There are so many people who are angry about how Black people refuse to engage with the revived administration, and we have heard all of those opinions because it has always been acceptable to disrespect Black people. Emotional manipulation is the real way that we remain enslaved because in abuse dynamic, most people in the empire focus on the target rather than the abuser, thanks to centuries of conditioning. However, despite what people remember, Black people–particularly women–were bred to work long days and be sexually assaulted all night, all while enduring excessive emotional abuse–for free. Because Black people have stepped back, people are finally revealing their true opinions of us, and instead of fight back, we are letting them face themselves.
It was considered a major “win” for the Black community to finally have Juneteenth celebrated as a federal holiday. Having known someone from Galveston, there were many dinners and meetings with state officials that went unanswered for decades. Unfortunately, this “win” was not as a result of the tireless efforts of the Galvestonians, but an election strategy for Joe Biden, which worked. Almost none of the other requests from the Black community have been respected, but a day off was supposed to be considered a “win.” Without Black people protesting in the streets and enduring all the consequences we endured for centuries, the primary beneficiaries of the dominant narrative are finally seeing how little they have done to dismantle oppression.
Moreover, the prevalence of anti-Black hatred is becoming obvious from non-white people, who were used by the dominant narrative to inspire hatred against us. All over social media, people are trying to threaten us with the idea that Black people will eventually be targeted. Fortunately, Black people have already endured emotional abuse for centuries, and have already been targeted on a regular basis by everyone, including them. In fact, one of the reasons that Los Angeles was protest-famous in my lifetime was because of the Rodney King protests in 1992, also called “riots” to inspire anti-Black violence. While Black people observe from the side, there are non-white communities are revealing the brokenness in their community that clings to the dominant narrative at the expense of others.
Another group of people who are seeing the light are farmers, who finally understand that the agricultural industry only functions with slavery, and the scale means that it is impossible to maintain without exploitation. Suburban and rural insulation from the pain of the world meant that people could lie to themselves for decades, believing that farms occurred with hard-working small families. Meanwhile, there were movies depicting farms as small, even though the industrialization meant that the agricultural needs of the empire were at a scale that no small farms could sustain. Even the farmers hated migrants, who were moved around to prove a point by callous governors who were seeking attention. Because of the ICE raids attacking migrants, people stopped showing up the farms. There have actually been farmers demanding that Black people show up to work on farms because of our melanin, which helps us avoid skin cancer. We have actually looked at them with disgust for letting their hatred control their livelihood, and no one is looking to sustain the agricultural industrial complex.
Black people have been blamed for our “violence,” “stupidity,” and “laziness” for centuries, all while we have been doing our level best to live beyond reproach. At this time, we cannot be blamed for doing nothing but observing, because everyone else is losing their minds without our direct involvement. In abuse dynamics, people are beginning to understand that abuse only ends with the target steps away, and now that we have stepped away, everyone is being shown how unstable and fragile the “peace” and “normality” always were. Violence is cascading through the empire, and nobody is interested in “conversations” designed to coerce submission, or publicity stunts that will be reversed when people feel moved.
All this behavior proves that no matter how Black people struggle, the system depends on our willingness to suffer, so that will never end in the United States. What people are also being forced to confront is that they have no desire for our suffering to end, because the “democracy” of the empire depends on exploitation, oppression, and sycophants willing to condone such conditions. Everyone laughed at our pain and made of point of further disrespecting our struggles, while demanding that we “educate” and “come together” for free while they stayed comfortable and never endured the wrath of the dominant narrative. Now that their bodies are on the line, suddenly everything we were saying makes sense, but after burning that bridge, there would have to be tangible acknowledgments of the pain caused. After all, holidays and art that gets destroyed are far from adequate.
Chasing A Dying Empire 