A Better world

This is not what I expected to be writing as part of my debut in the blogging world.

Then again, neither is this is the world I looked forward to a year ago.

The world is on fire.

We’ve heard that before, about climate change ravaging the planet; and for most of 2020 because a virus is spreading like wildfire, confining us to our homes in order to flatten the curve and prevent more deaths.

It’s quite possible that the rising up against racism sparked by George Floyd’s murder at the hands of the police May 25 is, at least in part, the result of the shelter at home protocols that left us paying more attention to the world, attached to our mobile devices and the internet in an effort to remain connected.

After all, Black people have been murdered for nothing more than existing in this world for centuries without much of a ripple in the capitalist-patriarchy continuum of colonial white privilege.

Janaya Future Khan deconstructs the project of white privilege, that has been systemic in our education and institutions for centuries; she describes quite elegantly that defunding the police is necessary to redistribute resources and ensure every single human has access to housing and wellness and safety. It is a necessary and proper adjustment to address this systemic evil. You can hear what she has to say in its entirety here.

“The despair you are feeling right now is something inside you saying something is just not right.”

“It’s time to step outside this project of whiteness because that is not who you are.”

I feel that. I’ve been feeling that for a long time. Perhaps you have been too.

Mehcad Brooks speaks to us from the Church of Anti-Racism here encouraging us to look at the world differently, to deconstruct the language of black and white adopted by European settlers to demonize differences in order for the state to roll profitably along.

“Perhaps this is the great awakening.”

“Perhaps we’ve been given the invitation to the greatest spiritual awakening the world has known”

“We don’t want your sympathy, we don’t want your apologies; we don’t want your feelings of guilt. We want your acknowledgement that this is the worst atrocity done to a group of people in the modern world. And then just begin the healing process of that. Why is that so hard?”

I encourage you to take the time to watch, listen and learn, to examine your hearts, to find the ways of taking action personally and in our communities, to support and demand change.

There is the despair and horror and discomfort of self-examination in these days for me. But I also feel hope and energy and optimism that a better world is possible, and that maybe, just maybe, it’s closer than I believed to be in 2019.

This is not what I expected to be writing as part of my debut in the blogging world.

But quite frankly, I have no desire to return us to our regular programming.