Protests and Riots: The Personification of Grief and Trauma

As I have stated in previous blog posts, whether folks protest racism “peacefully” or “revolutionary”, it is always met by a visceral reaction from those that benefit from and obtain power by oppressing others. Fighting or speaking out against racism is always discounted as a radical assault on America. I will say this again, racism is one of the original sins of America.  

Being anti-racist in any form is considered revolutionary in America. Furthermore, being anti-racist has historically been costly for those that act, speak, or mobilize against it. Many Americans like to cite the methods of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as an example of how Black Americans should protest systemic racism and oppression. Unfortunately, the life and work of Dr. King are being used by some folks in a passive aggressive manner to muzzle the current movements against racial injustice. Freedom riders were beaten and killed during the Civil Rights Movement. Black Americans staged sit-ins at segregated lunch counters during the Civil Rights era and were spit on, beaten, etc. by White Americans. Peaceful protesters of yesteryear and today are met with rubber bullets, tear gas, attack dogs, and other forms of excessive force by law enforcement. For decades, supporters of the equitable treatment of BIPOC have been harassed, injured, and murdered by the keepers of the systems of law and order.

Let us take a few steps back and analyze this country for what it really is. Violence and looting are the American way. How do you think this land was stolen from the Native Americans? How do you think the British declared independence after they colonized America? How do you think slavery survived in America for several centuries? There was an entire Civil War for the sake of maintaining the institution on slavery. Some White Americans just are not ready to unpack the underbelly of the countless blood, sweat, and tears wet in the soil and soul of America. We will not see or make the quintessential progress needed until we acknowledge these truths.

Some people seem to be more worried about buildings and property than they are about human life. Violence is never the answer, but it is too often justified when the victims of violence are Black or Brown. As Dr. King stated, “the riot is the language of the unheard…our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay”. Please keep this in mind when making arguments for or against police brutality. Please keep these things in mind when crafting your viewpoints on the lives of Jacob Blake, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and the countless others. It is not your right to put your knee on my neck and demand that I shut-up as I choke for air to breathe! It is not your right to chain me to my hospital bed after leaving me paralyzed because you shot me in the back numerous times. It is not your right to break into my home in the middle of the night and riddle me with bullets as I sleep. It is not your right to chase me down the street in your pick-up truck and kill me like an animal on the side of the road. The high levels of support by the good American people for these displays of barbaric audacity, is completely deplorable.

Black America has been crying out for justice for far too long. The progress toward justice and racial reconciliation has been slow and minimal, at best! As for the riots and protests that have so many troubled these days, people are processing generational trauma and grief due to systemic racism. Nobody gets to tell anyone how they should process their own grief & trauma. At minimum, empathize before casting judgment.