Who is the Uncivilized One?
I’m done with soft-peddlers. I’m done with the soft language of exoneration. I’m done dealing with people who try to find every possible way to deflect the reality of our country. Let’s be clear, this country was founded on two major racial crimes: Genocide and Slavery. So what we are seeing is not some aberrant time, nor were there the “good” days when these racist crimes against humanity didn’t happen. But there is a difference, of sorts. While such murderous behavior by the authorities is not new, there are two distinct features this time around. First, we have a President baying for blood and undesirous of checking his universally evil impulses. Second, we have what scholar Dr. Rahul Mahajan (my brother as it turns out) refers to as the eroding of the entire Liberal edifice. We have given up pretenses; in fact we’ve even given up the “good” elements of hypocrisy- now we don’t even pretend, we just declare open season.
So, my dear friends, what we are seeing is not pain. It doesn’t require sympathy or empathy. What we are seeing is anger. Pure and simple. Anger at the “debate.” Anger at the constant attacks on life and liberty. Anger at living insufferable lives. Anger at the lack of change in our own behavior. We tweet and write but we are not preventing Black men and women from being mowed down in the street or being murdered nonchalantly, as if murdering a man in broad daylight is just “another decision” that has to be made in a day. “What should I have for breakfast? Lunch? Which Black man should I kill?” This is the banal calculus of the criminal in a uniform that murdered George Floyd.
Privatizing our protests doesn’t mean shit. Writing paeans to “tolerance and love” is a deep fucking insult. I typically don’t use expletives in my writing but today I find it necessary. Be angry, not pained. Do something about it- don’t just get teary over a glass or three of wine. Act.
There is more at stake than meets the uncritical eye. What we are seeing is an assault on the entire structure of society. We have collected ourselves into 3 camps. One camp is winning. The other two sit on their feet, one by design and the other because it cannot find the vocabulary- real and metaphorical- to do anything but spectate. You can guess which is which and who is who.
Historically, legitimate people-scholars, statesmen, and public figures would write openly about “civilized” and “uncivilized” peoples. Here we are again- living in a Manichean world. Gods and devils. Let’s be clear, though. The devils are not the oppressed and murdered. The devils are the oppressors and murderers.
Camus wrote that “through a curious transposition…it is innocence that is called upon to justify itself.” When that is true, society has already started the lapse. And here we are.
