Do Black People have Allies
What is solidarity if everyone holds anti-blackness?
There is a passage in the book Afropessimism where a white couple get in an argument and the man says to the woman “The war is over; it’s time to move on”. She was an activist during the anti-Vietnam war movement, but now its 5 years since the war and helping a black revolutionary seemed like something that they would do in their rebellious youth, but it was time to put it behind them.
Reading that paragraph hit me in the chest; it took me back to 2020. I was less angry then, even as the city Louisville fired tear gas and nonlethal rounds in my direction. As I was learning the full force of the racist power structure of Amerikkka; I also felt heard by White Amerikkkans. I could walk down Bardstown Rd and see BLM signs from apartment windows (even at that point I knew why they were in business windows). Social media was filled with white people trying to read about police brutality and racism. It felt like a turning point in America; it wasn’t.
White People are going to White people.
There was a pandemic, people were locked inside with no guidance, laid off, no benefits, and being led by an absolute idiot. White people were scared and when Black people took to the streets for George Floyd the lost whites could attach on and voice frustration towards the system. They were screaming more for the aforementioned reasons than for George Floyd and police brutality looking back. Hiding behind Black people in order to get back to the place where their fears were erased. Donald Trump lost the election that November because of Black people across the country. Relief checks and vaccines came our way and the BLM signs came down.
Police Brutality against Black people in the Joe Biden era went up. Our movement was co-opted by our alleged white allies and nothing was done for us. Now the orange idiot is back in the White House and Black people are getting harassed and punished for the work we did against him and the system in 2020.
Rallying beside white liberals is not getting us the results we need. I will never blame someone who does and I am sure your work will trickle down to us in some way. However, you are going to put in a lot work and get exploited for such a small trickle of progress.
We have each other and thats it.
Other races look down on Black people in general; even Palestinians. When the detention centers shut down and ICE kidnappings stop I am certain latinos across the country will again align themselves to whiteness in this country. They were perfectly fine with the racism until it came violently kicking their door down (see every single voting demographic chart). No matter how much solidarity or support we give they don’t want to be associated with Niggas in this country; no demographic does.
Anti-blackness is unique because it can’t be answered in terms of colonialism or capitalism. The Palestinian struggle revolves around stolen land; land ownership is easily understood. ICE is rounding up immigrants taking away people’s ability to work in the US. Labor is again can be easily explained. They want the same access to capital (land) and labor as the capitalist and the zionist. However, how does a marginalized group having anti-black sentiment get explained?
The betrayal of 2020 will forever stay with me. White people are mad so I am sure Trump and the cronies eventually get thrown out. Will DEI, voter rights, and affirmative action in the college admission process comeback? Doubt it. Without solidarity within the community nothing will get done; no one is coming to save us.
Stay woke,
Loc
