Everywhere is War!

Over the last several months, there has been a seeming flare up in violence and racial tension in several communities across the United States. Given that I do not indulge in nightly, afternoon – not even morning – television or radio newscasts, my only source of information has been my Facebook news-feed.

Many of my friends are ardent followers of the news, current affairs, politics and social justice issues. Then they are a few others who have no interest whatsoever. I fall somewhere in between.

For a longtime, politics was my life line. Social justice issues flowed through my veins instead of blood. Yes, I could and was called “an angry black woman,” “a communist,” “a faggot,” “bra burning feminist,” and many other names that I dare not write here.

Then I turned 40 years old and something changed in me. I took stock of my journey along the angry, black, communist, same-sex loving, bra burning, bitch road and saw that nothing had changed for all my fighting, pumping of fist in the air, stealth operations, propaganda training, rhetoric spouting ways.

“The more things change, the more they stay the same,” one famous Jamaican radio commentator, the late Wilmot “Mutty” Perkins would daily quote during his show.

He was right.

As I watch the evolution of Barack Obama’s presidency – the wind that was certain to blow "Change" across a racially divided United States of America – the truth of Mutty’s words rang home. Obama was expected to change America, change its history, change the off balance playing field for long and historically marginalised, racialized, discriminated against people of 'Those United States'.

Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States of America was supposed to change the world.

Some have said he will go down in history as the worst President ever. Others believe he will be sanctified and taken straight to God’s feet when he makes his transition – which I hope is not anytime soon.

It matters not to me and it hardly seem to matter to those fighting, looting and shooting across America – in Ferguson, Baltimore and more recently Waco.

Yesterday, as I contemplated how to approach this essay, my daughter sent me this picture on Facebook and provocatively asked, “Claudette Esterine, what do you think?” A black man stringing up a member of the much hated Klu Klux Klan.

What do I think? What did I think as I saw the pictures of gang violence in Waco? What did I think as I glimpsed clips and images from Ferguson and Baltimore?

Here is what I thought:

• Violence begets violence
• Hate invites more hate
• Screaming, wringing our hands, pointing fingers at the problem will result in more screaming, wringing of hands, pointing of fingers

No, I have not lost my fire, my passion or my concerns regarding social justice. However, with all the hating, screaming and shouting that I have personally participated in – while some gains have been made, after all here I am a black woman in a white majority country writing a blog post on race relations without fear of censor - the battle wages on.

Therein lies the problem.

All of us and I mean all of us – black, white, men, women, people of all races and culture – are convinced that there is lack in this Universe. That was my belief for the longest while. I grew up spoon-fed on the idea of oppressors, mostly Caucasians. “They” were always out to get “us,” was what we were taught. Sadly, it is still being taught. It is still being lived in communities, countries and regions across our world.

We have not done anything different. We have changed the script. We have changed the locale of the anger. The faces of the oppressors have changed – “whites,” “men,” now the “Chinese,” I am reliably informed, want to take over. That may very well be true.

What is not true is that we have changed the one thing capable of transforming lives, community, in fact,  the world. We have not changed our hearts.

As humans be-coming, we have not learned to Love.

We prefer the other four letter word and we prefer to F*** each other:

• Up
• In the rear
• Out of an opportunity

As I look at the images of 911, domestic violence, white supremacy, black on black fighting, white on white wars, police excessive use of force, the fighting in Iraq, segregation in South Africa - need I go on? I see one thing, a changed face but the same thing presented in different forms.

In response to my daughter, in response to the absence of the one change that is needed to transform our be-ing, I borrow the sentiment from Bob Marley who co-opted the words from Haile Selassie.

"Until the philosophy which hold one race superior
And another
Inferior
Is finally
And permanently
Discredited
And abandoned -
Everywhere is war -
Me say war.

That until there no longer
First class and second class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man's skin
Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes -
Me say war.

That until the basic human rights
Are equally guaranteed to all,
Without regard to race -
Dis a war.

That until that day
The dream of lasting peace,
World citizenship
Rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion to be pursued,
But never attained -
Now everywhere is war - war.

And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes
that hold our brothers in Angola,
In Mozambique,
South Africa
Sub-human bondage
Have been toppled,
Utterly destroyed -
Well, everywhere is war -
Me say war.

War in the east,
War in the west,
War up north,
War down south -
War - war -
Rumours of war.
And until that day,
The African continent
Will not know peace,
We Africans will fight - we find it necessary -
And we know we shall win
As we are confident
In the victory

Of good over evil -
Good over evil, yeah!
Good over evil -
Good over evil, yeah!
Good over evil -
Good over evil, yeah!"

May there be Peace on Earth and let it begin in me, in you, black, white, Asian, man, woman, gay or straight. Let us walk in perfect harmony.

Namaste
 
Claudette

Some photo sources: 
m.mic.com
facebook.com
pinterest.com

This Culture Of Shame Will End Us All

It is for real. We live, sleep, eat, drink, ingest and exude shame.

Shaming others and ourselves is our favourite past time.

Reality shows are based on shaming and so many lap them up.

Mothers doing what is most natural - breastfeeding their babies - are shamed into covering up.

If you have some curves or fluffs, as my Jamaican Sistahs call their love handles, there is a likelihood that you will be shamed.

Driving around Edmonton this morning, stopping for breakfast and picking up a few items, I see more subtle evidence of shaming. My friend needed to stock up on "smokes," (something that I shame him about in my questioning "do you have to smoke?) he pointed out to me some posters on the corner shop window. They were pictures taken of shoplifters who were caught on camera. "Banned," captioned all the "shameless," hungry and near destitute faces of mainly Aboriginal Canadians.

It is a similar kind of shaming that I notice on the television these last few days as images of Black Americans are captioned "looters," "hoodlums,"  and even "criminals."

Strangely, the practice and culture of shaming does not necessarily point to certain members of our societies.

Ever sat down to watch your tube and an image of "starving children of Africa," with flies about to perch on their eyeballs slowly pans across the screen? Shamed - an entire continent for the greed, neglect and mishandling of public funds by the wealthy bankers, multinational corporations and "First World" governments.

Where are the pictures of those people? How often have you seen the shaming of rogue police officers, employers, government officials who continue to perpetuate the circumstances of shame?

I have been "shamed" for dressing too well, my butt being too noticeable, my legs being as long as they are and for other reasons well beyond my natural control. The colour of my skin, my intelligence and the fact that I am a woman have been reasons or pretext to attempt to shame me.

Being elderly, having a physical disability, or being differently sexually oriented from the majority are ground zero for shaming too many.

When the "shamed" have had enough and feel a need to demonstrate their inability to contain the humiliation and pain any further - the "shamers" notch it up even further. They have the worldly power to do so seeing that they own the media, they are the "law enforcers," they are the government.

What then?

Yesterday, as with everyone else watching even briefly the riots in Baltimore, I saw a shamed woman - doubly so as she was black and her child is a "criminal," a "hooligan" - I saw her demonstrate what we all might consider doing.

Take a stand for change. Be the change that we want to see. End the shaming. Do as President Obama stated, not because of his office - far from it, but because he spoke the only truth that we all, everywhere in this world could heed:

"There are police departments that have to do some soul-searching. I think there are some communities that have to do some soul-searching. But I think we as a country have to do some soul-searching. This is not new. It’s been going on for decades.”

In fact, there are teachers, preachers, soldiers, managers, men, women, shopkeepers, celebrities - you, me - ordinary people, who have to do some soul-searching.

As we grapple yet another decade, through another year, another moment in time with shaming in the forms of racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism, nationalism, etc let us dig deep, stretch farther and heal.

In love, peace and justice for all,

Namaste

Claudette