Black Lives Matter

News of ongoing police violence against Black people, and Black men in particular, has been in the general consciousness of the US a lot recently. To a certain extent, it's about momentum; before the astonishing and grievous murder of Treyvon Martin, the last major murder of a Black man which made the news was the beating of Rodney King, and in that case it was largely the massive riots, not the beating, which made news. The murder of Michael Brown in Fergunson went down very differently, as much due to the savvy and determination of the citizens of Ferguson - who did their best to share their grief and rage clearly, and without any violence - as the police abuse of journalists which put said journalists, and many international groups like Amnesty International, solidly on the side of the citizens of Ferguson. That is not the case for a large amount of the US public, however, many of whom have dismissed Brown as a "thug" and the people of Ferguson as "savages", both dog whistles for Black.

Black Lives Matter.

More Black men keep dying to terrorize Black communities, however. The non-indictment of the person who strangled Eric Gardner got more attention in the wake of the Ferguson resistance than it had during months of protest before. Tamar Rice's murder got more attention in the wake of the murders of Martin and Brown. I became aware of the slaughter of Black people with Oscar Grant, who was shot in the back while handcuffed and complying with police orders. Make no mistake, though - the murder of Black people has a long history straight back to slavery, and the institutionalized view of Black people as savage, violent, aggressive, and less valuable than white people - all of those justifications for enslaving and torturing people. The language by the white mainstream media speaks as if this is a new problem, as if police brutality and targeting of Black people is something which sprouted wholesale a few months before whatever murder caught their attention, but Black people have generations of warning their children about the casualness with which they can be murdered, and the ease by which their murderers will walk away uncharged and unscathed.

Black Lives Matter.

For white people wondering what to do, now that we know about this injustice - there is a lot. One very important thing, however, is to let this be about race. The "Black" in the statement that Black Lives Matter is critical, and it should remain on white lips. Let this be about Black boys stopped and frisked on streets. Let this be about Black teenagers thrown into jail as felons for holding a couple joints. Let this be about Black men shot for existing around police officers with guns. Let this be about Black women denied justice. This not a time for "No Justice, No Peace", which puts Black lives in danger by ramping up police aggression and shifting the story to being about riots instead of injustice. This is not a time for "All Lives Matter", which dilutes the message to meaninglessness and allows for a continuation of Black people being marginalized due to implicit bias.

Black Lives Matter.

There are still many places in the United States where slurs against black people are used with impunity. There are still Sundown Towns, where black people will be attacked and murdered if they remain after sunset. There are places where a group of Black people walking from Ferguson to the State Capital will be greeted in a small town with watermelon, chicken, beer, and shouted slurs by people who improvise their own white hoods. White institutions and schools like to pretend that the Civil Rights movement is in the past - that the murders of two other Black men in the 1960s capped it off neatly - but injustice has continued under other guises, ignored by authorities which want to keep their hands clean and enforced by authorities who don't believe that Black Lives Matter. The Civil Rights movement is still going on, though the slur now is Thug and the claim now is that he deserved it because he might have shoplifted earlier, maybe.

Black Lives Matter.

Black voices need to be amplified by White power. Black people need to be listened to by White ears. White people need to learn to be less racist, not just in rhetoric but in action.

Black Lives Matter.

Places to read and listen: 

#LivingWhileBlack

A Herstory of #BlackLivesMatter

The Subtle Racism of "Post-Racial" Activism

Speeches at the Ebenezer Baptist Church

Charles Barkley and the Plague of "Unintelligent Blacks"

This Week in Blackness

A Decade of Young Black Bodies Felled by by Bullets

Respectability Politics Won't Save Your Black Lives

There is more - you just have to look for it.


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Credits: 

Skin: Izzie's, Irene
Sparkles: Folly, Rainbow Sheen
Hair: Alice Project: Disna (Advent Gift)
Mask: [MUSE], Apocalypse Bride (Genre)
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Location: The Wasteland
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