Brother Heron said that the revolution will not be televised. No, but it will be tweeted, reblogged, pinned, and posted. Social Medias role in activism is substantial and irrefutable - evidenced by the role it has in disseminating vital information from Fergusons Ground Zero over the past week. This week Ive heard my share of respectability politics, color-blind ideology, and the unfortunate rhetoric of black on black crime and inner city violence. My response to that rhetoric follows as articulately as my emotions will allow. Primarily, I take issue with this rhetoric because it hijacks a platform upon which institutional racism (of which inner-city violence is a symptom) is currently being addressed and replaces it with respectability politics. Chicagos current climate of violence serves as the basis of most of the commentary. As Ive mentioned before, to suggest that people are not attempting to address inner-city violence is to be woefully uninformed. The amount of programs and people on the ground who are working tirelessly grows daily. Therefore, if were going to have a holistic conversation it must be rooted in fact. The fact is the fight in Ferguson is not a fight solely FOR Ferguson - it has spoken to so many of us. As the revolution is being tweeted this has forced many Americans to witness what Black people have known and lamented for centuries. Coast to coast footage and documentation speak to the Black casualties of a racist system - the assault on black person-hood physically. That is, social media now has the ability to capture violence towards Black people firsthand. This eerily mirrors the circumstances in the 60s that roused many Americans to action when images of police dogs ripping into children and hoses mowing people down city streets were broadcasted. Forced to actually witness the atrocity - it became harder for people to distance themselves from the reality. Such is the case now, newspaper headlines reporting levels of violence in Chicago that resemble a war zone is heartbreaking and has awakened many to attempt to address it; yet a headline is easy to write off as just some problem somewhere in America. To watch the assault, however, as if you were standing right there - that is an image I think none of us will ever be able to shake. B/c of that we speak out. So, the question of why NOW yall wanna get bent out of shape? ignores reality. This is the sort of question one would expect of someone who opened a book, read one sentence and begins asking questions. Its disingenuous to make global claims having not read the book in its entirety. Metaphors aside, any one who has been paying attention will know that we have BEEN bent out of shape. If one doesnt know that - one hasnt been paying attention. Oh and one more thing, the language of you cant fight hate with hate is particularly upsetting in that it assumes the justifiable anger of a people is in any way par with the hate and bigotry of an oppressive regime. That is, when did anger become synonymous with hate? That language inherently de-legitimizes the pain and anger of Black victims by saying that we could ever be just as bad as the people who maim us. Just who is fighting hate with hate?.Tell me, if your sons (or daughters) body was left out in the sun for hours riddled with bullets, would you not have the right to be angry? Is your anger not justified? Is your indignation misplaced? Certainly not. Watch how you use language - as the words we use (and DONT use) speak volumes to how ideas are interpreted and encoded. How easily the word hate becomes synonymous with anger - kind of how the word boy has slowly been replaced with man - student with thief - and murder with hero. Angers end will always be change.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 02:17:14 +0000
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