Why do youth have to be "the future"? Why don't the material conditions of their lives matter right now? What if they do some cool-ass activist shit now and then sit on the couch for the rest of their lives? Is that okay?
What are the emotional effects of all these videos of violence against Black people going viral? One thing I know for sure about myself is that I cannot watch a rape scene in a movie. I also cannot watch a scene where the dude beats the shit out of his wife or girlfriend. I also can't read those kinds of scenes. I have a physical reaction; that body could be my body. Honestly, even though I have an intense emotional reaction, I don't have the same physical reaction to all these horrible videos on my newsfeed. A reminder that I need to be real with myself about the distinction between empathy and solidarity. I don't, I'll never, know what it's like to experience racism -- from a microaggression to continuous state violence. So again, what are the emotional effects of all these videos of violence against Black people going viral? Both on an individual and on a systematic level?
What's the difference between destruction (of property) and violence (against bodies and minds)? Does inconveniencing folks -- making it so weddings have to be rescheduled, Orioles tickets have to go to waste -- by participating in a large collective demonstration of righteous anger count as violence? Even broken windows, do broken windows delegitimize the non-violent cred of a protest? My instinctual answer is a resounding, "Hell no, come on." But I spent a lot of time last year writing about Bourdieu's notion of "symbolic violence." I contended that school dress codes could enact a kind of symbolic violence on the bodies of students from oppressed classes -- girls, kids who participate in Hip-Hop culture, etc. So do I call things "violence" when it suits my political sensibilities but not when it doesn't? I guess so. So does that mean that for me, "violence" is only possible when it's enacted by a person with privilege on or toward a person from an oppressed class? So what's all the other stuff then -- when women beat on each other, or when a woman sexually assaults a man, for example?
What are the emotional effects of all these videos of violence against Black people going viral? One thing I know for sure about myself is that I cannot watch a rape scene in a movie. I also cannot watch a scene where the dude beats the shit out of his wife or girlfriend. I also can't read those kinds of scenes. I have a physical reaction; that body could be my body. Honestly, even though I have an intense emotional reaction, I don't have the same physical reaction to all these horrible videos on my newsfeed. A reminder that I need to be real with myself about the distinction between empathy and solidarity. I don't, I'll never, know what it's like to experience racism -- from a microaggression to continuous state violence. So again, what are the emotional effects of all these videos of violence against Black people going viral? Both on an individual and on a systematic level?
What's the difference between destruction (of property) and violence (against bodies and minds)? Does inconveniencing folks -- making it so weddings have to be rescheduled, Orioles tickets have to go to waste -- by participating in a large collective demonstration of righteous anger count as violence? Even broken windows, do broken windows delegitimize the non-violent cred of a protest? My instinctual answer is a resounding, "Hell no, come on." But I spent a lot of time last year writing about Bourdieu's notion of "symbolic violence." I contended that school dress codes could enact a kind of symbolic violence on the bodies of students from oppressed classes -- girls, kids who participate in Hip-Hop culture, etc. So do I call things "violence" when it suits my political sensibilities but not when it doesn't? I guess so. So does that mean that for me, "violence" is only possible when it's enacted by a person with privilege on or toward a person from an oppressed class? So what's all the other stuff then -- when women beat on each other, or when a woman sexually assaults a man, for example?
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