Nobody ever believed he was real… Nobody ever knew him or saw anybody that ever worked directly for him. But to hear Kobayashi tell it, ANYBODY could have worked for Soze. You never knew… THAT was his power. The greatest trick The Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. —– Roger “Verbal” Kint, The Usual Suspects
I’m seeing a LOT of positivity coming from a number of people that I’m Connected with through social media. They’re focusing on how the Minneapolis Community, in particular, has come together to clean up and attempt to repair the damage done during the recent riots. They’re putting spotlights on the Unity, the good deeds. I’m not gonna lie… It does make me feel a little better about where we may be headed moving forward. It really does… Emphasis on A Little.
But what happens once the noise dies down? What happens once the news cycle has moved along (and it WILL move along, as that’s the nature of The Beast)?
The Kumbaya Moment will have passed and we will go back to Status Quo.
There are a LOT of people currently squirming in their discomfort. A LOT. While checking Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds don’t necessarily do it justice in terms of The Real World, I believe that it IS representative. I’ve been lucky enough not to see much on my personal feed that sets me off.
But I ain’t gonna lie… I see PLENTY OF shit that sets me off.
Let’s address that, shall we?
I see people struggling to understand; people whose hearts are in the right place. I see a LOT of people whose eyes are, once again, being uncovered because the veil has been lifted for them SLIGHTLY. They can’t fathom what people like me go through on a daily basis; they can’t understand what it would be like to have to live your ENTIRE LIFE on FULL RED ALERT every time you walk out the door… EVERY. TIME.
Therein lies the problem. The veil’s been lifted; after things quiet down again, MANY of those individual veils are going right back where they were before. THIS is the part that pisses so many of us off; that causes so many of us to feel like we aren’t being heard. THIS is the reason for the fight in our souls against Hopelessness; for the understanding that we have that this particular struggle, no matter how much noise we make, WON’T move very much.
Some of y’all will think that it’s cynical of me to say. You’ll even go so far as to say that it speaks to a distrust in Humanity; a point of view that you’ll argue defeats the purpose in sharing all of my thoughts to begin with.
BUT THAT’S THE POINT. I DO NOT share the Faith in People’s desire to be better that MANY of you have. I’ve seen the shit that some of y’all have posted since the protests began. I’ve seen how insensitive some of y’all are to the plight of others. I’ve seen how some of you cling to Your Religion, Your Politics, Your “Moral” and “Ethical Codes” in the name of mistreating those that you don’t understand, that you don’t like, that you don’t believe should share the same air that you breathe.
I’ve seen a member of the LGBTQ Community posting memes saying:
Someone ran over a protester.
Yeah well, it’s a highway, so…
That same person posted a meme of Robert Downey, Jr. with a relieved expression on his face, the caption: When you thought you hit a dog but turns out it was a looter while simultaneously posting the rainbow bar with the caption: Be careful who you hate. It could be someone you love.
I’ve seen the meme posted by some people of the semi with blood and gore across the front of the cab with the caption: Just drove through Minneapolis. Didn’t see any protesters.
So… Let me be clear: while those of you that this applies to figuratively sit in your moral and ethical underground bunkers, protected by your like-minded people who allow you to distance yourselves from those whom you fear because you KNOW, in your hearts, THAT THE BULLSHIT AIN’T RIGHT, THAT THE OUTRAGE HAS BEEN EARNED, THAT THE CHANGES YOU DESPERATELY HOPE WILL NEVER COME TO PASS ARE BEING SPOTLIGHTED:
I SEE YOU… CLEARLY. YOU’VE SHOWN ME YOUR HEARTS.
To the so-called Christians that are constantly spouting about how EVERYONE should love one another while you sit behind the safety of your keyboard KNOWING that you’ll NEVER get treated like I do… JUDGING ME FOR MY ANGER AND MY DESIRE TO LASH OUT AT THE WAY THE SYSTEM MISTREATS ME AND MINE… I SEE YOU.
To the “colleagues” that I see gathering with your groups of like-minded people in your Facebook threads, singing the praises of the solidarity of your communities while showing your ignorance at the entire situation because YOU ARE INCONVENIENCED that people have protested MAN’S INHUMANITY TO MAN in ways that YOU DON’T APPROVE OF… I SEE YOU.
To the “friends” that ignore the fact that there are those who infiltrate peaceful protests, Caucasian AND “minority”, to start riots and looting then have the UNMITIGATED GALL to say That’s Antifa hired to make us look bad or to proclaim that THOSE PEOPLE are so stupid that they’ll destroy their own property in the name of Justice; that DARE lump peaceful protesters with those who are CLEARLY chaotic actors looking to further stoke division, looking to taint the narrative, looking to burn the entire world down because THAT pleases them… I. SEE. YOU.
I see your resistance to believing that Institutional Racism is alive and well. I see your resistance to hearing the cries, seeing the tears, witnessing the literal SHEDDING OF BLOOD and the EXTINGUISHING OF LIVES of those of us that are getting sodomized by the system with indifference, at best and Good… They DESERVE the treatment that they’re receiving in your hearts. I see you wishing that we’d just keep on taking it and taking it and taking it with smiles on our faces; responding with Thank you sir/ma’am… Might I have some more? because that allows you to remain in your Safe Space; allows you to feel like YOUR Reality is left untouched, untainted.
It’s one thing NOT to know what you don’t know. It’s one thing to be ignorant because you don’t have the experience. It’s UNACCEPTABLE to be WILLFULLY IGNORANT. It’s UNACCEPTABLE, in THIS day, THIS age, where you have the potential for unlimited information that fits in the palm of your hand to refuse to use it. It’s UNACCEPTABLE that people who proclaim their high levels of intelligence to be so woefully uneducated.
To those who side with The Oppressor… Racism is much like “Verbal’s” portrayal of Keyser Soze; of The Devil: It DOESN’T happen to me… It CAN’T happen to me… So it doesn’t exist. More of y’all side with The Oppressor than will ever dare admit. Even those of you who are persecuted for reasons that have NOTHING to do with how much pigment you have in your skin EASILY have a death grip on that particular false narrative.
Of all of the disappointing realizations for those of us that are victimized, THAT’S EASILY among the most disappointing, the most frustrating, the most maddening of all.
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