Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash...
Remember 2020?
The early days of COVID-19 shutdowns when more folks were home than ever before? When the world temporarily skidded to a stop watching the video of white Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin brutally murdering a Black man, George Floyd for no good reason. And a terrified teenaged girl, Darnella Frazier, recorded the whole sordid event on her cell phone for all to see.
Do you recall how, for a minute, much of humanity was united in horror because of this video? Protests blossomed and “Black Lives Matter” became more than a slogan. It became a war cry against racism. One of the most notable effects was that many white and other non-Black people joined Blackfolks in protesting and decrying this horror show.
'I think there's something liberating about fighting an obvious enemy...' --Trevor Noah
For the first time in history, books by Black authors dominated The New York Times bestseller lists. Tomes on race / racism sold out faster than they could be produced. Nearly every company in the nation sent half-assed “We support Black lives” emails to their customer lists.
Remember that?
Fast forward to today. Two years later, COVID-19 keeps playing hide-and-seek with us. Lockdowns are over. Public outrage receded. And many of the white folks who were all “Black Lives Matter” have moved on to other causes.
But racism never moves on, does it? Of course it’s not always completely anti-Black. Anti-Asian hate crimes are also skyrocketing since COVID-19. And other groups, including Indigenous Native Americans, Latine folks, and more, stay on the receiving end. But it’s usually Black Americans whose suffering gives America the spectacle it requires.
Because last week, an openly white supremacist 18-year-old white male named Payton Gendron walked into a supermarket in a predominantly Black community. With the n-word written in white along the barrel of his gun, he mowed down 13 people, 11 of them Black. Ten died and three were injured.
He was clear and unapologetic about the fact that this was premeditated. And that his goal was to murder more Black people. Oh, of course he livestreamed the whole thing to his followers, who shared it widely. This was a win in their book and they’re celebrating Black suffering and death for their cause.
He’s now in custody as we see the stereotypical news reports celebrating his humanity, suggesting his struggles with mental illness—basically justifying and excusing his attack. This narrative, in all its variations, is truly a tale as old as time.
And the nation expressed more energy, outrage, and emotion about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock on the Oscars than about this murderous white supremacist massacre. With actual blood, real corpses, communal trauma, and loved ones left to grieve the terrifying senselessness of it all.
As Gendron was labeled a “suspect” and taken into police custody, we braced ourselves for President Biden using this horrific tragedy to call for “unity” among the American people. Preachers preached, teachers teached, and pundits reached for ways to dance around the simple irrefutable fact that this is and always has been The American Way.
Racism never even pauses to take a breath.
Here are the top 5 things to always remember about this scourge:
The first is comedian Trevor Noah’s response when an audience member on his “The Daily Show” asked his take on the difference between racism in Noah’s home of South Africa, and racism in his country of residence, the USA.
He responded:
“I think the biggest difference between racism in the USA and racism in South Africa is I find that South African racism is and was a lot more blatant. And so, there’s more of an acknowledgement of it as an idea.
“I know it’s strange to say this, but I often think that was the greatest gift the Apartheid government gave us that it was there, it was happening to you. It wasn’t hidden.
“But in America [with the passage of the 1967 Civil Rights Act and other related laws] it wasn’t blatant anymore. I’ve always thought that was a terrible thing to do so people because now people have to be like detectives [about racism.] They have to figure it out.
“I think there’s something liberating about fighting an obvious enemy as opposed to one that you have to prove exists.”
Trevor’s astute observation leads directly into Queen Mother Toni Morrison’s relevant insights about how racism keeps Black people in a trick bag:
Next is the timely fact shared in this photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
This really requires no explanation. Because as devastatingly threatening and relentless as COVID-19 is, it ain’t got nothin’ on good ole racism.
But the best explanation of the mind-boggling omnipotence of racism is summed up in a 10-word quote from poet Kyle “Guante” Tran Mhyre in his 2014 poem, “How to Explain White Supremacy to a White Supremacist”:
This quote, from Myhre’s book, A Love Song, A Death Rattle, A Battle Cry, went viral, shared by regular folks and celebs alike. No wonder—his words so clearly point out the overwhelming nature of racism in our lives and in our world.
It controls our entire ecosystem and invades our habitats.
Like the ocean, racism ebbs and flows. It rises and falls. It waves and crests and sometimes it storms. It becomes tsunamis. It has currents that pull even the strongest swimmers under until we succumb.
There. Is. No. Escape.
Though we know this, sometimes our conscious minds and our spirts can’t fully comprehend and accept the enormity of it, at least not in a sustained manner. We have to come up for air. And then we’re pulled back in to tread water, to stroke, to swim…with no dry land in sight.
We grieve. We rage. We are laid low and then we rise. Where survival is a triumph and maintaining any semblance of sanity, even the smallest ability to function, is nothing less than a major miracle.
We fight for our humanity to be recognized. We struggle for our rights to be entrenched. We battle for options and opportunities that are truly equitable.
Again and again until the incidents blend together into a never-ending blur of trauma that moves us closer to the moment that our literary ancestor, Langston Hughes, prophesied, and the final fact about this particular racism that we must never forget:
Truth is supposed to set us free. I'm missing something. It hasn't yet. Ignorance, the fallacy of white superiority, fear and an overwhelming sense of impotence combine to muddle the waters and distract our attention. Know the truth. Be strong enough to Speak the truth and Act on the truth. Hold others accountable to telling the truth and walking in truth. Otherwise, I fear the wicked lies will prevail and any power that the truth might hold will ingloriously and shamefully disappear.
So true. So obvious. Yet when you say it people always respond in shock disbelief. Thank you for your willingness to state the truth once again.