I'll be honest. I've been noticeably decompressing. I'm trying to sift around the mess of our nation the last four years and find an appropriate analogy that doesn't rocket into hyperbole or underscore what's already known. Yeah, racism has been around. Homophobia, Xenophobia, Islamaphobia. It was just sort of neatly tucked away in a jumbled mess under the bed. "All dressed up with a dirty neck", as Erma Bombeck would say. The bed was pulled away from the wall and it was sort of kicked out like Legos and Jacks underfoot. And instead of having a new opportunity to see these issues in the light, the intolerance and ability to celebrate and rejoice in it - no matter how small a portion of the population- was enough to spoil the entire batch.
4 years and I think I was just being hopeful and helpful. I guess if I've grown in any respect, it's in how vocal I think I've become in person and on social media. Again, it's not an activity I probably would have engaged in as much would my folks still be here, but 2016 was sort of that perfect storm of losing my family and the Trump administration showing up. And we were all worried at how bad it would be. And when it got bad (and worse) it became a struggle to not just try and open yourself to advocacy but see how those people in charge would just try and stop you from making the change. In broad daylight.
Losing our role models along the way has been hard. Seeing the distance between a progressive, hopeful nation with problems but struggling to help others understand sort of have the rope cut so that the powers that be could watch you at the bottom of the ravine while they held the rest of the rope at the top. I guess it felt like we didn't just move backwards, but when we tried to grip the identity- to plant ourselves and say "YOU MOVE" all the cliches and linked arms failed to do a single thing. Every Facebook memory of the last 4 years has contained a drop of the venom that stained our nation.
I hated it. I hated how hard I had to become to deal with people who were...not happy...but pleased. Smug. Righteous? I hated having to watch Republican lawmakers acting on their constituent's behalf sprint to make the kind of embarrassing legislation that may have made Reagan blush- all because they didn't know when their bubble of fortune was going to burst.
As of today, after weeks of garbage litigation and bluster we're finally seeing the light in the form of Trump's half-ass go ahead to start the transition to our new leadership. It's full of names- competent and educated names without secondary objective's meant to enrich themselves and the President. It comes at a time when it feels like we're in the middle of the most unknown and frightening chapter in American history that doesn't revolve around a war.
Because holy shit. We need to get this pandemic under control. And holy shit spending 4 years trying every form of pleading, cajoling, taking a kind an lighthearted approach to people to hopefully help them understand concepts of systemic racism is so much fucking harder when the Chief Executive makes his fan club feel super okay with it.
Here's a snap from 2016. Back when the arguments got flipped back to "No, YOU'RE actually the racist for SAYING I'm racist and this WOULDN'T be a problem if you didn't go LOOKING for RACISM everywhere."
Yeah. The conversations are going to be hard. And gods know it won't be solved by the time this administration heads into another election year.
Eyes on the prize. Fucks like the kid who killed 2 protestors are getting sprung by Mr. Silver Spoons and Mr. Pillowfuck who help crowdfund bail, while Black people are *still* incarcerated for slinging weed. It's a problem of white supremacy that's not going anywhere, so it's best to start high and break it apart so shit doesn't keep raining down on you. And oh look. That's what America did.
It'd have been nice if it didn't take the incompetent mishandling of the pandemic to get here. It'd be nice if racist cops hadn't killed Breona Taylor. Or George Floyd.
A good article intercultural competence is right here.
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