Black lives being constantly endangered isn’t a new phenomenon at all. It’s rooted deeply in the American psyche, serving as the backbone for its development. The infrastructures of the cities and towns that are homes to millions of Americans were quite literally constructed on the backs of enslaved people. With everything going on across the country, it’s vital that this fact is understood. The fight for Black lives isn’t just a matter of civil rights – it’s a matter of human rights.
This is particularly why police brutality and bigotry cannot be viewed solely through a colonialist, American lens. Citizens of other countries may not be cognizant of the particularities of American history, but life, equity and dignity are non-negotiable, universal rights.
When privileged people and companies post about injustice not to raise awareness or facilitate discourse, but rather to seek validation, self-gratification and revenue, they are engaging in performative activism. It’s posting black squares on social media without sharing resources on the movement or boosting Black voices. It’s calling for non-violence without acknowledging the deep-seated cultures of anti-Blackness and white supremacy that begot the need for firm protests in the first place. These actions are despicable, considering they dilute the suffering of Black people down to personal brand fodder.
When Bollywood celebrities condemn the murder of George Floyd while staying silent about caste-based killings and Islamophobia rampant throughout India, they act to secure their brands. Speaking out against the latter would affect their primarily-Indian fanbase, and speaking out against the former constitutes just enough activism to make them feel like they’re doing something.
Likewise, when diasporic Sri Lankans speak on the ruthlessness of the National Guard’s deployment in the United States while neglecting to address the heinous genocide orchestrated against the Tamil people by their own armed forces, they’ve prioritized their vested political interests over accountability. When they wave the Sri Lankan flag around at Black Lives Matter protests, they’re amalgamating a prejudiced, anti-Tamil symbol with a cogent movement demanding justice.
And when Israeli, Chinese or Brazilian Americans denounce racism in the West while remaining taciturn vis-à-vis settler colonialism, eco-fascism, majoritarianism and queerphobic policymaking within their countries of origin, they’ve dedicated themselves to centrist diplomacy, not righteousness. They’ve demonstrated that their so-called solidarity stems from a desire to hop on a societal bandwagon, not from concern for the Black condition. This is beyond disrespectful to George Floyd and to the countless other lives cut short by oppressive, white supremacist institutions. Black lives are not a conduit for marketing. It’s sickening to think some have regarded them as such.
Black people are commodified by a Western world that becomes seemingly more capitalistic by the week. They’re celebrated through the lenses of cultural contributions or sexual appeal or sob stories or peace, but when taken out of the select contexts that the white patriarchy deems suitable for them, they’re vilified. There’s an ideological reason why white people celebrate Dr. King but not Malcolm X, relatively speaking.
Malcolm X, an inspiration of mine, doesn’t have a national holiday, while Dr. King does. Both were powerful activists, of course, but Malcolm X operated from the standpoint that white people, whose current-day privilege is rooted in centuries of violent pillaging, would not willingly renounce their entitlement without a physical fight, a fact that white people did not take well to.
It’s the same white people who dislike Malcolm X for advocating for violent revolution toward justice who also dismiss the countless acts of genocide, torture and rape that the white race has perpetrated through white imperialism. Such selective outrage is embedded in elitism. Western theft of countries around the world and the erasure of cultural equity is overlooked by the white populace, while the so-called “looting” of protesters is seen as “infringement” on property that capitalist forces have monopolized for decades. The largest example of ongoing looting is, in fact, the withholding of wages earned rightfully by workers, particularly those from marginalized communities. Denying this is ignorance.
Such ignorance is also why the mainstream media irresponsibly decides to use the passive voice. The lie of objectivism has permeated journalism to the point where it has become a disservice to truth. Black bodies aren’t injured: They’re tortured. Black bodies aren’t dead: They’re killed. Other journalists report on protests with tunnel vision, linking them only to George Floyd without connecting them to the larger issue of racism and police brutality.
Policing is inherently classist and historically racist. The abolition of police forces and the implementation of community enforcement in its stead has proven to be a more egalitarian approach. Author Ta-Nehisi Coates said it well: racism is the child of race, not the father. The protests in Minneapolis and across North America are not acts of violence, but of self-defense. Almost no major media outlets have highlighted this fact. There comes a certain point when journalistic truth is lost in the name of faux objectivism.
Such bigotry is not limited to the white race. Black people also suffer bigotry that is internalized and manifested by other people of color. As such, equating these terms would be fallacious. Black people face much more subjugation than other people of color, and that’s a fact. Asian Americans, for instance, haven’t spent nearly the same energy uplifting Black lives as they have consuming Black art – the fruits of Black labor.
The discomfort white people and non-Black people of color have experienced is not even a drop in the ocean of discrimination Black people have faced and continue to face. Racism has no neutral position. Fighting against it is the bare minimum. It’s disconcerting that much of America continues to need reminders that everyone must stand with the movement, not for self-recognition or brand promotion, but because the tenets of justice demand it.
