Up until recently, I thought that my objective was to humanize Black people and the Black experience in order to motivate change. But 'humanizing' centers the warped lens through which white people have been conditioned to see Black people. 'RE'humanizing centers the history of de-humanization and consciously separating 'personhood' from Blackness.
I have often spoken about the strategic, intentional, and consistent dehumanization of Black people necessary to justify the inhumane treatment necessary for America to function since its existence. For centuries, we have been receiving messages designed to dehumanize the Black body. Do you ever think about why we were all relatively comfortable with airing, and watching, George Floyd's murder over and over, on the news, at 2pm, without having any extreme reaction or expectation of censorship. Replace George Floyd with a person of any other non-Black demographic, and it just won't compute in your brain. It just wouldn't happen. Heck, we wouldn't see a person kneeling on a dog for 30 seconds, let alone 8+ minutes.
*Anecdotal Proof*
I started, but did not finish, Do Not F*ck With Cats, on Netflix. The series is about how a bunch of people on the internet went to great lengths to find and persecute a person who was killing dogs and cats on camera. That was what the whole series is about. Even in that series, the killing is not shown.
Not that I want it shown, of course. Even the idea that those videos ever existed makes me sick. But knowing that it is easier for me to view a person being killed than a house pet, makes me feel even worse...
On the bright side, you can't get better if you don't acknowledge you have the room and
ability to get better. I don't know. I just made that up. Don't want to end on a bummer. Seems like bad luck...
Until next time!
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