Witness
Iām sitting here watching The Walking Dead, or rather, itās playing in the background as I write this. There is an odd sense of being while I sit here rather comfortable enjoying a show where I canāt help contemplate metaphors about zombies, as my friends are out on the streets of Charlotte risking their lives and safety. My body is safe here in my motherās house on the bed recently transported here from Charlotte almost four weeks ago now. I never imagined I would be watching this situation erupt only via live Facebook feeds and national media coverage. I feel rather remiss about not being out there with those that I Love, not participating, and standing with the community and city that I called home for the past nine years. I realize that this is all for a reason. I realize that in this moment my protest is to witness.Ā
Right now, Charlotte almost feels like another distant city where reaction to state sanctioned police violence is no longer being tolerated. It feels like Tulsa. It feels like Baltimore, Baton Rouge, but it *is* home. I know the people on those streets demanding Justice. They are my family. None of them have ever favored violence in the light of oppression, and neither do I. Most are looking for sustainable solutions but right now people are hurting. Traumatized. PTSD is real.
I myself am not feeling full the blow of Keith Lamont Scottās death. Only a day after Terence Crutcherās murder. A week after Tyre King. Philando Castile. Alton Sterling. Ā More tragic hashtags. So many names and faces. 194 Black people this year alone. Ā I donāt yet know the visceral pain of this. To be in such close proximity to institutional violence. I have known for some time now that my Black, female body is at risk of constant policing and great brutality. I have experienced very real yet, subtle, nuanced forms of racism, sexism, and discrimination. The ones that are hard to point out and frustrating to explain to more privileged individuals.
My first encounter with gross racism happened in Charlotte only a few months of moving there for school. My friend and I were walking Uptown, ten minutes from our dorm, talking, when a car peeled around the corner we were stopped at and a white guy leans his head out the driver side and screams āFuck you, fat niggersā as a woman laughs besides him. The RAGE. The overwhelming rage. So I can only imagine what the people of Charlotte are feeling, what Mr. Scottās family and loved ones are feeling, but I know that rage is a very real possibility. The only thing it wants to do is burn. If you cannot understand that, then this is your time to exit. What comes next is for everyone to take responsibility. Racist attitudes whether subtle or gross need to be addressed and held accountable for the damage that has been done to citizens of this country and the indigenous people who have been displaced by said country, whether by force or choice, for the past 500 years.
To quote bell hooks in her book āAll About Loveā New Visionsā āTaking responsibility does not mean that we deny the reality of institutionalized injustice. For example, racism, sexism, and homophobia all create barriers and concrete incidents of discrimination. Simply taking responsibility does not mean that we can prevent discriminatory acts from happening. But we can choose how we respond to acts of injusticeā (57). As the protests began in Charlotte after Keith Scottās murder I watched live the assembly of people. I watched last night and the night before as people engaged police with only their words and their presence and I saw them be met with police in full riot gear, batons, and tear gas.
Who is CMPD protecting and serving in these moments? How are mere demonstrations against police brutality worthy of essentially, chemical warfare? How are there so many criticisms against property damage and traffic blocking than against the fear-mongering tactics of CMPD and police departments nationwide. Why are there so many cries about Black people ādestroying their communitiesā? Do you mean the actual neighborhoods we live in where we more often than not face poverty, segregation, rampant policing, incarceration, subpar education, and very few opportunities for advancement? All of which has been strategically mapped out by institutional racist thought. Or, instead, do you mean ātheir communitiesā as the affluent parts of the city, the business districts, the glittery Uptown area? The thing about it is that many are forgetting the correlation between economic injustice and institutional racism, for that matter, the link between all forms of oppression.
The thing about it is that those businesses that have been smashed up and/or looted will regain what has been lost. Insurance will cover damages and the city will pay out some tax money but what have people of African descent forced to labor in this country for hundreds of years, literally, dehumanized, every day since ever hope to gain? My ancestors have had to grapple for the most basic rights since they landed on this soil. During the Civil Rights Movement many protestors found themselves faced by snarling dogs and indifferent water hoses, and there were those reading and watching, who begged āWell, if they werenāt out there in the first placeā. This is no different. If you have never felt the rage of injustice you have no place to speak on the actions of those who do.
Last time I checked, communities consisted of people. Businesses are not people but functions of these communities. Business aims to serve whether it be product or goods to its communities. These so called āinnocentā businesses. These so called ācommunitiesā are all complicit in institutional racism and violence. If you are more concerned about property damage than lives you are complicit, no matter what your skin color. You say what does this help? Yet you offer no solutions on how to help those anguished by watching those who look like them unjustly and often without any reprimand be murdered. You go to work for companies that often prey upon us whether by offering unlivable wages for those doing the tedious work of keeping these establishments in operation, or by offering products that only the most affluent can afford, often times, products and services that make claim to elevating lives. This or not hiring people of color to higher positions, or allowing them access into the business whether as patrons or partners. That or the daily dehumanization. Ā All these subtle ways people often find hard to navigate and find themselves dealing through because hey āwho is going to pay my rent if I donāt work? Who is going to put food on the table?ā This is a subtle violence. A fear tactic that keeps people always engaged in their own oppression. Yet, it is remarked as the American way. You donāt work. You donāt eat. Well, what exactly was the slave master or the Plantation ownerās job? They were eating plenty fine. Ā Iām sure there are many in Myers Park, Dilworth, and Ballantyne whose ancestors would have plenty of answers and whose progeny have plenty of justification. These attitudes will no longer be tolerated.
The people are feeling the pain of this never healed wound, the history of this countryās transgressions being ripped open. Many are taking to light the fact of these Truths. The fact of institutionalized racism and white supremacist thought and how it has manifested both gross and subtle forms of discrimination leading to the violence that people of color and Black people especially are suffering through today will no longer be tolerated, and is being met head on. So a few rocks have been thrown, a fire started (the fire this time?), but itās nothing compared to hundreds of years of brutalization, torture, and murder. Ask the people of Greenwood, Tulsa, Oklahoma about violent protest. If your only question is āhow does this help?ā is the first or only question. Dig deeper. If you would rather see organization than radical movement ask yourself why they cannot coexist?
If you are Black, brown, or in any way marginalized, and cannot see why peaceful protest and rioting are both necessary, and deserving of space when we talk about fighting injustice, you do your forbearers a disservice. Nat Turner (violent rioter) played just as important a role as Harriet Tubman (thief/looter, as slaves were property), the Panthers, and Malcolm X, as Martin Luther King Jr. Garvey and Dubois both had positions and voices that needed to be heard no matter their differences. We all must play our part in this fight for Justice. Not everyone will be on the front line and because so cannot dictate what will happen in those tense situations. Just as civilians do not dictate to soldiers in war. Ā
If you are an organizer, then organize, if you are an artist share with us your visions, the revolution is definitely going to need a soundtrack. It is also going to need water, food, shelter, and all basic human necessities to function. Places to retreat and heal. We are going to need space to emote, to feel our pain without criticism and without causing any more damage to ourselves or others. Safe spaces to gather, commune, and plan for future action. Everyone has a lane and unity will be won when we understand that and let each other get into them. We will need documenters whether via photographs, live feeds, or journalism. The Truth is always prescribed. We need the good vibes, the conjurers of light, and the consciousness shifters. We need every turnt up twerker who cares about liberation because weāre going to need to release. Weāre going to need laughter. We are going to need a lot of Love and a clear definition on what Love actually is. I like bell hooks definition which she gets from M. Scott Peck in āThe Road Less Travelledā where he defines love as āthe will to extend oneās self for the purpose of nurturing oneās own or anotherās spiritual growth.ā It is about Love as action.
Right now more than ever I am being called to action. How about you?
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