So many people spent the last ten years laughing at all the Black people who were busy discussing race when the Michael Brown tragedy hit, and then told all their Black friends that we were being too catastrophic. We saw Barack Obama get elected, and we were concerned about the kind of backlash we would be forced to endure. Having gone to an Ivy League, I already knew the dangers of enduring insecurity, even when my career kept me in my place and I worked several jobs. Unfortunately, when people are used to belittling the concerns of others, eventually they are surprised when presented with real challenges. Too many people spent so much time pretending that the past never happened that they never developed a strategy for fighting evil, even when confronted with it.
Refusing to confront the past is the same thing as pretending that the future is inevitable, and too many people thought that the future would continue to improve without considering who would benefit from improvements. To be fair, the “elites” have benefitted from all the improvements in society, mostly because they have been granted permission to do so through disparate electoral opportunities. The electoral college was built on slavery and was never truly readjusted, and having only two parties means rampant gerrymandering and self-righteousness. None of these issues were addressed, and too many imperial residents have spent their lives dreaming that nothing would be wrong if only their party was in charge. I would present the present collapse as evidence of that faulty logic.
Furthermore, ignoring the permutations of racism made it possible to thrive and have people not notice without addressing issues that could have benefitted everyone. I constantly see references to the prison industrial complex, redlining, urban renewal and slavery, and those things are mostly “nonviolent” violent acts that destroyed communities of color. Rarely do I see the repetition of algorithms, socioeconomic bigotry, or emotional abuse, although that has started to change as people are correctly branding the United States as narcissistic. It is crucial to note how racial has evolved because not acknowledging those patterns have allowed atrocities to flourish. Continuing to view racism as “historic” is dishonest and does more harm than good.
I should be clear that no one likes to be right about the downfall of a nation, especially when the concept of a “nation” is generally built on evil. Usually, there are several individuals doing what we can to warn others of impending doom, but people have been conditioned into toxic positivity and comfort. There is nothing that any prophets can offer if the only thing anyone ever looks for is profit. However, those who chose toxic positivity and comfort are now required to find strategies to clean up the mess they made because they refused to listen to people who were “negative.”
During the 2016 campaign and subsequent presidency, too many people made jokes out of evil, and sneered when Black people did all the work we did trying to avoid fascism. Now, many Black people are spending our time trying to share our truths at least with each other, knowing that we are the only ones who believe each other. There are several others who are spending their time trying to align themselves with us, but we remember where they were when we were actively pouring money into sharing our experiences with everyone else, and they wanted nothing to do with us. As we work to build our communities with limited resources that continue to shrink for those of us still playing “the game,” it becomes important to recognize that those with power need to actually strategize for combatting evil. Hoping all of this tragedy goes away with smiles and fine art will change nothing.
Chasing A Dying Empire 