It’s August 1st, 2020.
It’s Emancipation Day, meaning that the abolishing of slavery throughout the British Empire came into effect 186 years ago.
But honestly? Where are we nearly 200 years later? Black bodies and Black minds are being murdered at an alarming rate. We are all quick to say it’s not “as bad” in Canada as it is in the US, but that’s not true. Anti-Black racism is a problem all over the world. We are just much better at playing the Great And Powerful Oz, while committing atrocities that receive less airplay.
In the US, the FBI has opened an investigation about the police killing of Breonna Taylor. Oprah Winfrey has given up the cover of her magazine for the first time in history to Ms. Taylor.
Ms. Taylor’s killer have still not been brought to justice.
Black Lives Matter protests are still happening, even though things are settling back into the way that white discomfort always settles – we are tired, we have short attention spans, and we go back to taking pictures of our lunch.
A month ago, I was trying to borrow books by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robyn Maynard, Desmond Cole, James Baldwin, Austin Channing Brown, Toni Morrison, Layla F. Saad, and others, waiting weeks for them to become available. Today, they are readily and easily available.
Please do not let the momentum that has been gathered by and for BIPOC over the last months run out of steam. Please remember that when we stop looking and fighting and talking, things don’t stop happening.
Do not go back to quiet ambivalence. Bring justice and real social change. Don’t stop filling your feeds and minds with BIPOC.
Until things really change, until we defund and demilitarize the police, until we bridge the pay gap, until we stop seeing black bodies choked to death we are not done.
Please keep learning. Please keep talking. Please keep agitating for real social change.
Please.
KaliDesautelsSpeaks 