ABOVE AND BOTTOM-RIGHT PHOTOS/JULIE DERMANSKY
CHICAGO, IL — The state killed Malcolm X when his OAAU group began building beyond the black community… Martin was killed after he started talking anti-capitalism building with the white anti-war movement and the Chicano farmworkers struggle…Chairman Fred Hampton was assassinated as his Rainbow Coalition was beginning to make multiracial solidarity in Chicago a reality… I bring this up for a few reasons… I don’t have many #alllivesmatter folks on my timeline, but a lot of my friends have been vocal about having to draw the line with friends of theirs that can’t bring themselves to accept #blacklivesmatter… Most of the people they’re unfriending are white folks who refuse to come to terms with their privilege… or misinformed Latinx that are in denial of their blackness… Question is tho, do we dismiss ‘em with “intersectional” talk of white fragility/white tears/ colonized self-haters, etc., or do we actually attempt to build solidarity across different communities, as those revolutionaries before us? I get that it ain’t worth it sometimes to argue with a hardcore racist, and that we should begin by organizing and educating the communities we are a part of, but I also think most would agree we need multiracial solidarity to defeat capitalism… So how do we uphold and not erase #blacklivesmatter, while building important solidarity for the mass struggle that is needed? I’ve had more than a few encounters with some ignant gringos, assimilated Latinos, and even some bougie Black folks that I’ve wanted to write off, dispose of them cuz their understanding of race in America is colonized and conditioned by the violent “postracial” rhetoric of the Obama era… but there’s something about how the quickness to discard and dismiss people is reproducing capitalist values of efficiency and disposability… And yeah, this country was founded on a “race war” that is ongoing but Obama Condoleezza Lynch Powell Booker Clarence Insert Sellout Latino BEEN made it clear all our skin folk ain’t our kinfolk so on what basis are we choosing our sides in this war? The burden of reconciliation shouldn’t be on the historically oppressed, and maybe settler colonial America is just violently coming to terms with its genocidal ways, but something about how the media is manipulating the message, (media that has historically served the interests of the 1%) makes me feel they are exacerbating racial divisions to cover up for a dead economy that cannot be revived, that they are bent on creating chaos to restore police state order to their liking… The ruling class ain’t never gave a fuck about black people, or immigrants, or working class white people, unless it served their interests as tokens, cheap labor, scapegoats, or buffers to serve their power… I ain’t got the answers but I will say our young generation of leaders need to sharpen our analysis of race, class, and power if we are to win this war… I ain’t looking for no kumbaya circle, but if we don’t organize organize, organize to unite, unite, unite, we’ve already lost the war…
