Whether we know it of not, we are witnessing a shift in momentum for this country and the entire world. An increasing momentum to evolve. This momentum may have started with an unknown man or woman who jumped off of a slave ship rather than be enslaved in this land. It may have been furthered by Denmark Vesey, Harriett Tubman, and Geronimo, furthered by their desire to not rest until they were free.
As of late, we have witnessed a domino effect as these events cascaded upon us, the Covid-19 pandemic, the murder of Amaud Arbery, the news reports that showed a white woman threatening to call the police on a black man in Central Park for him asking her to put her dog on a leash. We witnessed on social media the centuries old tradition of Black and Brown bodies being regarded as expendable, a tradition that the white populous has had the option of disregarding. I choose to wonder if and actively hope that this tradition is ending as we witness how racism, like the oil economy, is unsustainable.
Now we witnesses the effects of white supremacy together. This experience alone has shifted everything. Everything shifts is as if the ground beneath our feet is no longer solid.
At the same time, amidst this opportunity for evolution, I feel like someone I know died. I feel like George Floyd might have been me, or a relative lying on the ground, begging an indifferent murderer sworn to uphold the law of the land to not kill me.
A perfect storm has arisen amidst a pandemic, amidst cell phone videos, and amidst social media at the same time that I feel an empty place inside of me that seems as if it will never be filled, perhaps manifesting as the culmination of a long-standing collective trauma. And at the same time, the white cultural majority I’m guessing, experiences outrage, anger, betrayal or shame. Whatever we feel and whoever we are, and wherever we are heading, I choose to imagine that this momentum is evolving us toward a point of collective liberation as we see our collective shadows and ourselves more clearly.