People vs. Animals

The president hasn’t demonstrated any desire in wanting to unite the country recently or any modicum of diplomacy, so when he shut down the government for over a month in response to not getting funding for his stupid wall, I must say, I wasn’t surprised. Was anyone?!

What I was surprised about was how little I knew about the effects of a government shutdown and the number of people it impacted. I was surprised by how many people were employed by the US GOV’T living paycheck to paycheck - I’ve certainly been there - and I was surprised by the unapologetic callousness of the Right. I know the latter shouldn’t have come as a surprise considering their profound disregard for humanity, but seeing how politicians really didn’t do anything to stop the shutdown, how disinterested they were in coming to an agreement, how persistently stubborn they were at the expense of people’s lives- it was alarming to witness. I just don’t understand how anyone can continue to support the Republican party as it is now. It’s representing less and less of the American people and they don’t seem to give one f-ck that their base is dwindling. Ah, their base is a whole other ball game. The people who blindly concede to leadership that has no plans to include solutions to their actual problems with any sort of viable policy. Instead, they use fear and white supremacy disguised as patriotism to brainwash people into believing the “preservation of whiteness” is going to solve all of their problems. News flash: IT’S NOT.

The sentiment that these rich, greedy politicians are going to somehow “save us” from economic plight is getting so old, and so exhausting to debunk. Minds that far gone can’t be changed. I still day dream of sending all of the bigots to an island where there’s nothing “foreign,” so there’s just dirt and grass, maybe some trees, and absolutely no amenities that people of color have had a hand in, so they can really “stay true” to their ways and live lives devoid of happiness , wonder, and spices.

Speaking of crazy ideas, I did want to touch on another sentiment I’ve seen being circulated around the internet and that’s- get this- the comparison of human life to animals.

Let me start this off by saying I love animals, though, I’m not a vegan, and I wholeheartedly believe in human rights and animal rights respectively. HOWEVER the strange, and honestly, downright maddening outrage for people who abuse animals versus the justification given to police who kill unarmed people has become beyond bothersome.

I will never forget that moment a few years ago when Cecil the lion was shot and Jimmy Kimmel cried on air. I think this is when I started thinking about the way WP react to animal cruelty vs. human cruelty. The amount of outrage I saw about the lion being shot wasn’t remotely comparable to the emotions from the white community to any of the police brutality at the time. I know there were white people who were and always have been outraged by police shootings but this isn’t about them. This is about a wave of people coming to the defense of this beautiful animal, with genuine sadness. An amazing consensus indeed. We were all stunned and disgusted by these imbeciles. But some of these same people virtually ignored this homicidal epidemic.

My question is, where was that unifying disgust and outrage when it came to police brutality? Instead what I see is the harsh judgment of lives and situations, not a universal upset about the disproportionate number of unarmed people of color being assaulted and killed. People feel it necessary to scrutinize the lives of innocent individuals dying at the hands of police instead of joining the outcry to surface these obviously racist confrontations. It’s not just police brutality that’s subjected to these comparisons, but the treatment of inmates as well. People who are taken into the system somehow lose their humanity in the minds of these disturbing people who are so self-righteous, they believe the life of someone who stole a box of cheerios and winds up in sing sing is no longer worth protecting. No, it was the victim of brutality or prisoner’s fault for “not adhering to simple laws” so they deserve death/mistreatment - I have literally seen someone comment this in response to the prisoners who were protesting not being given appropriate heat. The same commenter later said, animals were innocent so deserve to be treated better than “those criminals.”

And let me also clarify that it is mostly black lives that are under attack in these detrimental, misguided arguments. The fact that animals are brought up at all is a fundamental issue with this country and the thought process about police brutality/the prison system. Animals have rights, yes, and they should, but these rights should not be involved in conversations about the mistreatment of HUMANS. I will never stop saying how slavery’s effects persist today and they are alive and rampant in the prison/judicial system. No. In the fabric of our society, ever so carefully and completely woven in.

I do want to point out the Tiffany Haddish video about her wearing fur until police brutality stops to raise awareness and further show how f-cked up American society is, proving her point through the insane comments to the video. In this respect, it was necessary to raise awareness, and I personally though it was a powerful declaration. It certainly pissed a lot of people off, and I totally understand why, but I hope those people also reexamine their anger and empathize with what she’s ultimately saying. Seriously, go read these comments. So insane.

All in all, animals absolutely deserve to be protected, but SO DO HUMANS- especially unarmed, innocent ones and it’s not helpful or productive to continue bringing up animal rights when it comes to fucking humanity.

Fight me.

Friday Night Micro-Aggression Session.

I went to a symphony concert last night. It was last minute- my friend invited me just hours before. I went straight from work to meet up with my friend. No time to change, so I wasn’t wearing my finest threads, but didn’t look reprehensible. 
The concert was absolutely beautiful. The music was mostly by Brazilian composers and no joke one of the compositions sounded like something straight out of Wakanda. It was by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Chôros No. 10, “Rasaga o Coração.”

Afterward, we went to the reception since my other friend’s mom was in the orchestra. She was lovely. Anyway, the friend who invited me (also a poc) and I were standing and eating near the bar when a white man rolls up next to us while we’re mid-bite and starts talking.

     “My friends and I are wondering where all these people are coming from. Did you go to the show,” heavily implying we did not seem the type. We said yes and told him we really enjoyed it, explaining which piece was our favorite. His face contorted in confusion as if the song described hadn’t been apart of the repertoire. He then asked what we do. My friend told him his profession and I said I work at a startup. The man thought I said Starbucks and asked me about the sensitivity training employees had to go through after the Philly incident. I looked at him bewildered, and corrected him, “Start Up, not Starbucks,” I laughed, but internally was like-

Granted, ‘Startup’ and ‘Starbucks’ can sound quite similar when you’re chewing on a meatball. HOWEVER, a few things here:

1. We were visibly in the middle of eating and weren’t even talking to each other, so it was an awkward moment for a stranger to start a conversation.

2. Even if I did work at Starbucks, it’s another weird thing to bring up in a situation with people you JUST met- ungracefully and with questionable intention.

We then learned he was a minister and grew up in Japan with minister parents. He even has his own church in the east village - gawd bless. I know this isn’t fair, but all I could think about as he was telling us this was colonization, imperialism, and self-righteousness that comes with the idea that ‘others’ need to be taught Christianity to save their ‘savage’ souls but I digress. That topic warrants a whole other post.

At this point, he seemed to have gotten what he came for- making us uncomfortable and plugging his church. He walked away and I was very annoyed. Later on that night my friend and I revisited the conversation. I usually try to give white people the benefit of the doubt, but most times the conclusion remains the same: If I was white the conversation/situation would have gone differently.

This was certainly not as bad of an exchange as it could’ve been but micro-aggressions are still unacceptable. It was a violation of our space and comfort. There’s no escaping this behavior. People always say New York City is so progressive but there isn’t one inch of this country that is completely impervious to racism/prejudice.

At least the symphony and chorus was dope. Even he couldn’t ruin that.

https://www.grsymphony.org

No, it’s not scholarly - it’s racist.

My head is reeling from reading an article on the National Review site tweeted by Jeffrey Wright about the importance of proactive policing and the significant positive implications of gentrification. 

“A black New Yorker is 50 times more likely to commit a shooting than a white New Yorker.” Hmm…I’m slacking. https://t.co/Sj8YgxpgJi’

The overarching theme of the article is that gentrification is the reason for the crime drop in New York City and that ‘cop critics’ don’t have any justification for their outcry against police brutality because whatever the cops are doing is directly influencing the decrease in crime rates- this includes stop and frisk and other unsubstantiated practices. The whole article is an insult to anyone with a comprehensive- no with an ounce of understanding of the history of violence perpetrated by police at alarming levels against the black community. Anyone who grasps the history of this country can surmise that the relationship between the black community and police is not a spontaneous manifestation of tension- this article talks about the Black Lives Matter movement in such a cavalier naive way. This sentiment about injustice when it comes to condemning black lives has been incubating for centuries. It’s also known there is a direct correlation between crime and economic hardship. When this country understands that slavery has been and continues to be a blemish on our history and its affect are felt present-day will we ever get passed these putrid allowances of ignorance that everything is so simple (no pun intended) - black and white. 

There were a few passages in this article that really feeds into the rampant racism that the president has encouraged in this country. And that’s another thing. This presidency. It has ripped open wounds and incited crimes of hatred like no other presidency in history. There’s no way that reality can be disregarded at this point. Anyway, I digress. Here are some of the most blatantly racist passages I’ve seen on a national publication:

This demographic transformation has enormous implications for crime. A black New Yorker is 50 times more likely to commit a shooting than a white New Yorker, according to perpetrator identifications provided to the police by witnesses to, and victims of, those shootings.

(This is about the gentrification of Bed-Stuy. Barf.)

——

When the racial balance of a neighborhood changes radically, given those crime disparities, its violent-crime rate will as well. (This racial crime disparity reflects the breakdown of the black family and the high percentage of black males — upwards of 80 percent in some neighborhoods — being raised by single mothers.)

(I mean, I honestly thought she was just going to come out and say the N-word at this point. I’m not even sure what this is supposed to convey to support her argument. It’s just an empty generalization that was thrown in here to infer some nefarious ideas about black families.)

——

It is that gentrification which is now helping fuel the ongoing crime drop. Urban hipsters are flocking to areas that once were the purview of drug dealers and pimps, trailing in their wake legitimate commerce and street life, which further attracts law-abiding activity and residents in a virtuous cycle of increasing public safety. 

(It’s like she’s saying, gentrification is wonderful for crime since it means pushing POC out of neighborhoods so white people can ‘virtuously’ live their lives. I CANNOT.)

This article had my head spinning and I was at a loss at how something so blatantly biased could be published under the guise of journalism and not OPINION because that’s what this sounds like to me. The facts presented are rolled up into a self-righteous, pious assortment of conjecture and perspective. It’s beyond disrespectful/insulting and solidifies what everyone already knows- racism is alive and thriving in America.