The divide between old and young on the battlefield of racial and financial freedom in the age of social media
Nowadays, nostalgia has become a disease among our elders contributing to an illness that’s making our community sick to its bones.
Listen to those elders speak; it appears as though they have given up on the current generation, accusing these younger folks of abandoning the struggle for self-determination and their well being.
My response is to question whether social, political and economic empowerment could be possible in this divide?
It’s something we all have to wait for.
But we know that the future is unpredictable and that the scariest part is that a community cannot depend on the unknown to manage itself; there must be a plan to structure the way forward.
Until now, we are getting only Facebook ‘selfies’ and postings from the young that display vain steps in the lines to the battlefields.
Social Media Activism without any clear action that can define the position of a person is trifling.
Posturing is worse than the obnoxious festival for fools, and far too many among us love taking part in that repugnant parade on Facebook. They dance proudly and march firmly in the absurdity until they reach their own destruction and then brag about the beauty of crawling in their own misery. Hmm! Suffering is nothing to them.
What a waste. Wearing masks that ought to be banned from the public.
It’s an attitude that should be banished from society, and it is not difficult to figure why those who stood to defeat oppression previously are questioning the significance of the current generations and social players on the ground.
Pity!
They all believe they are the cutest in the midst of the horrible. Those who are striving to make a difference are simply trapped in the ugliest cycle, and that is the dilemma perceived in the same article that was referenced from the Montreal Gazette. The older generation seems doomed to be sitting somewhere for long hours on end to wonder about its own legacy.
The 1950s and 60s, the most pivotal moments in the civil rights movement in the community, meaning North America and Africa as a whole, appear to have no importance in the now. This era does not symbolize a time that can inspire monumental figures to stand on the soapbox in order to lead the flock to better days.
It is even more ambiguous to visualize how it is going to create leaders like Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.
As W.E.B Dubois once said, it has become more pressing to think about the role of the talented ten. Where are they? Invisible leaders are cowards in society.
We seem to lack the capacity to use our own propaganda to mobilize “us” the community to stand for something more valuable in the system. It looks like we have nothing to fight for. Individual success is no collective triumph. The more conscious ones are definitely failing to uphold their positions and to accomplish their duties.
The mass is not able to lead itself to both racial and financial freedom.
Why no one takes the lead? The result of inanity is indubitable. No house can stand in the storm in absence of its strong pillars and solid foundation. Yes, it is impossible for it to withstand the turbulence of time.
In reality this explains why the community is crumbling beneath its own weight. No wonder why Black youth are overwhelmed by the negative forces that blow against them in the system. We have yet become tired of the pipeline to prison sub-culture. Stop wondering.
The post-Obama time is a period that reminds of segregation and the danger of Jim Crow, particularly with governments in the West that have embraced xenophobia as the main principle of governance, yet even this pressing time does not seem like the moment for greater community organizing and togetherness. The absence of true leadership is painful.
Posting videos about racial abuses and police brutality in the system have become so routine that the most common reaction is, “make it go viral.” In fact, make it go viral for what purpose? Unfortunately, no one knows. “Go viral” has become a casual term. Those in charge have perhaps realized to the extent the comments on blurry walls are insignificant, so they just sit down and laugh at the situation behind the closed doors of their offices.
Black social media activists are among the majority who those who have completely forgotten the power of numbers. Egotism has compelled them to behave like lone soldiers in the midst of a brutal war. There is no need to envision why they are not winning. Ponder upon why we are so behind in the system.
With the rise of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, social engagement and political activism have become something of the past. The older generation feels sheer nostalgia when they reflect on their time. It is shocking to them. They would never dream about how one day they could wake up in Montreal where they find a heap of empty suits and shapeless skirts to lead them to nothingness. What hurts the most is the fact that they are unable to define the current generation.
Community involvement is simply a personal quest in a world that encourages even the least educated and structured individuals to be self-centered and selfish. They are not equipped to view social medial networks as the mirrors that expose their ugliness before society. Some look like they are having lots of fun while watching their own setbacks and failures in the system.
They prefer the ship to sink to fighting hard collectively as a means to set everyone on the right path to succeed.
Community leadership has evolved into a few awkward poses on some blank walls, and we have to inquire about that quality of our characters. These gestures are treated like the measure of any collective achievement. Sad! Leadership must not be replaced with an absurd masquerade.
At least, it would be great to see an iota of substance in the words. Empty walls are incapable of contributing and shaping the views of the youths.
Taking ‘selfies’ to express complete emptiness and the kind of narcissism that accentuate the trivia that has become a part of the Trump administration is futile. This phenomenon left many in an absolute state of nostalgia if not sick of the absurdity on social media networks.
One day… one day soon, we must stand. Otherwise, why simply exist in a vacuum?
Look your elders in the eyes and tell them why we still cannot win after all these years.
It’s your duty!
