Activism and Exhaustion - 8/6/2020

If you’ve been paying ANY attention to the news recently, it is an understatement to say that we live in ‘unprecedented times’. Despite the fact we are going through a global pandemic, the past few weeks have arguably seen the largest strides in the ‘Black Lives Matter’ campaign since 2014, after George Zimmerman; who let me remind you is still a free man, murdered seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin. 

We are living in an age where I can admonish my friends for being selfish enough to hop between each other’s houses for a catch-up but then expect them to go to protests where the rate of exposure is exceedingly high. The reported statistics that black people are at a much larger risk of catching and dying from COVID-19 cannot be detached from this current movement of black people trying to have their voices heard. 

These two events are interconnected, as it is not race in of itself that places black people at high risk, it is racism. Black people working at jobs that are more likely to be exposed to and interact with the general public is a major factor, as well as the medical concerns of black people being underplayed time and time again; meaning they are less likely to seek medical intervention and be given the duly care that white people receive. This is a centuries old tradition that has allowed atrocities to be committed against black bodies, as pseudo-science maintains that our pain threshold is much higher, so can handle even the most debilitating of diseases. 

Black people that are organising protests and mobilising activism on a large scale epitomises bravery. To expose ourselves in a period of time where it is much more dangerous to us, where when we seek medical attention, we know for a fact that we run the risk of being neglected; is brave. To every black person returns home from the protests and has to interact with family members who are more susceptible to catching the virus, may not obviously seem courageous, but there is no doubt that it is. 

Black people are tired. We have been tired since our first tasks of unpaid labour. To watch our struggles ignored and our needs invalidated routinely is both frustrating, and frankly boring. The extent of racism being downplayed in Britain despite physically living it, is draining. To refashion the James Baldwin quote to our current British context, “to be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time”. And if I wasn’t experiencing this before, it has reached a peak recently. To be constantly in a rage is a result of being tired of pre-existing social conditions. Both emotions are equally as strenuous and equally as valid. (Black rage is functionary! Despite what the media says!) 

This constant state of exhaustion is also at the rapid proliferation of news that is directly related to racial injustice at all times; as well as apprehension that this momentum will slow down, and this will just be another moment in time where people were really angry, and then stopped caring. Once again, letting our incompetent government get away with literal murder. I hope ‘Black Lives Matter’ doesn’t remain a chant that is reminiscent of a certain moment in time and I hope it is not a just a wave that blows over. Although it can be fatiguing to interact with large volumes of really essential and educating information, I hope my Instagram feed stays full of Malcolm X quotes and black voices actually being listened to. I hope we never go back to just throwback selfies, and I hope the urgency of this cause, the destruction of idealistic notions of Empire and the humanisation of black experiences do not exist in a vacuum. Our generation  needs to stay on the Tory government’s neck, and better yet, apply more pressure. 

The scale of information (and misinformation - this is a separate issue that needs addressing) being shared is very overwhelming. (on the 7^th of June 2020, the single word ‘Slavery’ was trending on Twitter yesterday with over 240k tweets. How dystopian) Black self-care and support systems of people who can relate to and listen to black experiences is vital right now, and it is important to come to grips with the fact that our exhaustion does not undermine our rage. I am still fearful that this movement will pass without real, long-lasting change, but I committed to not letting my deep-seated cynicism about the state of this country (who has consistently failed minorities) set in. 

This exact tiredness is the basis of my activism, and with it comes my ‘black rage’, my urgency to read more about the complexity of racial injustice and the importance in making people uncomfortable by even discussing it. 

Dara Coker.