Post 8 - March 14

Violence is a symptom of fear and hate (or is it the other way around?) – poets like Danez and Tarfia write about the fear and how it is manifested in the world in which we live in. I think most about Danez Smith’s “alternate names for black boys” and how our society has already written a prescription for the ‘illness’ that they call being black.

“5.   guilty until proven dead”

“10. going, going, gone”

“17. a mother’s joy & clutched breath”

In 2017 we think of black boys in this manner – fear of their extinction is ever-present and each day that we wake up there is a sense of anger and violence in the air. This poem, in particular, reminds me of the complexity of being black and what we think of our black boys. There is always another side to things – while one party views black boys as ‘dead’ and ‘gone’, another party views them as ‘life’ and ‘beautiful’.

Giving voice to the violence that humanity (not just black boys) are exposed to allows it to live and die – we give it acknowledgment because it should be acknowledged, but we kill it because it should not exist.  We see people deal with their fear, hate, anger, and violence in many ways, and for some, they view their violence as a form of protest. We want to do something to show those in power that we do not concur, but when we speak the violence and when we act out the violence, we are seen as ‘animals’ and ‘brutes’ – but how are we to show our discontent when we are not allowed to be free enough to do so?

Imani Cezanne has a wonderful spoken word about her form of protest and her fear…perfect way to sum up the idea that we do what we can to give voice to our fear and to reject the violence that plagues us.