Black anger matters…
The country is on fire, literally and figuratively. We have a president who threatens to send the military into American cities to squelch black anger and unrest, while simultaneously calling white supremacists and agitators’ good people. We have a lot of people looking on and asking themselves, how did we get here? This is not the country I know, when did it get so bad? The truth is we have always been here, this is nothing new. We did not get here by accident. It took years of systemic and systematic alienation. Racial unease has always been a boiling pot in America and occasionally, an injustice so great occurs that forces the pot to boil over. This is what happened with the lynching of George Floyd. Just like the lynching of Amadou Diallo, Rodney King, Michael Brown, and many others. The sight of life being publicly stolen from another black man by a police officer with such casual calm as he says, ‘I can’t breathe’, re-traumatizes the black community. The endless video loops of black bodies losing life through systemic lynching fills us with emotions difficult to articulate. The pain, anger, fear, and frustration at the disrespect and dehumanization of black bodies overwhelm our existence as we try to understand again and again why the color of our skin is seen as such a threat. It reminds us of the Jim Crow era when lynching was a public family affair. It reminds us of our civil rights leaders who fought, bled, and died for our humanity to be recognized only to have our humanity and right to life be undermined by a system that refuses to hold accountable and punish those who murder black men and women. It reminds us of our ancestors who were stolen from Africa, enslaved and became property. When we see the endless loops of violence against the black body, we are re-traumatized and that trauma carries with it the pain, anger, fear, and frustration of the generations before us.
This is trauma imposed on us as an unwanted birthright. From birth we are reminded of the color of our skin and the place in society that color affords us. We are reminded by our parents on how to interact with police to come back home alive. We are taught how to ‘behave’ to not make white people uncomfortable and threatened by our existence. We are taught to code switch to not lose opportunities in this world. From birth we are taught how to suppress our blackness to be fully accepted in society. It is demanded of us to assimilate to the ways of our oppressor as we are continually denied an opportunity to address our trauma, our pain. Our attempt to raise awareness and begin discussion on the racist roots upon which this country was built are met with ‘Slavery ended 400 years ago’, ‘I do not see color’, ‘I am not a racist’, ‘There is no such thing as white privilege because I haven’t benefited from it,’ ‘That is not a race issue’, ‘Racism is dead, we elected a black president’, ‘Kneeling down during the national anthem is disrespectful to our troops and our country’, ‘If you do not like it here go back to Africa,’ ‘All lives matter’, Blue lives matter.’ All these statements are a denial of our pain, a denial of our anger, a denial or our trauma, and a denial of our existence.
It is because of this denial that the looting and rioting begins because unfortunately this is the only way we can get ourselves heard. This is the only way we can highlight the injustices committed against black men and women in this country because otherwise our pain and anger are ignored and our ability to unpack our trauma is denied.
Black people did not choose the color of their skin, it is not a choice we take back. ‘Black lives matter’ is a slogan that is meant to remind everyone of our humanity. It is a rallying cry that is meant to remind you of the injustices we live through every day. It is a battle cry that reminds us that despite all else, we will fight for our right to live, because just like all lives matter, Black Life Matters. Black Lives Matter.
