“You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.”
Malcolm X spoke these famous words during his Prospect for Freedom speech given on January 7th, 1965. This quote has been circling in my head for the past month, since the death of George Floyd on May 25th.
What does peace mean to you?
For many Americans, peace is the current status quo, one where Black people are systematically killed by the very institution that is meant to protect and serve. One where Black people are six times more likely to be arrested for weed possession than White people; even though, Black and White Americans use weed at about the same amount. However, the racial inequities don’t just stop at the criminal justice system. They leak into every system of American life from Healthcare, where Black women are less likely to be believed when they say they have some sort of pain or discomfort to American Cinema where only 16.9% of speaking or named characters in the top 100 films of 2018 were Black. The death of George Floyd was for many Americans (cough cough, White Americans, cough cough) a wake up call, one that black people have been trying to sound for over 400 years.
From activists like Angela Davis and Assat Shakur to writers like James Baldwin and Toni Morrison, even in the last 100 years of this country, there are many Black people who have been sounding that alarm- hoping to awake the consciousness of America to Black America’s pain, frustrations, and concerns. Today, we have to look no further than Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi, the founders of the Black Lives Matter coalition (all of whom are women of color) in order to find our modern day activists. In the wake of the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2013, these women have created an organization to in their words, “Eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.” In order to do this, they created the phrase “Black Lives Matter.” A simple yet incredibly effective way to get their message across through social media. In response to this phrase, some proclaimed “All Lives Matter” or “Blue Lives Matter.” The response to this phrase only justified the need for BLM, because when we as Black people say, “We matter”- the response is, “Nope, we ALL matter.”
Whenever someone says, “All Lives Matter,” you should ask them, “When did Black lives get included into that?” At what moment in time can we look to and say, “There it is, here’s the moment where Black lives truly mattered.” Was it in 1619, when we came over to this country and became slaves? Was it in 1787, when for the sake of political superiority, the South agreed that three out of five slaves were people? Thus, giving them more electoral college delegates and congressmen. Was it in January of 1863, when the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, even though the last of the slaves weren’t freed until two years later in June of 1865 (research Juneteenth.) No one could reasonably point to these moments as a definitive mark for when Black lives truly mattered. They might even move to the 20th century, the same period of time where Black Wall Street was burned in Tulsa, Oklahoma or where over 3,400 Black men and women were lynched (1882-1968 specifically according to the NAACP.) How about when the Philadelphia Police Department bombed and let a city block burn in a predominantly Black part of the city or when the President of the United States signed the 1994 Crime Bill that incentivized mass incarceration and over-policing? Yeah, then they might say that Black Lives Matter.
Right now… Black Lives Matter, even though Flint Michigan went years without clean drinking water and many residents now are still scared to drink and use their own tap water. Now, when Black Americans have been killed or assaulted for:
- Sleeping in a Wendy’s parking lot
- Using a fake twenty dollar bill
- Driving through a protest
- Participating in peaceful protest
- Watching fucking birds in Central park
There is no point in this country’s history where black lives have truly mattered. There has been no moment, that we can collectively look at, to see the that the tides are changing.
So, where do we go from here? We act. We speak up. We donate our time and money to organizations and people who make it their mission to end white supremacy and build up Black communities- including those of all gender expression and sexual orientations. However, what we cannot be is silent. Silence in this moment can only be seen as complicitiness.
If you do nothing now, you could live 100 lifetimes and you still wouldn’t make up for your failure in this moment.
“No one can be at peace until he has his freedom.”
-Malik Beaver
