Charleston

A lot of emotions have been bubbling under the surface of this country since the coverage of perpetual, almost unfathomable police brutality has permeated the mainstream with fervor. There is now a watchful eye not only on police, but the media as it persistently changes the narrative of certain crimes based on who is perpetuating them. 

After this massacre that occurred very recently at a place of worship in South Carolina, those feelings percolating beneath the surface seem to have boiled over and are pouring out as a steady flow of hopelessness and defeat along with a desperate plea for justice for all of these heinous crimes that continue to go unpunished. An ardent call for a cease and desist to this horrendous violence precipitated by racism that plagues the black community. The notion of even gradual change is quickly dying because the media has proven once again that ignoring blatant racist acts and condemning those who dare to shed light on real problems is more important than admitting there is a very real issue at hand that is directly affecting the safety of black lives. Pandering to the masses of people who want to stay in the dark is not helping anyone.

White privilege is real. This is a point that is vital to understand if we ever want to heal as a nation. It has manifested itself in numerous ways, including the twisted way the press covers stories of violence when the victims are people of color. What happened in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17th was a vile act of terrorism. I’m not sure how else it can be spun from any point of view unless the intention is to lie and disregard this man’s obvious, hateful purpose to “shoot black people” (in his own words). There have been many jarring, and eye-opening (for those of you who still refuse to believe the heavy reality that black people are plainly treated differently by police) images portraying the arrest of Dylann Roof in comparison to that teenager at a pool party in Texas where an officer is pictured kneeling on a small 14-year old girl. Then there’s the way police force was used on Mr. Garner, an unarmed man accused of selling cigarettes without a permit that lead to his death.

It’s appalling and yes, it is about race. It has always been about race and will continue to be about race unless we take the time to take steps toward peace as a nation, including having conversations without getting defensive or offended. 

I saw the pictures of the 9 people who were murdered and the thought of them being in that church with no other motive but to praise and espouse love while a hate-mongering, calculated killer was in their midst is incredibly sickening. 

He sat there for an hour, being treated with kindness so he would feel accepted. He sat there knowing what he was going to do. He sat there in a place of what is supposed to be security and comfort and plotted something so wretched and incredibly savage. He is a true coward to open fire on innocent people in a safe place. He is the product of racism and what ultimately happens when racism goes unchecked - not only in people, but in a society, in institutions, in laws and policies - the inevitable death of black people. 

The families that have suffered this egregious loss are more victims of a society built on hatred. Sure, there are tiny glimmers of progress, but obviously more needs to be done. My heart and thoughts go out to the families that have senselessly lost loved ones and what little hope I can muster at the moment goes out to all of the people who are continuing to fight for equality. 

Love each other. That’s all we have.

Tragedy & Social Media

Tragedy strikes constantly all over the world, all the time, but there is little to no coverage about how people are living in war torn zones, with the inescapable, lingering thought of death everyday.
The Boston tragedy really upset me. Not only the event itself, but how people handled it on social media sites and the blatant disconnect our society seems to have with the outside world. Selective sympathy.

Everyday there is genocide. Everyday little girls and boys are being sold into human trafficking rings and being shipped to the highest bidder. Everyday children are being eaten from the inside out by parasites, by hunger. Everyday people are being faced with unimaginable choices of killing or being killed. Everyday there are people terrified to leave their house in fear they may not return to it alive. And most of these events are happening right in our backyard, but none of it is being televised.

Again, I am not trying to diminish the obviously horrible terrible assailment in Boston, just trying to display how edited our media sources are, allowing coverage for mindlessly violent events like this but ignoring others’ suffering. It makes my heart hurt knowing there is so much devastation in this world and the way people are becoming comfortable with showing “support” through social channels for a period of time and then forgetting the tragedy almost immediately after. I think it was amazing how organizations were mobilizing using twitter and sending out information about what was needed and a continuous stream of information about the attack. However, the hash tags made me want to vomit. DO NOT HASH TAG A TRAGEDY. There’s just something about putting an occurrence so heart-wrenching, so clearly painful into the context of a social media platform that just seems wildly inappropriate and insensitive when it’s done distastefully.

All of my heart goes out to the family of that adorable little boy and the other families who were affected by this. I cannot imagine the families’ loss.

This truly showed how connected we can all be when we focus our attention on something as a group, as humans. The amount of selflessness and genuine willingness to go above and beyond in times like these gives me hope about this otherwise individualistic, selfish society’s future. Kind of.