personal essay by Soe Noire
it’s so bizarre witnessing how fascism affects people in real life. I recall during lockdown, a lotta people (nonblack people, especially…) were cosplaying as Malcom X on their instagram with their cute little BlackLivesMatter and #ProtectBlackWomen reposts and black squares (😒), everybody was leaning into punk (in aesthetics only) and was non-binary DOWN.
Years have past since 2020 (6 to be exact. Ain’t that crazy?) We are still in an ongoing pandemic, the government is still terrorizing Black people, trans people, and other marginalized folks and these people don’t even pretend to give a fuck anymore. They done grown out their mullets, dropped the they/them pronouns, and ran (not walked) back to dating cishet men. Saying slurs and ignoring all the boycotts. Kicking it with abusers and racists. How did y’all go from “punk” to Pilates princess? From cosplaying being queer to being proudly on some Ku Klux Klan shit? It’s a bit embarazzing.
Lots of folks don’t wanna mask no more, they don’t give a fuck about the public health crisis, or the mass genocide against trans people, or Black people, or women, or anything. Head empty, just brain fog from abusing GLP-1s and Sabrina Carpenter lyrics on repeat. Talking in blaccents and drinking Starbucks. Oh brother.
It really was an aesthetic or a vibe for some. But it did feel like the mainstream media was trying to push for better, advocate for better, and there was a SLITHER of potential in the way some of these folks were mobilizing. I personally, am not too nostalgic for that time though. Why would I be when there’s so much beauty and resistance right now in my own world? It’s not everybody that is choosing to live in the Matrix (don’t jump me if that reference doesn’t make sense I am NAWT no sci-fi fan) and there are absolutely people still standing on business. And for that my heart is full. I look in the mirror and I’m happy with the Revolution I’m nurturing around me. Disillusioned by the commodification of pride (not so gentle reminder that pride started as a rebellion against the police, not a damn parade sponsored by banks and nonprofit), I organized my own Pride gathering, focused on radical art making, community care, and feeding people. Mother Nature’s thunderstorm aside, it was a very special night with likeminded masked gays and theys. I think Marsha and Sylvia would be proud. That’s all to say there are still people, Black people, who are not asleep and are still woke as fuck (we gotta reclaim that word by the way. We CANNOT lose that recipe to reactionary conservatives.) There is a world outside THE world, you know? And it’s our job as a collective to nourish it, breathe life into it, so that we may taste the sweetness of liberation in our lifetime. So that when we return to Earth our children’s children can grow with the seeds we have planted. I can see it in my mind, therefore it can happen.
TLDR: Posers suck major donkey ass. Shoutout to the real niggas.
izzy806
turnnoffyourmind
tangentwithtanner
germansingergirl
kianamaiart
vaporwave
gummygunk
gamechangershow
