They do.
And yet the reaction to this simple phrase, this clear cut expression of the realization of importance for a body that has long been mistreated and exploited is handled as if the very black lives at stake are seeking special treatment or revenge. The movement is perceived and acted upon by both right and leftwing white progressives as if it is the petulant whine of an entitled child.
Ironically enough, that's sheer projection. Why can we not acknowledge, accept, embrace that black lives matter? Because WE are petulant, entitled children.
Nietzche posited that anti-semitism is the ideology of those who feel cheated. In my teaching and social justice endeavors, this construct has been an extremely viable tool for explaining the ideology of the oppressor or attempted oppressor. The body in power resents the drive for equal rights, equal representation, equal respect and dignity to the value of life as somehow threatening their own position in the hierarchy. I earned it, damn it, and I intend to keep it. Know your place. Be grateful for what we've given you. Don't test me.
If others are afforded the same inalienable rights we have always enjoyed, we feel cheated. Cheated out of being speshul snowflakes who are just a bit better than everyone else.
Uh... The whining doesn't help.
Before anybody gets butt-hurt, I know plenty of white people who work damn hard. I know plenty who are good people, who help others, who strive to be pillars of success and generosity in their communities. But this is not a character judgment, not explicitly. This is brass tacks. The successes and ability to be generous and our wealth or security and upward mobility and the finest schools with the finest teachers and all of that ARE BUILT UPON A SYSTEM IN WHICH SOMEONE MUST BE EXPLOITED AND MARGINALIZED. Not everyone gets the best school, neighborhood, life chances. And those who do not are, plain and simply, people of colors. And within that context, we are disproportionately talking about black lives.
Okay, so you weren't born in the time of slavery. Guess what? Nobody alive was! Crazy, right? But when you view the circumstances into which newly freedmen were forced to survive, it's pretty easy to see how generationally black Americans have had a disproportionately hard time "picking themselves up by their bootstraps" and living the American Dream of prosperity and success. In the south, former Confederates were unwilling but forced to live alongside their former property in a time of dramatic economic despair. Who do you think they blamed? You think all of a sudden former slaves were invited over for barbecues or asked to white children's birthday parties? No. Largely many couldn't even find employment, and when they could they had zero rights protecting reasonable wages so they worked for a fraction of the wages of white workers and even convicts. Millions of people who had been offered no formal education (and precious little informal if they were lucky) could not take on work by virtue of illiteracy in both written word and arithmetic, so were relegated to domestic and manual labor. Given the long hours and low pay, this type of work did not offer them the opportunity to devote energy nor resources to bettering those circumstances. Sound familiar yet? In the north, they seldom fared much better, though by comparison it was easier going. What is little known among the population en masse is Abolitionists who strove for equality were few and far between (and why they are the most notable). Many abolitionists considered slavery no more than a basic human rights issue in that humans could not own other humans. That did not equate to wanting to befriend them, employ them, educate them, nor partake in any other interaction. Others had rallied to free slaves in hopes they could be shipped back to their continent of origin (or their parents' or grandparents' continent of origin). In short, blacks were not welcome. Work was still, as in the south, largely relegated to domestic and manual labor.
From the end of reconstruction into the early 20th century, the U.S. did experience a nadir of race relations in which mostly northerners called for civil rights. During this period the economy improved, blacks had a modicum of upward mobility, they were allowed to hold public office, and even the governor of Mississippi who held office multiple times was married to a black woman. Unfortunately, this reach toward equality was stunted by the same old trope: 'We're being cheated.' Films like Birth of a Nation and to a lesser extent Gone with the Wind painted a romanticized version of a fairy tale south that was, yes, cheated out of its glory. Whether the initial hatred was intended for black Americans could be argued, but the results most clearly could not be. Angry, entitled southerners looked for an outlet for their rage against the north, knowing full well how futile and helpless they would be in armed conflict, and how swiftly judgment would fall upon violence perpetrated against whites. And so black Americans once again were lynched, murdered, and systematically removed from public office, decent schooling, living wages, livable housing, and even the possibility of being heard politically.
From there, we are typically more familiar with history. Jim Crow and the reversal of progress toward racial equality led to the building and manifestation of the 1960s Civil Rights movement. We saw different camps with the same message: Black Lives Matter. Through the works of Malcom X, Dr. King, and countless others putting their very lives on the line to organize, demonstrate, fight back, arm themselves, the Civil Rights Act finally passed in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Yay! All better, right?
Wrong. Do you realize it took 100 bleeding years of struggle for black Americans to even have the opportunity to be federally recognized as deserving of equal rights? But it literally took an act of Congress to do it. Congress is not the general population. Nor is the POTUS. Since then the U.S. has put in a number of legislative bills to try to level the playing field. But that's just it. It's never been level. From the moment those pieces of legislation were signed into law, black Americans have been playing catch up in a system designed to cater to white Americans. It's like riding a bike on the highway. No matter how safely you maneuver or how kind those around you are, it was not built for bikes. You are in way more danger no matter what you do to protect yourself.
Respectability politics anyone?
So do me a big favor and let this sink in: #BlackLivesMatter is not about an ex- you're trying to make up with who keeps bringing up that time you cheated on them so you feel perpetually guilty and obligated to treat them super-special and buy them flowers and chocolates and rub their feet. #BlackLivesMatter is about an abusive relationship in which the battered partner has had enough and says "Guess what motherfucker, I hit back."
And they should.
No comments:
Post a Comment