Police have been murdering Black people with impunity since the counter-reconstruction. A tiny class of obscenely wealthy people has been hoovering up society's resources for 20 years while working people have seen their present security and future hopes washed away. The everyday affronts and humiliations, and grinding inequality faced by people who are not of the dominant caste has been a basic structural feature of U.S. society, and societies all over the world, for all of history.
We've seen outbreaks of protest after previous police murders, they faded away, and nothing changed. Now, all of a sudden, not just the entire nation, but most of the world, is in revolt. Just like that. Overnight. And a whole lot of people who have enjoyed white privilege get it, and are joining in solidarity. We see the prospect of real change. Will we tax the rich, to pay for the essential infrastructure of a livable society and planet? Will we fundamentally reconceptualize policing, and we redirect resources from oppressing the people to serving their needs? Will we finally confront the deeply embedded racism in our society and root it out?
What seemed impossible two weeks ago seems possible today. What happened? You could say that people all over the world have finally had enough. Maybe the repulsive evil maniac in the White House pushed them over the edge. Maybe the pandemic crisis caused not only suffering, but also reflection followed by determination. People knew we were facing a crisis that demanded courage and solidarity, and then they saw that we are in the midst of multiple crises that we need to confront together. I don't know.
But I do know that social change can happen this way, astonishingly abruptly, for better or for worse. When the Massachusetts supreme judicial court legalized same sex marriage, I thought the backlash would destroy liberal politics. Instead, the culture changed like a suddenly collapsing glacier and what seemed impossible 15 years ago is taken for granted today. Maybe we are seeing the dawn of a new age. But we need to kick that evil cabal out of power.
1 comment:
Perhaps this seems simplistic, but take all the abuse that's been thrown at people for so long in the U.S. (and elsewhere), add to it no health care + pandemic + lots of free time NOT at work, which usually keeps everyone so fucking busy trying to stay afloat, and you have ... time to protest in the streets and MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD!
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