we’ve been here before. if we peel back the political correctness and colorblind rhetoric, the hatred this country is built on is painfully visible. white supremacy wasn’t created during donald trump’s rise to the presidency. he just gave hate political cover.
we’ve watched the past week as the president has gone back and forth in his public statements on the protest and hate crimes in charlottesville, virginia. initially slow to call out groups like the kkk, alt-right and neo-nazi’s by name, it was pandemonium across both political parties. when things couldn’t get worse, he railed against the so-called “alt-left,” reinforcing the false belief that both sides were to blame for saturday’s protest that killed one and left so many injured.
face the facts: this isn’t just “trump’s america” — it’s our america. black people have been the victims of the hate his base espouses since slavery. it’s just the first time in decades we’ve seen it so openly.
so here we are, in the mist of a national crisis during the last week of our 21 day happiness project. how can we find joy in the mist of such a difficult time?
as james baldwin said, to be a negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time. his words capture the anger and fear that often defines our lives. however, holding space for our pain doesn’t deny our right to be happy. in fact, i see joy as a form of resistence.
in a world that constantly says we are not enough, that denies our right to simply exist, that displays daily reminders of anti-blackness, our right to experience happiness is a human right that we must claim. i’m not preaching pacifism or for us to ignore the political warfare around us, but we’ll never win if we don’t make time for self-care. in fact, audre lorde reminded us that for black women taking care of ourselves isn’t selfish, it’s an act of political warfare.
as you choose what side you’re on — i hope it’s the freedom side — determine how the last five days of our happiness project can help you center self-love like never before. we need you whole and well to fight white supremacy at its core.
What’s so interesting to me about the hysteria over Donald Trump is that most of the uproar is from white people who are sort of unaware of the world they live in — it’s this moment of fear, maybe just a moment of realizing reality. And yet that reality is so overwhelming it can’t be really that profound, it can’t be pervasive, it must be simply a force of evil, a person — Donald Trump. And they are sort of saying, okay once Trump is gone all of this will go away again. And I think black people know that’s not true. Things are not any different. But eventually white people (speaking generally) will be able to once again go on pretending things are okay.
I’m realizing that I came off a bit negative haha. But yeah I agree with you because I think, for me, I’ve realized in the last year that I have to be me first. The political issues are really the issues of the oppressor and sometimes I have to allow myself to take off that burden and only look out for Cameron. What do I need? I think so often I feel like I need to fight the injustice and sometimes that can just take up too much of my energy. We all need a break sometimes.
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exactly! part of the oppression is having to fight oppression. self-care is just as revolutionary as any other act.