authorities, a nonviolent protest being met with response from a militarized police force and the manipulation of the populous into a frenzy in an effort to discredit the movement will all give way to rioting and looting and violence yet again.
Knowing that makes me sick to my stomach. Knowing that people will be faster to condemn the angry, hurting rioters than they will the forces that led to the death of that yet to be named black man depresses me to the point that it feels like my very soul is crying out.
People really forget how this country formed. How violence and bloodshed has always been part and parcel to resistance.
Slaves didn't just sit around waiting for their masters to wake up and find their humanity. They turned up, revolted, attack and killed people to gain their freedom. Abolitionists didn't just politely ask for the end of slavery. They stormed courthouses and fought with police and soldiers to free slaves and eventually, the entire country was at war with itself. The only reason we, as young black men and women, can sit here on neogaf and shoot the shit about games, anime, and whatever else is because a whole lot of people fought and died in violent conflict to gain their freedom. Our freedom. Not saying nonviolent resistance was not also effective, but the fairy tale that people spread about how the Great Negro Deity MLK Jr. rode in atop Falcor and showed white people the error of their ways before he flew off to Narnia to slay the jabberwocky is a sickening falsehood.
I don't condone violence, but I understand it. I understand where it comes from. Amirox's thread from yesterday was real eye-opening in how people would rather cling to empty platitudes than acknowledge the reality of the human experience. Accept that violence happens, and that the only way to prevent and lessen it is to address the social issues that cause it. They care more about chastising people than empathizing with them. They care more about being morally superior and preaching respectability than seeing actual good be done.
I have no desire to convince people to see my humanity or the humanity of my brothers and sisters. I have no interest in being pleasing to the white gaze, and quite frankly, I've lost so much respect for people preaching that "don't you see you're making us look like animals to them." Like they don't already see us as animals and less than human regardless of what we do.
I had to watch my city burn last night because folks like the ones on Gaf refuse to acknowledge the plight of my people. Because they care more about a store being set ablaze than the actions that led to the fire. They care more about a few cop cars than the hopelessness, apathy, and lack of opportunity that's been plaguing this city since before our last big riot in 1968. And will continue to plague Baltimore and cities like it all over the country for the foreseeable future.
We're going to be here again. I'd like to say it's going to happen in a couple years or decades, but honestly, we'll be having this conversation again this year. Baltimore is not an isolated incident - despite what idiots whose only exposure to this city has been watching "The Wire" will tell you - just like Ferguson wasn't an isolated incident. Everything that led to what happened this weekend is happening all over. I just know that another black person (likely male; sadly we don't show up for black women) will be slain in the street, and the lack of respect for them and their family, the disregard of local authorities, a nonviolent protest being met with response from a militarized police force and the manipulation of the populous into a frenzy in an effort to discredit the movement will all give way to rioting and looting and violence yet again.
Knowing that makes me sick to my stomach. Knowing that people will be faster to condemn the angry, hurting rioters than they will the forces that led to the death of that yet to be named black man depresses me to the point that it feels like my very soul is crying out.
Devo did good work. It's a shame she's not around anymore, though I don't blame her at all for leaving.
But I don't blame people for going "yknow what? fuck this" and getting out of it.
