Yesterday I had a bit of an awakening about the struggles faced daily by my brothers and sisters of color in this country – and therefore the struggles in which we are all engaged if we are to give ANY meaning to what we say we stand for.
On a personal level, I had a long conversation at work with a black woman (lets call her Mary) who is fairly new to our agency. She had taken the staff she supervises to an exhibit on Race at our local Science Museum of Minnesota. Mary grew up in the south and overcame tremendous odds to get where she is today. And she’s done so at least in part, by doing her best to “fit in” with our dominant white culture and trying to forget all the ways she was and is marginalized. The visit to the exhibit triggered a lot of this and I could tell it when I saw her face yesterday. The bright, hopeful, engaging eyes had lost their luster and just looked drained and sad. We talked for a while, but I could tell the words didn’t mean much. She was a mixture of anger and hopelessness. But bless her heart, even in the midst of all this, she was saying that she was going to be thinking, reading and talking to try and find something she can do to try and make a difference.
Then I came home and was reading around the blogs. As has become my pattern, I check in at The Unapologetic Mexican. He posted a diary about the violence of the LAPD on the marches that happened there on Tuesday that was quite a rant. He expressed his anger at both the silence of the msm and the “progressive” blogs about this travesty. Here’s some of his “wake-up” call to all of us:
THERE IS NO RIGHT TO PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY IN AMERICA. There were signs earlier, it’s true. But now it can be said to be official. File this along with what you read on blogs about habeas corpus and wiretapping, this latest display of contempt for our rights: here is a clear example of excessive use of police force, of tyranny by weaponry, of unwarranted police aggression, assault and battery–on women, children, and citizens alike. The police issue their typical statements about investigations and being upset, but give it a month (when the results of thier “internal report” is due and we’ve seen how these turn out time and time again) and it doesn’t matter anyway. They have done what they wanted, made their mark, instilled fear. And despite what they say, they didn’t do this because some people stepped off the sidewalk, bullshit. We know why the cops were there and in such gear, and with such attitudes and agendas. The government fears the numbers they saw last year on 2006. In 2006 we actually showed, lived out, demonstrated the Power of the People, and it scared the living shit out of our keepers. Because America is only about the Power of the People in word. That’s advertising to keep us defending our jailers, paying our taxes, and joining the grinder military. America is really about the Power of the Few. And the Power of the Gun. And the Power of the Dollar. And the Power of the Lie…
But yeah–the press and cops are counting on Average Americans not to care because they will tout the gathering and the abuse as nothing more than ALIENZ being corralled. And who cares about ALIENZ????
And you think this doesn’t apply to you? Do you, then, silently give up your right to assemble in great numbers? Because that’s what this is about. Power of the People. Numbers that freaked out the old white men in Washington. They don’t want to see us in numbers, and they don’t want us to feel empowered. But they don’t want that for any of us! Brown, black, or white! They want us all living in fear. Always in fear.
I don’t know if its worth all that much, but today I wanted to say that I stand with you Mary and Nezua. As much as is possible for me in this moment of my life I feel the rage and the hopelessness that I see in your eyes and hear in your words.
Perhaps Melissa won’t mind if I quote her song because I think that what Mary and Nezua are speaking is also an inconvenient truth.
I am not an island
I am not alone
I am my intentions
Trapped here in this flesh and bone…
I want to change
I need to shake up
I need to speak out
Oh, Something’s got to break up
I’ve been asleep
And I need to wake up
Now
