BLACK LIVES matter. We know. How about white rage kills. Try that. Or: all Black power unity. 

Black self defence/preservation/solidarity matters, Black love has always been our focus. 

Black lives matter? To us, yes, we’re Black.

Why are we reiterating the obvious? Unless of course, it’s a question and not a statement. The premise suggests a request from a position of weakness. That’s not us. We already know. Most of us.

How do you spend your time with that preoccupation on your mind? Surely other people’s validation is not required.

Malcolm X wanted a “no controlled show”. Got me thinking. There is so much media attention around the Black Lives Matter movement currently.

Some of us have questions though. They are controversial. Some people ask about their funding, their backing and their origins. Others focus on the part of their statement which says: “Black liberation movements in this country have created room, space, and leadership mostly for Black heterosexual, cisgender men — As a network, we have always recognised the need to center the leadership of women and queer and trans people.”

Global movement

All over the globe can be heard the refrain, “Black lives matter!” often from people who have probably never said it before. Some say the statement is a reaffirmation. Others interpret the slogan as simply being a begging, a pleading question, a request for validation from those who are not Black.

Having been shut in our homes for the best part of three months, the fear of the COVID-19 pandemic did not, however, outweigh the outrage of tens of thousands of people, who took to the streets to protest the barbaric killing of a handcuffed George Floyd on a busy Minneapolis street on May 25 by a seemingly determined and indifferent then-police officer Derek Chauvin.

Traditionally, dozens of organisations respond to cases such as this. They meet, they rally, they engage the community. Often they unite to create a stronger base. This time though, one organisation has emerged – or has been selected – to represent the local, national and international response.

Perhaps an effort was afoot to deter or detract from a fierce groundswell which would have responded with great animus to the continued murders of Black adults, youths and children at the hands of police.

The system does not want another LA riot 1992.

So, was Black Lives Matter – this seven-year-old, post-Trayvon Martin-era organisation, empowered to corral the Black reaction before it took its natural energy to another level?

George Floyd pleading for his life under the knee of an arrogant, dispassionate white policeman was the straw which broke the proverbial camel’s back. This just after the murders of Ahmaud Arbery (killed by white would-be pseudo-vigilantes in Georgia), Breonna Taylor and Atatiana Koquice Jefferson shot in their homes by Louisville and Texas police respectfully.

Opportunism

This Black Lives Matter movement experience is reminiscent of that curiously well-organised symbol of white outrage the Occupy/Wall Street international formation.

Looking at the demos it almost appears that the outrage of the Black community has been co-opted by a movement to water it down and make it an easily manipulated display.

Black Lives Matter as a movement originally coming from initial central messaging, seems to have morphed into a whole other entity, representing a mish-mash of other ideologies and philosophies, and definitely opportunism.

The world over there are massive protests against police brutality and racism in different nations. The far right in the US and England are facing off against Black Lives Matter protestors. There has been an influx of thousands of incensed white people bringing other issues to the battle.

For 400 years plus one, Black folk in the US – like the Windrush originals and their offspring in Britain – struggled to receive justice from a nation which needed and used them, but now refuses to acknowledge the debt owed, or even the pain and psychological damage inflicted upon them.

Thousands of white people going on yet another Black Lives Matter rally may just be an excited diary entry or social media post. But, be clear, you do not get a “participation trophy”, to quote author Bakari Sellers.

There have been at least three other police-involved Black deaths since Floyd. They are; Atlanta’s Rayshard Brooks, and Louisville “BBQ Man” David McAtee. There have been a couple of lynchings too.

“Black people have always marched and made demands”

So, there have been some murder charges against the four cops in the Floyd case; some more instant cop firings, new policies, some old legislation suddenly passed aiming to curtail or expose violent behaviour, and funds earmarked.

“There has been some incremental progress, but the question is will it be sufficient to save Black lives, that we now acknowledge that they matter?” asked retired detective Marquez Claxton, and regular MSNBC contributor. 

“Will it be long term impactful versus short term spur-of-the-moment significant?”

Street renamings, or painting Bed Stuy, Brooklyn or Washington, DC blocks with Black lives matter in 10 foot, sunflower yellow letters are poignant. 

With the COVID-19-wracked globe heading to a recession or depression food pantry lines now have Ivy Leaguers and middle class families vying for the necessary free food packages for the first time. The uncertainty of less money or food is driving the anxiety, and perhaps swelling the city demonstrations to unprecedented levels. Is it about Black lives, or anger and frustration over their own new situation?

Allies

Self-declared “allies”; run, go tell you and yours to have situational awareness about what an Amy Cooper false reporting is meant to cause. The possibility of a Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland ending may have been her motivation, and that of all the other Karens and Kens. New York States’ false reporting bill should end that caper, or maybe it will be us rocking the ‘Not Today Coloniser,’ or “‘Nah…..1955,”Rosa Parks’ T-shirts. 

White folks remove your active privilege that denies us ours. We don’t owe you forgiveness or comfort for your screaming Black lives matter into the plastic in your palms. 

A couple of weeks hitting the bricks, takes nothing form the 401 years of terror, exploitation, kidnapping, murder, rape and ongoing racism.

You don’t get to ask for understanding for yourself, or condemnation of organic youthful exuberance when no clear result from any sustained actionable policy change has occurred.

A strong movement does not need an “ally” to control the narrative of the optics. 

There are so many grassroots groups which have been on the ground for decades; in the streets, confronting police and politicians alike, upholding their communities, and fighting for equal social justice, more jobs, better public housing and better schools.

“I am not here to satiate your guilt”

Organised Anger Speaks Louder, read a sign held by a young man who was confronting the tooled-up police, at one of the several rallies I attended in the wake of the Floyd murder. This roving block party, Woodstock-with-a-purpose prolonged protest with its fluid agenda and focus, is making moves on the superficial, symptomatic front, but is doing little to address the institutionalised racism and deep rooted hate born out of fear and guilt.

Those moves may begin with heavy conversations, the boycotts, the vamping on systems the way renegades do. I cannot/will not condemn the young people and their powerful exuberance.

No rebellion is polite. It can be ugly, uncomfortable, loud and inconvenient. Not including the instigators, and the agent provocateurs – the youth wanted to get our attention.

The non-threatening, questioning statement of Black Lives Matter makes it easy to temper the righteous outrage. It keeps the states quo, the status quo. Nothing really changes. There is no shift in the power dynamic. There is no levelling of the playing field when you are asking for acceptance. Your agenda, simply becomes whatever their agenda is, because you are asking permission for your existence. 

White folks, your assignment – should you choose to accept it – is to go and talk to yourself, family, friends, and colleagues. I am not here to satiate your guilt, curiosity, fetish or long time ignorance. 

If you want to be an “ally” then tell your white supremacist society to dismantle these racist institutions. And while you’re at it, being all “united” and what not, give reparations to the descendants of the enslaved Black people whose blood, sweat and tears built this nation. They are owed a great debt.

Black people have always marched and made demands. This is not new or news to us.

It is not a weekend warrior, quarantine-boredom, bucket list fulfilling, social media clickbait. For Black people, it is 24-7.

Our demands remain constant.

Suddenly-involved white folks, maybe we should ask does PR activism matter? When all the lights and cameras disappear just-add-water activism doesn’t get the job done. This isn’t your Black card.