Friday February 21, 2020 I was sitting at work reading a news story about how the Coronavirus outbreak is now spreading more and more and more and more people are dying from the virus. Once I read through all of the information that was out there about the virus; the symptoms, the effects, and who at the time it was effecting, I immediately thought THIS IS GOING TO BE REALLY BAD FOR BLACK PEOPLE, myself included with my history of Asthma. Chronic health issues have plagued Black communities for centuries and this disease has the ability to wipe us out. Heart Disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes; to name a few are conditions that Black Communities have been dealing with FOREVER, and now we have a virus that exacerbated those conditions in the worst way, and could result in DEATH. WHAT THE F$CK????? Was my initial reaction. In my line of work, I work with multiple different organizations who are on the front lines of work around the social determinants of health, health disparities, and racial equity. This work is rooted in research and before the COVID-19 pandemic they found that Blacks were dying at a much higher rate than their white counterparts from manageable and curable diseases. When Coronavirus hit initial reports from across the country showed that African Americans were dying at a much higher rate, and people were shocked. My reaction was… NO SH$T! Healthcare and the access to it has long been a problem in the Black Community and now we are seeing that play out on a national stage.
Let’s fast forward…
Tuesday May 26, 2020 A video out of Minneapolis, Minnesota emerged showing the lynching (I Said, What I Said) of a Black Man by a White Cop. This officer who swore to protect and serve the community pulled a man from his car, handcuffed him, pinned him down on the ground with the help of three other officers. With a knee to his neck these officers watched him slowly die for eight minutes and forty-six seconds as he repeatedly said HE COULDN’T BREATHE and called out for his mother, who passed away two years prior on the same date. My heart and soul was crushed. Tears rolled down my eyes as we all watched him take his last breath. His death was vile and disgusting, but what is also tragic here is the soul of the officer who carried out this execution (I Said, What I Said). This officer knelt on this mans neck for nearly nine minutes with his hands in his pockets. How inhumane can you be? Where was your compassion for the fellow man? Where was your heart? Where was your soul in this moment? How did you not react to his cries for help? The lynching of George Floyd sparked outrage in Minnesota and those cries for justice were heard around the world. Riots broke out across the United States and eventually spread internationally in places like Canada, Greece, Australia, Africa, and so many other places. In my opinion the outrage was absolutely warranted! Of course there were those who were angry about the protests, riots, and looting. I hear you! However, if you’re outraged at that display of violence are you not outraged at the violence that we as Black people deal with on a daily basis. Those riots were indicative of and a reflection of the pain that we as a people suffer constantly in America. One such example would be 45 and his MAGA slogan. That slogan is VIOLENT! That slogan is a constant reminder that people of color will forever be labeled as an “other” in this country. Why?? Because this country has NEVER been great for people of color (I Said, What I Said). From its inception America has been violent; with the slaughter of Native Americans whose land WE ALL live on, then the enslavement of Africans who built this country from the ground up. Black people in this country for too long have had to make White people comfortable with us, be forgiving, turn the other cheek, and love those who hate us. We have been the ones expected to spark conversations of race relations in this country and figure out how to function in a society that looks at us as if we don’t belong here. In the words of James Baldwin, “I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” I too love this country and as a Black Woman in America it is my responsibility to call out the injustices that my people face daily. George Floyds death has already created change in the country with sweeping police reforms in several states across the country. Let me say this, the riots, protests, looting, screams, and cries HAVE WORKED. Businesses, companies, and organizations are now paying attention to the perils of their Black and Brown employees. I will also say that MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE. This is just the tip of the iceberg. All change in this country started with outrage and frustrations and the only way to continue that change is for this country to grapple with its greatest sin, SLAVERY.
I will leave you with some words from Mr. W.E.B. DuBois’s book The Souls of Black Folk.
“How does it feel to be a problem?”
“The Negro is s sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world, a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelationof the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness, an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of opportunity closed roughly in his face.” -W.E.B. Du Bois
Zen Culture 