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See you at the next new cause of the week
Sep. 21st, 2011 01:48 pmI'm a little too tired and jaded to really be emotionally up about Troy Davis.
Which isn't to say it isn't fucked up, but rather, yes it's fucked up AND that it's fucked up the way in which white liberals hop onto a cause of the week and proceed to do what, for them, is the most entertaining and exciting form of protest, and also the least useful.
Racialized death sentencing is generations old. Police forcing false witness testimony is also not new. So now everyone's calling the governor and holding vigils.
Really?
Where's the forming of a solid voting block? How about getting together lawyers to draft some legislation (banning death penalties, better appeals processes, police accountability)? Will there be serious education about all of this, tomorrow, next week, or next year? Or will it all have disappeared, because none of that is as "fun" or exciting as having a rally?
I'm thinking also about all the white liberal folks who say they're up for "teaching Obama a lesson" - how nice and privileged it is to consider voting for someone else, people who aren't declaring you non-people and that your health rights or ability to have full rights under the law aren't in question.
I saw white people saying, "Don't play the race card!" when talking about Troy Davis. Really? With the next gay bashing, will we say, "Don't play the Queer card!!!"?
MLK's quote about the white moderate being a bigger obstruction to justice than the plain haters is still true. I think in these cases, we've got justice tourists- people who are happy to march so they can say they marched and feel good about themselves and it's really just too bad that people died/injustice happened anyway. It lets them enjoy their hate on for "the man" as a fun crusade, and not as something that deals with their community's survival or their own.
All the white savior narratives have them being worshipped for helping the POC and taking down the 1 or 2 white people running the hate operation, none of those stories show them having to sacrifice everything because white culture doesn't change easily, or without showing the worst of it's evil to those dismantling it.
It's easy to hold a vigil for a night. It's tough to live life on the job of changing things, because nearly everything needs to be changed.
Which isn't to say it isn't fucked up, but rather, yes it's fucked up AND that it's fucked up the way in which white liberals hop onto a cause of the week and proceed to do what, for them, is the most entertaining and exciting form of protest, and also the least useful.
Racialized death sentencing is generations old. Police forcing false witness testimony is also not new. So now everyone's calling the governor and holding vigils.
Really?
Where's the forming of a solid voting block? How about getting together lawyers to draft some legislation (banning death penalties, better appeals processes, police accountability)? Will there be serious education about all of this, tomorrow, next week, or next year? Or will it all have disappeared, because none of that is as "fun" or exciting as having a rally?
I'm thinking also about all the white liberal folks who say they're up for "teaching Obama a lesson" - how nice and privileged it is to consider voting for someone else, people who aren't declaring you non-people and that your health rights or ability to have full rights under the law aren't in question.
I saw white people saying, "Don't play the race card!" when talking about Troy Davis. Really? With the next gay bashing, will we say, "Don't play the Queer card!!!"?
MLK's quote about the white moderate being a bigger obstruction to justice than the plain haters is still true. I think in these cases, we've got justice tourists- people who are happy to march so they can say they marched and feel good about themselves and it's really just too bad that people died/injustice happened anyway. It lets them enjoy their hate on for "the man" as a fun crusade, and not as something that deals with their community's survival or their own.
All the white savior narratives have them being worshipped for helping the POC and taking down the 1 or 2 white people running the hate operation, none of those stories show them having to sacrifice everything because white culture doesn't change easily, or without showing the worst of it's evil to those dismantling it.
It's easy to hold a vigil for a night. It's tough to live life on the job of changing things, because nearly everything needs to be changed.
