Black Lives Matter- Choosing What to Stand for
America is burning.
Riots have erupted all across the country in protest against the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year old African American man at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. The police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck for 8 minutes and 48 seconds, suffocating George until he breathed his last. This incident is only the latest in a series of incidents of police brutality towards African Americans. However, it was a spark that rekindled memories of vicious incarcerations, unfair trials and the perpetual fear and discrimination perpetuated against this specific group of people in the supposed ‘land of the free’. Martin Luther King once said, ‘a riot is the language of the unheard’. And that is exactly what is happening as African Americans and others who believe in their cause are taking to the streets, raising their voices, crying out against the disgusting racism that still flies without consequence. Meanwhile, law enforcement and the National Guard have been deployed against the very people they are meant to protect, raising their teargas and helmets above their pedestals of power. And Donald Trump says ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts’, smirks and brandishes a Bible as the world watches in horror.
I too watch in horror. I scroll with nervous trepidation through my social media feed, gulping as I see yet another post about systemic racism and the need to support the African American struggle. Black lives matter. I hear the fumes of the people who cry out for social justice who warn me ‘those who are silent are complicit’. I don’t want to be complicit. But I can’t say anything.
Closer to home, many in Australia are reflecting upon these cries of help from America- and are remembering our own dark history of systematic dispossession, oppression and disposal of our First Nations people, that continues today. First Nations people are amongst the most incarcerated in the world. In 2019, for every 10,000 First Nations adults, 2,481 were in prisons, compared to 164 non-Indigenous people[1]. Australia has one of the best OECD health rankings in the world, yet if we look at it within the country according to demography, the disparity in health conditions between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples is shocking. First Nations people are routinely deprived of their land, water, language, cultural rights, history and ways of life. They are treated as tokens, respected in name alone- and the latest Rio Tinto mine blast in the area of the Juukan Gorge in Western Australia which destroyed two 46,000 year old deep time rock shelters, despite it being a sacred place and genetic link to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and the Pinikura people[2], is testimony to the fact that they are not a priority. This is racism. Overt racism. Scott Morrison has said ‘thank god Australia is not America’, and I agree that we are not. But in some ways, we are as bad. And at least on social media, people are waking up to this fact.
I am Australian. I am a fervent believer in the First Nations cause. This always was and always will be Aboriginal land, and I am glad that the movement in America is reminding us in Australia about this. Surely, I join hands with the cause and voice my anger now? After all, as my friends on Instagram have said, ‘those who are silent are complicit’. But still I can’t say anything.
I am someone who typically thinks a lot before coming to conclusions and voicing my opinions about events such these. Perhaps this is because I have been brought up by a father who believes in reading and thinking to formulate an opinion of balance, and a mother who focuses on problems but never an ideology. Take the positives and negatives of both sides, they say, for every act, every belief has shades of grey. Except in this case, the boundaries between white and black have never been clearer.
So why can’t I say anything?
Perhaps it is the expectation and fear of rebuttal from some of my closest friends, who view institutions of oppression as ‘a bit dramatic’ and the recognition of these oppressive structures as ‘political correctness’. They would be the first to argue with me about my views- they who give themselves the right to use the N word, they who slather black entitlement onto their brown skin and don’t even consider that their privileged backs could never bear the weight of centuries of slavery and subjugation. My friends listen to hip-hop and fancy drugs and watch Black gangster shows in the hope that being black can fill a vacancy in their own brown self-image. Yet I know they would be the first to pounce on me if I spoke, and I must say, I am in no mood for explanations.
Perhaps that is the reason. Or maybe I can’t say anything because I know that words have power. In this world in which the Internet and social media have made us smaller and better connected than ever before, the injustices in the world are more visible. Problems in the world have always existed, it’s just that now my friend’s cousin’s problem is also my own. I know that in order to keep from going mad falling headfirst into a billion causes, I must choose what to care deeply about. And I know I have made a conviction to stand up to those who do not have a voice at all.
Our earth is a living system that is dying. Unchecked growth brought about by misplaced goals and failed ideologies, short term thinking rather than long-term vision and a base of callousness, greed and apathy are driving our planet into chaos. The oceans are rising, lands are burning, species are dying- we are steadily reaching tipping points that we cannot turn back from. But if a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, no one knows it fell. Because whatever Martin Luther King has said, unheard trees, unlike unheard people, cannot riot.
India, my country, is home to some of most of the most systematically oppressed people in the world. Historically, Indian society is enmeshed and inseparable from caste. Dalits, India’s ‘untouchables’ are still viewed as dirty, at the very bottom of the caste hierarchy based on idiotic ideas of purity, suitable only for menial labour, sexual abuse, harassment and killing. Adivasis, India’s Indigenous tribal groups are viewed as ‘wild’ and ‘savage’, uncivilised peoples who need to be ‘integrated’ into India. Emancipatory politics from these groups, riots that the world now cheers in America, are inflamed by the Indian government as ‘anti-national’, or ‘terrorist activities’, while those who accept their downgraded position are viewed as a super-exploitable workforce whose control is enforced by the police, states and corporate capital[3]. The struggles of Dalits and Adivasis (and Muslims) in India is a completely unheard one, drowned out in sweeping statements of historical relevance and Indian civilisation. My brown skin in Australia takes on a sneaky shade of white in India. Like many of the white people we are seeing today who do not recognise their own privilege, many people in my family take their privilege of being upper-middle class Hindu Brahmins for granted. Except this time, the world does not condemn it. Because the issue of caste is not as visible as issues of race. Different shades of brown are not as discernible as black and white.
India as a country or the earth as an entity is not America. The entire world looks to America, and this gives this country power. America has the power to create policy windows that perhaps no other country, no other people and no other entity has. It can flash its lights and bring tons of eyes, arms and funds to its cause. This is not to say that this cause- for Black power, for equality, for an end to systemic racism is winning. On the contrary; we are seeing that power structures are incredibly hard to dismantle. But everyone, regardless of their skin tone, has some skin in the game in America. It is only with a hint of amusement that I see some of the privileged Indians I know rushing to their aid and reproaching the police brutality of African Americans and ‘people of colour’ while consciously turning a blind eye to the atrocities committed at home. Perhaps, like ‘white privilege’ this is ‘America’s privilege’.
All lives matter. But right now, at this moment, black lives matter. And they are yelling for the world to hear them. Rioting. Seeking to tear down the system. When will a Dalit or an Adivasi be given the chance to roar, receive funding, admiration and approval, rather than guns, mines and condescending smiles? When will climate change protestors be given hammers to shatter the walls of the fossil fuel industry and face teargas with fury rather than assenting to peaceful walks in the park and speeches of a world that at this rate may never be?
Race. Sex. Caste. Creed. Slash any or all of these bodies with a dagger made of impenetrable class and you see the raw flesh of what academics call ‘structural violence’ or ‘conjugated oppression’. But if you shut out the noise and look at it closely, in all its nakedness, you can see it for all that it is- the subjugation, dispossession and vilification of a people who are stuck in luck-of-the-draw categories that were never supposed to exist in the first place.
The system must be broken slowly but surely, and a new one built in its place. Right now, my African American brothers and sisters are fighting for a chance to rebuild a part of it. A part that will impact them. Their fight is a necessary, real and deeply worthy one. But it is not mine. I have every obligation to educate myself, check my own biases and recognise how I can be an ally to their cause. But moral boundaries of black and white are easy to condemn. A better world also requires that we change our perceptions of areas of grey. This is where I choose to draw my weapons. It’s time to set riots in minds.
[1] Molloy, S., 2020. Aussies watching the US erupt over the death of a black man at the hands of a police officer, thinking it is worlds away, need to wake up, news.com.au, 4 June 2020. Available at: https://www.news.com.au/national/george-floyd-australia-isnt-a-world-away-indigenous-deaths-in-custody-occur-frequently/news-story/4cc094a9b567510b40ca18efd0bc6d21
It's great that you chose to respond to this in your own way . It makes the opinion more effective ! And I think that's important , to engage with the events at hand and make up your own mind first
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