As of May 30th 2020 the state of the union is in quite the disarray with no real leadership or anyone to look upon to help solves the issues at hand. Mainly, that people don't feel safe either financially or physically anymore. The police state is growing at an exponential rate and due to the polarizing policies of COVID-19 millions of people are out of work and thousands of businesses and business owners are defunct. It seems the lagging decay we all knew was catching up to the American dream has finally exploded, literally.
Racism doesn't seem to have gone anywhere (not that I've ever said it left). Whether the situations of oppression against black people and people of color perpetrated by police are more or less than the past, there is no arguing the amount of visibility we have on these occurrences, and the advancements in weapon technologies that been employed by police institutions around the nation. Even in Omaha Nebraska, shortly after Jean Stothert was elected, the force was given upgrades on their vehicles and behold; next time I travel home from Chicago to Omaha, the OPD now has Dodge Chargers and Ford Escapes as opposed to the standard classic Lincoln town cars. Cops are a different breed than the 1960's; similar to how potent our cannabis is now, police are much more dangerous than they ever have been. How does that affect racism and the police's relationship with people of color in disenfranchised communities? In my opinion, it makes things much worse. We can no longer ignore how technology can and will affect racist systems, organizations, governments, etc. Continuing to bring up arguments such as, "Its way better now, we just see it a lot more because of social media." or "There's way less killings and shootings than there were in the civil rights era." are ancient and completely fallacious. The prison industrial complex has boomed since the Biden/Clinton crime bill era of the early 90s. There is no real metric or way to measure if racism is more or less prevalent than it was in the past. The past isn't a good standard to compare ourselves to either. What I do know is that if cops and police forces are continued to be given the guns, training, and technology that they have; that these killings and racist situations won't go anywhere and things will extrapolate. Police forces need a complete gutting or abolition. It is the only way to create real change.
People are afraid of the police. People are out of work, out of money, out of a lifestyle. And the people they are supposed to be voting for have exhibited racist action or language time and time again. Our celebrities are silent during critical times, our presidential candidates (both Trump and Biden) were friends with Jeffrey Epstein, our mayors and governors are siding with police, and our police forces are instigating riots and acting as protestors to manipulate the outcome of peaceful demonstration. People are obviously and clearly fed up, and until we listen to black voices and start to align ourselves with an ideal of peace, anti-violence, and community self policing; we'll be feeling the hurt. Since the war on drugs and 9/11 the police state has steadily increased with every presidential administration and now from the look of these protests it might only get worse; justified by the "looters, mob, and violent" protestors. I fear for the future of policing and what it means to be a citizen. I fear for people of color, more.
I keep using "our" because apparently its our tax money that pays for these people to treat us so barbarically. That's quite ironic and honestly doesn't make much sense to me. Its our money that pays for cops to shoot people in the streets. Its our money both white and black alike that pays for these modern day lynchings. Maybe that's the problem? Maybe that's why this will never go away. Rich white people's property taxes pay for it too. Ok, that's extreme, only the ultra elite and heinously wealthy are against the common man... I think. Either way, we can't ignore how the money funnels because of things like this. Who makes money off of all the riot gear? Who makes money off of the arresting of demonstrators? Who makes money due to all the media coverage of the protests? Black people and poor people even in our revolution, will be controlled by and manipulated by the opposition. The cops are monitoring protest organizers, drones are scouring the sky, they have electromagnetic frequency tech and sound dispersion tech. And the police have their officers going undercover to stir the pot. As I bring all this up, I have to ask myself, what are we to do? What are black people to do? What can white people do to stand as allies in solidarity? These are tough times, these are tough questions. But we must focus our attention and effort in demilitarizing the police. That and its possible abolition are the first steps to a more just and equitable society. For all races.
Besides our overseers (I'm pretty sure all cops and politicians were still getting paid during the shutdowns) we are in a very monetarily low position. This is another angle adding to the frustrations of people and possibly why we're seeing cop cars burning. Billionaires like Bezos, Gates, Zuckerberg, Ellison, Page, etc have profited upwards of 70 billion between the handful of them in only two months. There is clearly a much bigger plot being orchestrated considering the timing of everything but I'll leave the conspiracies for another essay. People are tired of being poor and seeing all their money get swallowed up to upper echelons of capitalism's biggest winners. Why did big super stores stay open while small mom and pop shops had to close? Why were we being bombarded about health and safety guidelines in the media yet seeing discrepancies and contradictions everywhere in real life? Why was there so much fluctuation in deaths? Why is there so much contradicting medical information out there about COVID-19? Regardless of the damage COVID-19 has done, the fall out from the economy and these killer cops will be worse. And when people sit there online and act like people are killing others when venturing outdoors, remember you didn't think that about the protestors. Remember that people might be looting because they're poor from staying home from COVID-19 or maybe from generations of abuse. Maybe the defunct government was supposed to pay for it. But who's fault is that? Our puppet fool of a president? Doubtful. We'd be in this situation with anyone, ten fold. The implosion we are seeing right now is evident of the system as a whole and that's why I'm vehemently against participating in a flawed system, and voting would be part of said structure.
The virus showed us that in times of breakdown, our government is not here to back us up. In times of facing impending economic doom, our elected officials really didn't give a fuck. The government will back up the police and the people will back up the government when it comes to a pandemic. Its mind boggling to think about. A consensus of zero trust given to leadership involving police but somehow the government mentions healthcare and it's like we forget about how we're constantly lied to. Well now we're in this position. We need to do better and think critically. There are motives and agendas at play by many sides, and unfortunately the common man just gets to argue about whether or not looting is justified. As opposed to questioning everything about what we're being told.
Our police are not for us. Our leadership both Republican and Democrat are not for us. And giant corporations that dispose of their employees without a thought are included as well; they are not for us. As far as I'm concerned, everything that is happening right now is a symptom of the fever that America is going through right now, and she's going to go through a lot of pain and hell fire before she gets better.
Going forward I urge anyone reading this to pay attention to a few things more intensely than before in these coming months. First, pay attention to how elected officials move and not what they say. Actions speak louder than words, don't trust their speeches. Two, your enemy isn't just the white racist, or the racist cop, its the entire system and traditions that support these negative ideologies and allow people with such hateful narrow minded thinking to propagate. Third, the media is just a machine, and it operates as such. Treat it like you would a platform or Craigslist...with the utmost scrutiny and discernment. You can absorb it, but before you run with it, think, and ponder over it.
We're going through it right now, and things will get worse before they get better, try to listen to your disenfranchised neighbors before casting their opinion aside. Prepare if you decide to demonstrate. Save your money if you can, and be generous and empathetic when you can.
America and her children will be alright...but the change starts with you, be smart.
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