November 11 Post
I have not engaged with any of these materials before. My question before reading is what is meant by “the end of the world?” How is BLM involved in the Apocalypse?
This week’s material was super interesting and thought provoking. In the “Reflections from Black Activism” article, the declare the “end of the world” implies that systems of domination have captured the world. In our current world, this can be translated to anti-black racism. In order to rebuild society without power structures, the end of the world must happen first. BLM can be seen as as having apocalyptic goals, as their goal is to “End The War Against Black People,” or in other words, destroy anti-black racism. More specifically, BLM is targeting reform of the justice system/police departments, as those two institutions target black people unfairly and lead to their deaths. This current practice of pushing and dreaming for a better future while black people are currently being murdered on the streets can be seen as the “black radical imagination.” The rage built up through generations of black people will help bring upon the end of the world. In class on Monday we got into an interesting discussion about whether or not the electing of our new president Joe Biden would delay the end of the world. Because Trump so largely enraged the black population (due to his white supremacist comments and outlooks), will this shift to Biden (a black ally) help or hurt the end of the world? While I think Joe Biden will certainly support black lives and make this world more inclusive and safer for them, I actually do agree with my classmates in that it may delay the end of the world, but not in a bad way. The End of the World seems like a last result when the world is truly in its worst place with black oppression. Therefore, traveling backwards towards equality (although, in reality, it still would be nowhere near achieving equality) is not necessarily a bad thing. So the real question is would you rather have (let’s just say) half equality or complete oppression so you can execute the Apocalypse? I’m not so sure of which answer I believe is more productive, but I am leaning towards half equality since I believe that changing the entire power dynamic structure is almost an impossible task to execute.
Lastly, in the Podcast one concept that was mentioned was “Intergenerational Intimacy,” which is the idea that black ancestors are able to live through current black freedoms. I think this is a very beautiful idea, in that all the hard work that black ancestors had done is visible today, and therefore although physically not here, the spirit and legacies of those ancestors are still alive and well. Although black bodies have been put through hell in our countries history, a beautiful connection between generations of black folks can be made.
