My recent experience having to fight “the system” has been frustrating and depressing at times.
And I have every damn privilege, and the system (usually) works to my advantage.
I simply cannot imagine how it feels to have the system tell you time and time again, every damn day of your life, that your life is worth less because of an accident of birth.
We have Karens and Chads that go ballistic at minor inconveniences, that scream at a man taking a knee during a song. White people go ballistic when the system doesn’t make everything easy for them. If they feel a momentary inconvenience. They brandish guns if protesters even come in the same neighborhood.
While time and time and time again, the system looks at the white murderers of Black people and decides to let them go free.
Don’t ask why there are protests. Don’t even ask why there are riots. Don’t you fucking dare.
The answer to that is staring you in the face. In the stark contrasts of the McCloskeys vs John Crawford. In the difference between Breonna Taylor and Kenneth Walker actually defending their home versus Rittenhouse murdering a man after carrying a weapon across state lines to defend a … car dealership.
I am not surprised there are riots. I am surprised white people have gotten away with this for so long with so few.
Does that video scare you? Does the thought of protests and riots and worse worry you?
Then quit asking why they happen. Quit pretending that you’re ignorant. Quit
Ask instead what you need to do to change the system.
It doesn’t matter if you made the system, if your ancestors did or didn’t do a thing. Quit hiding behind willful ignorance and linguistic legalistic hand-washing.
We are all affected by the actions of generations before us – nobody gives up their inheritance. You cannot claim ignorance of the problem.
We are all here now. The problem is here now.
And if you see the problem, and you still do nothing, you still say nothing… then you don’t think it is a problem.
Featured image from the video for “Burn It” by FEVER 333.
Keeping racism alive is useful to part of our society. We know who these people are, and why racism works for them. Somehow, the people who don’t realize they lose because of racism, that don’t recognize why this is happening, need to learn how to see. But it’s hard to pull frightened and angry people away from the forces that spellbind them. I appreciate the outrage in your post; I’m just not very hopeful these days.