Not In This Together

Right now I am watching CNN News of all the live footage of the protests and riots across America that many others as well as myself, have been following since last night. I have just learned that marches are taking place in London this weekend, one happened earlier in Peckham today which was beautiful to see as unsurprising as it was. A part of me feels liberated as I do whenever I see people from any walk of life stand up for themselves particularly in solidarity. Another part of me feels devastated and incredibly nervous of the result to come of this both good and bad. I have been in deep thought all week. Increasingly pi*ssed off for months and I will explain why.

[Click on images to enlarge]

We have not been in this together, contrary to the 'We Are In This Together' COVID-19 slogan since March. People going through the coronavirus global epidemic as a regular person stuck in a house with their family and concerned about work and income, or a Politician/member of the government concerned about the economy, a Doctor concerned about the healthcare system regarding the threat to its future as well as circumstances pre-vaccine, a rich person with access to most of their means or going through this as a poor person with access to nothing therefore likely to suffer the most, those are different walks of life sharing different anxieties yet similar concerns. Then there's going through this as a Black person. Whom of which, on top of being included in any of the above categories, has to deal with the ongoing horrid images and news of how we are abused on a regular basis REGARDLESS of a health epidemic. That part does not go on "lockdown" and get put on pause, if anything now it has heightened.

I love my people, I feel for my people, I feel with my people and I'm really concerned for all the children of my people who have to see images of themselves continually being dehumanised. For them to be terrified and worried thinking "Is that going to happen to me or one of my parents soon?"

We are not in this together. When I first saw the slogan I agreed with it because worldwide everyone was having to deal with these circumstances of the virus; all the other suspicious theories that come with it that affects our present and future of how we are to move forward economically and that of our human rights. However Black people are still reminded of how excluded, yet targetted we are (despite how admired and robbed we remain) in societies of the world even at a time that we're supposed to relate to others the most, suffering similarly at this high time in history. No!

We have to have the Black experience as well. That's what we have to see and feel. Just before lockdown a young man was being beaten up by a racist group of arseh*les, where his employers did not stand against the racial abuse when it began verbally, that they could have put a stop to immediately. They apparently just left their Black employee to be attacked by these White men with no authorities. Word got around, locals were enraged and pursued to march down to the pub in Ladbroke Grove, London where the incident took place. I was watching clips of the protesters passionately chanting and rightfully shouting their speeches demanding that the Manager come out and address the issue, while the staff remained inside with the business running as usual as if no such thing had taken place. The pain of their lack of shame slapped me from the screen, many of my people felt this way.

We have to see a father holding his toddler while being harassed by Police at a petrol station in Manchester. They could have dealt with things more professionally BUT HE'S A BLACK MAN SO THEY TAKE LIBERTIES. Just due to what they claimed to be speeding, they kept shouting "Put your hands up" while he was holding his baby, once he did one of the Officers practically tasered him to death in front of his infant child! I'm watching this F'd up video on Twitter a few weeks ago, completely horrified and disgusted thinking "Don't these non-face mask wearing Policemen have bigger problems right now than to aggressively harass someone "speeding," wasting time bullying?" They were willing to risk catching the virus, getting caught on camera being unlawful and harmful to others with an irresponsible weapon at a high risk location, just to continue giving us the Black experience.

Black people can't just work from home calmly or 'Netflix and chill' with everyone else who is not on the frontlines or fallen ill, we need to witness such sh*t from our TV and devices, when we too are worried about food and toilet tissue and now some are scared to even step outside the door incase that familiar aggression is what will happen! It's like Black Treatment is worse than the virus right now- FOR US.

We're not even being acknowledged when the NHS does their campaign about thanking their high-risk hardworking Nurses and Doctors!!! I have the misfortune of having to be at hospitals on an annual basis so I am very familiar that seeing a White English staff member is a rarity. In London at least, many of us have witnessed that the majority of the hospital staff especially the Nurses are Black & Oriental, typically dominated with African and Asian Doctors. So it was another racist slap in the face when those headlines were made insinuating otherwise. When Thursday 8 p.m. comes around some of us can't even clap with the same joy with that in mind, as the  'Clap for Nurses' campaign is wrapped in racial politics according to newspaper images.

Then shortly after on the same social media platform I see that Ian Wright is trending. I'm thinking that as a celebrity he may have made posted something inappropriate that has left quarantined online users upset, only for me to upsettingly find that he was sharing all the recent hate mail that he had been receiving from a teenage White racist upcoming Football Player who has been cyber bullying him on Instagram for a while. IAN WRIGHT people, not someone the boy's age but a grown arse man who is a British Football legend, is crying (no disrespect as I felt his pain as much as I feel he did not have to turn to us for sympathy in order to handle the situation) to us about the racism he still has to endure throughout his career, despite retiring and being much older. The fact that the racial abuse was coming from a minor who had the balls to pursue this behaviour to someone far superior to him, is another thing that stung as a Black person having to be hit with more of this distressing news over the course of this pandemic.

A few weeks later we read about the young Black man who was jogging near a construction site in Atlanta where two White men jumped out of their truck with a ridiculous lethal weapon on board, actually chase him down and murder him in broad daylight, because they had the confidence to do so as we have seen too many times before. The father-son criminal act did not even get arrested until TWO MONTHS later. Hardly any of us believe that they will actually be convicted for 1st degree or 2nd degree murder, as again too many times we have seen that to be unfamiliar, considering how long it took for the arrests.

These are images that we have to be bombarded with while we're trapped inside trying to manage our Vitamin D at home. Of which, there is now frequent media stating that Black skin is apparently incompatible with Vitamin D from the sun because our melanin rejects it......(intentional long pause). This is very new to me, my scientific learning taught me that our melanin protects us from sun damage as opposed to reject it negatively. Since when was it common knowledge that natural Vitamin D, that is prominent in countries that we are indigenous to (thus made for), helpful to Caucasian skin and unhelpful to Negroid skin!? That is like saying that melanin is useless which most of know is factually on the contrary.

There is continued negative media telling us that Black people are dying at higher rates than others from the coronavirus, of which I see absolutely no evidence physically or logically justifying this claim. Especially being that the percentage of the populations of which they 'test' to prove this, I see and guarantee are not dominantly Black people or patients (even from all the hospital footage thus far). The recorded statistics that I have been monitoring have been particularly high in White populated countries, hence Italy's high death toll. Something is clearly not adding up here other than harmful, routine, propaganda.

All while quarantined and being subjected to selective, less accessible shopping (food mainly), struggling with uncertain incomes, seeking, competing or merely being disenfranchised with financial aid, mental health managing and the fear of getting sick if in contact with others- some other people's version of mental health at this time as I keep seeing online; is in regards to being isolated or cramped inside involuntary with members of their household everyday and not being able to socialise outside. Black people's mental health concerns during this time are much higher because it's often redirected to the fear of our right to live and that of our brotha's and sista's (intentionally spelt) domestically and internationally.

Then we have to see, read and hear of all the despicable treatment from the Chinese against Africans and not even just in China where they have their blatant public signs of racism saying 'We do not serve any Black customers,' kicking African immigrants out of their rented accommodations and making them sleep in the streets, because apparently Africans are the threat of the disease that reportedly came from THAT country. It literally spread from Wuhan, China as documented and even prophescised in a fiction book written in 2000 as circulated on social media. Naturally igniting more fury to our distress of COVID-19. Even worse, we see that same sh*t taking place in actual African countries infuriating us further making us vex (intentionally spelt as such) at all of the African Leaders! Our disappointment of leadership in Africa has been felt and expressed for a while now but again we therefore panic about our livelihoods as Black people ON TOP of the coronavirus. Our worries are not to the limits of everyone else's, they go beyond that.

Now there's this weeks events in addition to all of the other unfathomable, unjust, action provoking news of not only the above but also the young woman who was shot eight times at home, when the Police/FBI burst in during the middle of the night to the wrong address, for the wrong suspect, in fact they already arrested their suspect beforehand. They burst in guns blazing, shot her to death then had the audacity to arrest her boyfriend who was being protective, who they still was not even after in the first place- THIS IS SO UNBELIEVABLY BELIEVABLE in our world.

None of those Officers to my knowledge have been fired, charged or placed on unpaid leave. Only about an hour ago did I find out that the boyfriend who got arrested for defending himself with his licensed firearm, was exonerated of all charges which is good news. However the point I am making is that we are all told to 'Stay at home,'  and only come out when we need to yet that Black couple were staying at home, sleeping as they had the right to, no illegal activity and yet law enforcement came to them anyway when they had no good reason to. Then after damaging property, getting the address wrong and taking a life, they then tried to slap an Attempted Murder charge on said Black man! This is Black Treatment. Even when the world has bigger problems that we are meant to be fighting together.

This week was a horrible sight; repeating history of when a man had his neck broken and air flow cut off by a Policeman (like Eric Gardener in 2014 and others prior) who actively and illegally did so on camera, in broad daylight, with many witnesses, supportive colleagues, without a care in the world because he's used to No Consequences being in place for his kind. This hurts so much, people are being desensitized due to the regularity of this behaviour but the pain does not become less painful. Black people are hurting mentally and physically when the rest of the world for the most part are just hurting financially and other pain is to a minimum unless they are actually sick. We are not in this epidemic together.

  

And now yet again, peaceful protests in some cases riots (both understandably so) ignite across America. Black Fury ignites around the world. Compassionate humane thinkers of other races are equally disgusted or sympathise and call out the Injustice for what it is. Such as my social media posts from previous years of similar incidences it fills me with glee to see protesters being multi-ethnic and that we are not just fighting alone. Within these widely supported protests I feel like we are in this 'together' to a degree but we all know the outcome will affect us differently. As made clear when the Black male Reporter for CNN got arrested by four Policemen live on television while respectfully doing his job with his mostly White camera crew. Apparently they were all arrested and detained for 1.5hrs but that was not caught on camera, thus the feeling is still bitter FOR US.

My head hurts, my blood boils, my heart aches and my hands twitch.... This has truly been an F'd up month for Black people in particular. The people that enrage me the most whenever it comes to times like these are not necessarily the perpetrators because they've been conditioned to believe that they have the right to do what they do, being the pathetic little minion soldiers they are without even realising the pawns in which they be sometimes although they are fully aware of their own actions. It is the people that excuse them that I despise. Such as the lenient legal authorities e.g. Police Chiefs, Commissioners, Unions, District Attorneys, Judges, Prosecutors and Politicians. However, nothing is more upsetting than the utterly pathetic, conditioned H**** N******s that defend these occurrences, deny the facts and tolerate abuse.... I know my fair share of these sorry folk and hate to see their self-hating, "Calvin" screaming opinions or objections to racial equality. This is such a sick time for us. Dramatic irony intended.

I now try to make audio versions of certain blogs of mine for the sake of the visually impaired, as well as those that may prefer to listen than to read. My recording of this post can be found on my Soundcloud page, listen, share, engage.