Supporting the black community

It hurts to watch, doesn’t it? “The clay beneath our feet is vile, and long the miles.” Gives me the shivers.

And, wasn’t Derek Chauvin also wearing a mask as he kneeled on George Floyd’s neck?

I’ve long thought that along with coming to an understanding of the painful and toxic legacy of slavery, and the development of black culture in the US, there is also a commiserate need to delve into white culture that not only exists on top of black culture, but covers their own set of pain and losses.

No one really want to talk about it because it is an offensive topic. You’re basically creating room to talk about how traumatizing it must’ve felt for slave owners to lose their free labor, their sons and have their property burned down to the ground...like... Yet, a loss of a lifestyle, life and economic means of survival, however wrong, is still a loss. And, as you’ve pointed out, it doesn’t do anyone any good to live with a constant feeling of guilt and shame.

I feel like this is partly what black people are asking white people to do - get a grip on your own history. Don’t tell us you’ve freed us from slavery, to only subject us to a different kind of slavery, because some of you never wanted to give up slavery in the first place. But, most white people don’t even see it that way. Even white racists, a lot of that racism isn’t fueled by feelings of superiority, or wanting to subject black people to slavery, but by their inability to understand how they’ve been shoved into that role.

The responsibility lies however, with white people. Because the ones who never wanted to give up slavery in the first place, who perpetuate systematic injustices towards black people - they exist. They are in power and they need to be stopped.

I have to think about this a bit more...

 

Totally, because the greatest weakness of white racists are other white people. If one of your own tells you you’re wrong, it’s going to hurt. So, the defense is to disarm their ability to criticize you and use their affiliation against you.

What’s the context for these run-ins? Do you work in this field and it gets discussed a lot, or is this taking place in other types of forums?

I do think that if we didn’t have protests, we’d be at war. Or, increasingly become more and more of an authoritarian / police state. At heart, it is a question of dealing with conflict, you’re right with that.

Personally, I hate conflict, but I do think the best way to deal with it is through dialog. I think the whole Brexit negotiation has been a brilliant example of handling conflict well, for the EU. As a comparison, there is the the Israel / Palestine conflict, which is probably the worse example.

 

Hitting those INTJ buttons like...

 

https://images.app.goo.gl/NCWHT58DAmbtqnZ67

 

I meant it in a funny way, like...

 

Isn’t @Pin INTJ?

 

Trump’s words on “dominating” the protestors felt so wrong to me. Because as you say, no one has rule over another. Collective power is not for Trump to use over the collective...or anyone who is not an enemy. I just felt there was something so paradoxical about him in storming over to the Church. Trump tear gassing peaceful protestors and clearing them out is like totally the opposite of Jesus flipping over the tables of money changers. I still don’t get how Christians vote for him. Just unbelievable.

I think every immigrant wave to the US has their own horror story. I mean, hello Chinese Exclusion act and Japanese Internment camps. And certainly, Asians are targeted for hate crimes right now just as brown people were targeted after 9/11. But, police brutality against black people is very specific to black people and hence the need to focus exclusively on them, their culture and their history because that’s gone on for too long.