Nov
23
2024
African Americans in YS

The Briar Patch | I will not privilege my ideals

What the state of Israel — a country that upholds an apartheid system of unequal treatment toward some of its citizenry is doing to the Palestinian people in the name of Zionism— is doing is genocide. There is no equivocation on this. It is wrong, and it is evil.

And the United States’ willingness to enable this genocidal behavior by providing the bombs and other weapons of mass destruction to Israel for this murderous endeavor, now being thrust upon Lebanon, is unsurprising, considering its own origin story of mass murder and genocide, engagement in human trafficking,  taking land by force and pulverizing it in the name of Manifest Destiny.

As Mark Twain once said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”

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Former president Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner have all but stated their intentions for the Gaza Strip, openly informing those who are actually listening that beach front properties are an acceptable outcome post genocide.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ utterances on the issue, unsatisfactory at best, and her refusal to call for an arms embargo on Israel, along with the silencing of Palestinian voices by allowing the Democratic National Convention to refuse them a platform at the convention, has been the most disappointing and distressing aspects of her campaign.

And yet, despite the utter contempt and disgust I feel around this issue, I voted early for Vice President Harris to become our next president of the United States. She is the only viable choice in this critical election year. It doesn’t take much to do a quick internet search of Trump’s statements around this issue to discover that, as horrifying as this protracted murderous rampage on Palestinian women and children has been, it will be much, much worse if Trump is elected.

I did not vote for Harris solely because she is a fellow Black woman, or because I feel she is a perfect ideological match. Far from it. Harris is not a goddess; she is a politician. She is not our friend; she is our employee. Politicians politic, if you will,  but one of their most important tasks is to procure resources through a system of governance, and through distribution of power. This is an election of tactics and strategy whereby it’s not enough to vote someone into office and expect them to do the right thing. The real responsibility for the people is collectively organizing enough to compel our elected officials to do what is best for our communities after they win.

Black people living in this country have, for a long time, subordinated our ideals out of sheer survival. This election year is no exception. There is too much at stake to build moral castles in the sand related to third-party candidates. While there is evidence pointing to some successes of political parties outside of Democrats and Republicans winning local elections — i.e., Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Working Families Party in New York City — I cannot afford to privilege my ideals this time around, and I simply do not buy the lesser-of-two-evils trope bandied about every four years. There is a clear enough distinction between Harris and Trump in several key areas of importance.

Contrary to misinformation shared via social media about Harris’ criminal justice record as attorney general for the state of California, Harris launched a successful re-entry second-chance program called “Back on Track” in an effort to curb recidivism, which has been replicated in other cities. That’s a far cry from putting a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for the execution of five teenage Black and Brown boys ultimately exonerated after being falsely accused of raping a white woman in Central Park in the 1980s. Harris is also not calling for abolishing qualified immunity for law enforcement officers who kill unarmed citizens — Trump is. It is chilling to think that the cop who shot Sonya Massey in the face in cold blood this year would get away with such a vile act. Although many have and do still.

The elimination of the Department of Education, Environmental Protection Agency, Climate change policies, women’s reproductive rights — a particular area of concern for Black women as health disparities related to Black infant and maternal mortality rates continue to rise, these are all part of the governing strategy of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. Also on the table: the elimination of voting rights, and student loan forgiveness, and mass deportations of immigrants who are lawfully living in this country.

As I am writing this, the song “Afro Blue” is background music in my mind.

Dream of a land
My soul is from
I hear a hand
Stroke on the drum
Shades of delight, cocoa hue
Rich as the night, afro blue
Elegant boy, beautiful girl
Dancing for joy, elegant whirl

My dreams of my ancestral homeland are often a shelter for my ideals. But pragmatically, I keep them protected, in my heart, for the day in which they can live unfettered in a society that values all human life.

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