#BlackLivesMatter isn’t “Unrest,” it’s a Wake Up Call.
The world is a heavy, loud place right now. We are experiencing a pandemic and somehow that has passed to a secondary plane given the social altercations that are taking place worldwide. Right now there is tension between world powers, races, genders and ideologies but that is not fresh news. Particularly resonating right now is the #BlackLivesMatter movement that is once again gaining momentum through protests across the United States after the on-camera manslaughter of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis Police Department officer, Derek Cauvin. This is the droplet of water that spilled from overflowing glass of injustice.
Now, as a white, female, Latina with decent socioeconomic status that once lived in the U.S. but now lives in Latin America, sometimes I feel that I’m overstepping in a fight that there is no way I completely relate to. In other words, I am a child of privilege that resides in a world that inadvertently favors me. However, that questioning thought goes away when I remember that from the platform of privilege there are two options: to stay where I am and comfortably lament the world we live in and look the other way because it’s uncomfortable and stressful or use it in order to be loud and inform about what is wrong and become an ally to the causes that I believe in and stand for. Staying silent is equivalent to complicity. The same kind of complicity that the officer next to Derek Cauvin participated in, making him an accessory to manslaughter.
Violent riots have exploded across the United States in the past few days. Consequently, Derek Cauvin was charged with manslaughter and third-degree murder. What does that mean? That the people in charge want unrest to settle so they put a band-aid for a failed system that continues to oppress any and all groups that are a minority and have low economic status, particularly afro-descendants. What is sought with this movement, from my perspective, is the reformation of a system that fails the very people that pay for it to continue running. The officers that are supposed to protect the people as a whole are seen as a threat by those very same people. It is time for everyone, including public officials, to be held accountable for their actions. To complete their duty which is to serve and protect the population, not terrorize it.
The violence taking place and fires burning are a cry for help that followed decades of peaceful protests. Cries for help for a system whose penitentiary system is filled with mainly people of color, something I witnessed firsthand when I visited the Metro-West Detention Center in Miami-Dade county in Florida. In a room of approximately 50 inmates, maybe one or two were white. Coincidence or proof of the probabilities game that the system has become? The entire state controlling system needs reform. The criminal justice system is one of the most urgent. If peaceful demonstrations do not accomplish that basic end goal of equality then violent ones will continue to arise. Attempting to repress them with brutal force from behalf of the police and National Guard, as Donald Trump threatened via-Twitter will only backfire aggressively.
As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “a riot is the language of the unheard.”
What makes a race superior to another? Absolutely nothing. Did the world forget what was learned after World War 2? With the amount of available knowledge and technology it is pathetic to consider something as mundane as color as an adequate mechanism to identify the worth of a person. There is no such mechanism. It is archaic behavior that was less blatant in the late 19th century when the first European colonization of Africa began and skin color was “evidence” of potentially dangerous differences (this is for illustrative purposes, not justifying the atrocities committed in those times). In the globalized world we live in, it’s inexcusable.
So what is left to do when the world’s hegemonic leader proliferates, protects and endorses this type of behavior? Revolution. It is not the first option, it is not the second, the third or perhaps even the 25th but the people are tired and it’s time to demand the liberty that is promised in the U.S. Declaration of Independence but not guaranteed by the ruling administrations. The law must be applied equally to all and those who break it must be sentenced accordingly and consistently. This is not a matter of what race is better or even anyone demanding anything outrageous. All that is being demanded is fairness and representation. Liberty and equality are non-negotiable clauses of the modern social contract and that’s final.
Click here to donate directly to Black Lives Matters.
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This piece is part of The Pandemic Diaries: a personal series of stories, anecdotes and 12am thoughts that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. All written and published during the isolation period.
