“They hate your brilliance, they hate your beauty, they hate us- but we not gon’ hate ourselves.”- Quote from When They See Us

I’m watching this long awaited show, When They See Us, directed by the masterful and deliberate Ava DuVernay.  I am watching like I watch many shows highlighting racism in the world we live in. The racist world that many love to claim no longer exists, you know, since the Obama’s and all. I am saddened, angered, empowered, and even more so now, I am questioning.

I am questioning the character of some white people. Questioning just how much some of them really regard me as human no matter how nice they are to me upon meeting. Questioning how I am supposed to view them when they, who run everything due to financial powers, allow us to keep seeing shows and movies like this year after year, decade after decade, displaying all of the hate, anger, and oppression they have placed upon us. Do you? question it?

Disclaimer:

When I speak, I like to think I am talking to those with a certain level of understanding. I am not trying to explain this to a five year old or anyone with that limited of ability to comprehend the ways of the world. Therefore, I like to assume I am reaching those who already know that this does not apply to ALL white people.

I hate that I even have to say things like that, but I do because some people like to try to focus on that when it should be understood that most subjects do not apply to all people. It takes the focus and blame off of THAT person, as well as silence those trying to shine light on the issues they are experiencing.  

Furthermore, just because it doesn’t apply to all, does not mean we can’t account for the rest. Here, we are talking about a majority and the majority of white people, are broken; At least according to an article I read earlier today by Katherine Fugate titled, White People are Broken. See it here

She wrote so well regarding the role that white people play in oppression and why they cannot ever understand the plight of the black person, that I raved about it. She stated that there has been too many incidents in which white people put themselves before the dangerous, literally life threatening struggles that black people face in the world. What she also said that I am now strongly considering while watching this show, is that white people are broken. They are broken, and because of that, they can be fixed. I would also like to note that this author, is white.

With all that I have to say about this show and the subject of racism in general, today I want to focus on ONE question; how? How are white people broken?  This is not to say they aren’t, but for those who say they are, I would like to know your reasons on why or how?  What happened?

When They See Us

This show is the most recent in a slew of programs that those in “power” had to have allowed to be shown. Some call it progress, but I call it a form of damage control. The more damage you can place upon a group of people, the more you can control them. Then they re-traumatize us with this fetish they enjoy of seeing the brutality they impose upon us played out as reminders of their role in this world, and of ours. I will explain more on this later in the series of discussions on race relations, but this show reminds me of their primary role in our damage.

No one denies the racism of the world when they show up to watch history repeat itself right in their living rooms. Still, people pronounce that these things we film, based on true stories and played by willing white people, are not true. They proclaim racism either does not exist, or that black people somehow force white people to be brutal to black people, children included, through behaviors that are without merit and also exhibited by other races. Still, the examples of brutality are far more present with the black race than any other.

History is Now

This show reminds me of the Emmett Till story that Katherine brought up in her article. It reminds me of the countless black people, primarily males, falsely imprisoned for crimes ranging from trivial to receiving the death penalty, as in the case of George Stinney, another 14 year old child executed for an “unfair” trial in 1944, but whose judgment was graciously vacated in 2014. Seventy years later when, even if they hadn’t killed him, he would have died in prison; but, how sweet of them, right?

It is tough, being a person who knows better than to think that all white people are like this, but also battling with the ease of ability many of them, also primarily male, have with taking their hate out on kids. Aside from being disheartening, it is still a testament of character and is all the reason we need to be distrustful. However people still seem to think that we must always forgive and regard them with unquestioning trust.  

But I will not.

No, I Got Questions

If there isn’t anything else I can do in this world, I can speak. I can ask questions. I can challenge you; I can learn. I can also give them an opportunity to change the dominant narrative in my mind. If what Katherine said is true, that white people are broken, then I have no issues with allowing them to tell me what is wrong and allow for an opportunity to be fixed; to be healed.

But I must first know, how are they broken?  If Katherine or anyone else can answer this I would greatly appreciate the feedback.  In this short post alone I have named several incidences, many found in one show that can outline how black people have been broken. I can pull up any history book, movie, heck there are even cartoons out there that gives nod to the damage inflicted upon black people physically and especially mentally that would lead them to be broken.

But what are those examples for white people?  Who broke them? As much as there is an outcry of mental health issues when white people commit mass murders; As much as there is outcry on the absence of fathers in the homes of the angry white people who are somehow able to have enough privacy under roofs they pay no mortgage on to build bombs;  As much as we are able to make movies on the thug mentality that is supposedly predisposed in black people, or movies that seem to remind black people of their place in society, why are there no shows like this that illustrate how white people initially became damaged or “broken”?

I would think that those who control the majority power in the world and therefore much of what we are able to see, including the lies that have been told on far too many innocent people for far too long, would be able to show how they have been damaged?

The damage that I can think of is self imposed. I imagine that as a human being you cannot forego the effects of the trauma one imposes on another. I cannot kill you and have no conscience about it, unless I truly have no conscience. So if I do, yes, my actions will haunt me; very likely damage me. And if a white person can claim to be broken by generational damage, I would have to know what one thinks of those that the damage is being done to?

Katherine does mention that perhaps generational pain has been passed down to them from their ancestors, but who started that? If currently they are broken as a result of their ancestors actions, what were their ancestors – broken too? And if so, how?

Who dropped them, threw them, raped them, fed their babies to gators, chained them together, stole their kids, burned them alive, took their homes, took their names, took their identity, branded them, invaded their nations, took their language, threw them over ships, sewed their mouths together, beat them, imprisoned them without even caring that the real person they are looking for is still out there…. Who?

How many times were they found guilty even though the Judge and jury knew they weren’t? How many times have they talked about it after the fact, as with Trayvon Martin, saying they as a juror knew they should have convicted the suspect? How many times have they sat before a judge that said they were guilty before they even stepped foot in the courtroom. How many times have they dealt with things even as seemingly minor as microaggressions? How did they feel when there was a law passed saying they could wear their hair the way it naturally grows out of your head?  Oh wait, it didn’t happen. And for the things that did happen to some, the scale will never be balanced. Not even with years of change or, equality at last.

So, if white people broken, when did that start? Was it before they invaded peoples land, brutalized them for no reason whatsoever, claimed things that were not theirs and stripped them of their identity?  Was it before they fabricated weapons for war but then used them to take what was never theirs from people absolutely minding their own business over here? I’m just saying, for those who wrote the history books, these are the stories they told.  Even in present day they are trying to change the history from calling us slaves to “workers who were mostly happy”; still flexing their power to dictate the narrative and yet, still can’t seem to show the origination of this brokenness that plagues them.

I can see clearly how it has been inflicted on others, but I need more information on who broke them. To some it could seem like another excuse to be less than human, same as they do when they yell mental health for incidences other races can’t yell mental health for, despite many of the diagnosis provided coming from the experimentation of the black race.  We already knew that the white kid was going to be affected by the lack of a father in the home when it became the goal to remove the black man from black families. We see that affect all the time. The difference is, black people still don’t get to use that same excuse, no matter how valid. Black people cant commit mass murder and be taken in alive time, and time, and time, and time again; can they?

We don’t get those same liberties despite often living in worse conditions. We are scared to have autistic kids despite not being able to control that, because we know that those suppose to protect them are are scarce. We know that even the actions of those in our community’s mentally ill population will be judged first by the color of their skin without regard for anything else that could be going on with them.  So whatever accounts anyone has on why white people are broken and when that began for them, I am all ears?

There are Answers

As Fugate mentioned, Black people have answers as to whether or not there is racism, oppression, or resistance in this world, and different steps that can be taken to change it. Part of it, as the author’s friend mentioned, could simply be being a witness. I would like to add, be a witness willing to document and stand up for the injustices you see. The other part is to be able to face your actions head on and then maybe this brokenness that is spoken of can be healed.  

But healing starts with you. For anyone, no matter who inflicts the pain, the responsibility of healing is solely yours. It can start with simple actions such as writing articles just as the one she did highlighting the problems. Despite me having questions, I think Fugate’s words should be shared a million times over. But in saying that, know that growth doesn’t come without challenge(s).  So if being fixed is the goal, then we need to know what needs to be repaired. So again, how did they become broken?

If you haven’t already be sure to check out When They See Us on Netflix, and also check out part 1 of the interview I held discussing POC and the resistance that we face in America, here. I know these are touchy subjects, but that can’t change if we are afraid to address them.

Do you have any other solutions, ideas, or feedback? Let me know below. And as always, let’s Power UP!