Novel THOMAS
I have never heard so much talk and discussion about race and racism, descriptions like racialization, racialized peoples, minorities and whatever other terms white people have coined and injected into eve-ryday vernacular to describe nonwhite peoples. Something’s brewing… Could it be the “Change…” Sam Cooke lamented in his 1965 song?
These days white people, not all of them, just those with a conscience are run-ning for cover (the brave ones are speaking up) as people/victims of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds with historic generational unresolved grievances perpetrated over centuries (by generations of Europeans in the process of colo-nizing, enslaving, ravaging, or otherwise hard-done by history) are emerging from their apathy and confronting the 21st century offspring of their ancestors’ generational oppressors…
As far as African Americans go, call it an overdue reckoning of sorts, the result of America’s still unresolved history of African slavery and its centuries-old gen-erational impact.
It all came to a head the day another Black man became another victim of what has become America’s racist pastime, the police shooting of Black men. In this instance, George Floyd’s 8.46 minutes killing un-der the knee of Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin, which created a massive backlash and ‘blacklash’ and like a magnet drew thousands of people of every conceivable race and background onto the streets of America’s major cities to protest the wanton shootings.
Little did six-year-old Gianna know or understand, that her words would be embedded in the minds of many people for generations and written in the annals of history in relation to the fight for hu-man rights and social justice.
Her father’s involuntary personal (life’s) sacrifice has become a global clarion call for radical (anti-police, anti-racist and general social change to questionable social practices generations of Black people have endured.
The anti-police protests have fizzled, but what we witnessed for close to five weeks across North America, indeed the world for change — structural, anti-police, racist/racism… and their delete-rious impact on Black people and others who fit into the marginal-ized demographic(s) mentioned previously.
Call those protests we witnessed in the weeks of social uprising in the wake of George Floyd’s killing a sort of revenge of the slaves, a twenty-first century symbolic Nat Turner uprising.
And while some Black people question the toppling of gran-ite/concrete statues/images, symbols of white peoples… Europe-ans’ global conquest of nonwhite peoples and subsequent pillaging over the centuries, as a young Black man said at the height of the protests where George Floyd was killed: “We’re young people, a new generation, and we’re not taking it (wanton police killings of Black men… Black people) any more.
True, but jeers “White power…” jeers by a middle-aged white man with a broad grin as he and a woman, probably his wife, drove away in a golf cart from a Black Lives Matter/anti-police killing-of Black people melee in a South Florida community, is evidence that some white folk are always comfortable with the racist/racialized status quo.
“White Power…! Another illustration of how mentally embedded habits/practices die hard. What do they call them “learned behav-iours?”
That couple is symptomatic of what we Black people, and others who have been living under the sledge hammer-like fist of white supremacy and power structures are up against.
It took centuries and multiple generations of white absolute repres-sion and dominance to perfect, and will take generations of non-violent protests to demolish. The difference in this era (of history and Black and other oppressed/marginalization) is that new gen-erations of white people, inheritors of pst practices will continue to hold firm to the structures of their forbears’ ill-gotten gains and inhuman practices.
Meanwhile, the hell with, or fuddle duddle, America’s “racist in chief.” There’s a human being with ‘no’ redeeming qualities.
“Black Lives Matter” is not a slogan, let alone a racist one, as he re-cently suggested.
“Not enough can ever be said about the deep trauma and inter-generational suffering that has resulted from the racial injustice perpetrated through centuries, particu-larly against people of African descent. To merely con-demn expressions and acts of racism is not enough…”
An online opinion piece states.
So to you young Gianna Floyd continue to grow into a young woman, continue to pray that like your daddy you and other young (Black) people will not be sacrificed on America’s streets, the altar of many Black peoples final breath.
Your daddy indeed “changed the world.” But always be mindful that there’s much more work to be done. As you grow and mature think about your daddy and your life. And always be mindful that your life will always matter…
And be prepared to reap the benefits of the sacrifice of your daddy’s life.
The world didn’t know him, but those who knew him said in so many ways that he was a good man. The impact of his slow death allowed the world to see how America treats the people who, generations on, have been killed and dying on the battlefields at home and abroad to make ‘your country’ what it has become.
And bear in mind (the seed is planted in your fertile mind) that you’re not a second class human being; your blood also runs red.
Just continue to think of the sacrifice of your daddy being offered up as he called out to your grandmother and his “Mama” as her outstretched arm reached out to grab his…
