Stop telling us to not be angry
The riots/violence might not be necessarily helping, but neither was being peaceful. That got us tear gassed, shot, arrested, assaulted, given curfews so there was an excuse to be violent. Peace just allowed police violence to continue against peaceful protestors.
Besides, we’re fucking mad. Black people are angry because of centuries of oppression that still hasn’t stopped. Because of the decades of a lot of our lives that have been lived in fear because of police brutality and racism.
Centuries of oppression breeds anger. Anyone should know that. And when a large group of people have a lot of anger, there has to be a way for them to vent it. Unless everything happening gets fixed, we’ll still be angry. Until our skin color isn’t a reason for us to fear for our lives, we’re going to be angry.
There’s no way to get that out. Not all of us can rap, not all of us can write songs. Even if we could, that doesn’t mean that it’ll change anything and we’ll just get more mad. Sitting at home doing nothing and walking around chanting doesn’t do anything to alleviate anger.
This kind of anger and rage will only ever be stopped through the systems oppressing us and threatening our lives being dismantled or rioting. There’s one or the other.
You can’t expect people to not vent this much rage in a seemingly appropriate way. There is no way to do that. It just ends in more built up anger and resentment that ends up exploding even bigger.
You can’t expect an entire race to just take this silently, with quiet action, or in any other way you deem appropriate. Instead of policing how we vent anger over one own being murdered and prioritizing how we let out our rage instead of trying to change, you should try policing the systems that caused this rage.
There is no reason for us to not be outraged at the system that rarely indicts murderers. And there is no reason for us not to be even more angered by those who prioritize property over lives and anger over the cause.
Because even when these riots end, the rage will still be there. Our silence doesn’t mean that we’re content, it just means that the time that it’s in any way acceptable to vent is over.
Do not mistake our silence with contentment. Understand that the rage we have left will just continue to build until the next time it erupts. If you want the rage to stop, stop giving us reasons to be angry. Only then will anything come of it.
-Malcolm