Rosie Awori (LJI)
There he goes again: Black this, black that. Black, black, black, black… ad infinitum.
Sure it may be irritating to some… but being Black is my identity, my daily reality. It’s the first thing that comes to mind just about everyday I awake. And it’s not a burden, but a reason to live… in spite of these COVID-19 times.
Once I open my eyes it’s a good thing. I roll out of bed and do my daily spiritual exercise — say a little prayer for being blessed with another day of life — then walk to the bath-room to prepare for the day and see my reflection in the mirror, it’s an immediate re-minder of (a psychologically and socially imposed lifetime) perennially Black (of African descent) unfinished work to do — for what it has been worth up to this point, January 2021.
Yep! The adventure of being Black is the first thing that comes to mind each day, once I complete those primary and customary duties: cleanse myself and my mind, and begin thinking about (‘things-to-do’) duties for the day. For whatever it’s worth, it’s neither an obsession nor a preoccupation, in no way physically or mentally encumbering… just accepting and embracing daily realities and things I’m cognizant of, aspects of maneuvering [my] daily Black life.
So this year, last year and the one before the story… “The song remains the same” to paraphrase the title of once popular English rock band I liked at the height of its popularity in the 1970s and 80s, Led Zeppelin.
As I spin these words, I’m thinking if there’s any more evidence needed to accentuate America’s history of racism and how it continues to impact the 21st century progeny of the slaves I have to have my say as I watched what transpired at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, juxtaposed with what transpired across the country in the spring and, subsequently summer of 2020, in the wake of the (unarmed) George Floyd live asphyxiation under the knee of a white policeman (along with three enabling colleagues), subsequent shootings of Jacob Blake (seven paralyzing bullets fired by Wisconsin police into his back in full view of his three young sons sitting in an automo-bile, possibly watching their futures play out in front of them that afternoon).
The fatal police shooting (in the back) of 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta on June 12, 2020…
And there’s 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery’s February 23, 2020 fatal shooting (with filmed evidence) by the hands of two “white vigilantes” including an ex-policeman (father and son duo) while jogging in a white At-lanta-area neighbourhood…
Breonna Taylor, the now globally known 26-year-old African-American emergency medical technician, fa-tally shot six times by white plain clothes police on March 13, 2020, during a forced entry into her apartment on March 13, 2020.
It’s easy to understand why Black people are quote, “angry as hell…”
As far as many Black people are concerned, the Black-white situation in America is akin to a state of slow genocide…
It was an apparent political uprising on Wednesday, January 6, when the U.S. Capitol was assailed by a heavily armed white supremacist militia in an apparent attempt to maintain the political status quo: denying the results of the recent election and enabling the loser to maintain the current status quo by preventing the winner to accede the presidential office and take the nation in a new/different direction.
All hell broke loose on that day as America almost had a 2021 (American) Revolution, conceived, aided and abetted by that former, now notorious “reality show star” who used his showbiz platform to springboard into politics, at the same time becoming America’s first political “reality show star” and political cult leader.
Empowered by the popularity of his millions of supremacist admirers, the 21st generation progeny and cuddled collection of the progeny of slaveholders… who tacitly and otherwise do not believe that “Black Lives Matter,” just theirs, were blatant the duration of the melee in the land of the free and home of the slaves.
That reality and fact was evident; most white media voices readily and justifiably remarked on that reality. Especially when referencing/blatant disparities of Black-white treatment at different levels of U.S. law en-forcement, visually and judicially, when juxtaposing the 2020 (for the most part) peaceful George Floyd-anti-police protests across the world.
It was a story of race and racism and whose actions are welcomed/tolerated.
Conceived, aided and abetted by that former, now notorious “reality show star” who used his platform to springboard onto unto catapult on to and star in America’s first political cult leader and former, quote on quote, “reality show star .” Aided and abetted by growing popularity, admirers of the 21st generation prog-eny and cuddled collection of the slaveholders… who clearly/tacitly believe “Black Lives (do not) Matter.” That theirs are the only ones in America, land of the free, home of the slaves, that matter.
It wasn’t an academy award performance by any stretch, but garnered worldwide/international attention.
That supremacist display that day afforded temporary solace to the outgoing/now impeached cult leader. But time, reason and established democratic rules stymied his specious thirst for (clinging to) power.
All that notwithstanding, I’m not prepared to allow recurring blatant or other historic atrocities against people of my likeness to change whom I’ve become… I am, to dictate and determine my still unfolding life… as I reflect on all those who are still engaged in their personal ways, and especially those who have prede-ceased me, and lived through ‘darker’ days than people of my generation have lived through so far…
As late Civil Rights activist and politician U.S. (Georgia) Congressman, John Lewis, once stated, “[…] Hate is too heavy a burden to bear.”
I have never entertained that mental burden, too many constructive/positive matters to ponder… As such I’ve been able to liberate myself from mental burden.
Which is why I still cannot comprehend how African Americans, whom know racism… and other isms feel could allow themselves to fall under the spell of that racist presidential aberration, Trumpism, not only con-tracting his political virus, but also by becoming so enamoured of him.
Oh yes, his gift of gab and lying… All that more than his non-actions… for those who wasted their “love and admiration.”
To all those expendable Black quislings who kissed the ring of the would-be emperor, specious political cult leader, however you describe him, it’s time to come back into the natural fold; the reality show and cult caravan have reached their inevitable end.
Had the putsch been successful all of you might’ve been (ultimately) fingered in your respective communi-ties… for aiding and abetting that white supremacist and espousing his proverbial “law and order” racist diatribes, which ironically empowered his forces that had you under perpetual visual surveillance…
So, 2020 notwithstanding, and all that’s playing out so far in 2021, here’s wishing you all a happy, healthy, and especially productive year as it unfolds…
Meanwhile, I am what I n’yam… It’s what I always am. Ask Langston Hughes.