I support equality. That means I support equality across the board – Black, Asian, Native American, white, lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, transgender, queer, genderqueer, cisgender, people with disabilities, older people, people of all religions and none.
The thing about equality is that it is not enough to say, in a vague and woolly manner, that you support equality for everyone, or that “all lives matter”. Specific groups of people are being persecuted and killed in specific contexts, and there is a particular historical context for that persecution. That means that we have to understand the particular struggle in the particular context. That means we have to do the work to get involved; and to be good allies, we need to listen to the people who have been engaged in the struggle, and use our privilege to promote their voices and agendas, not talk over them and erase their voices. Ignoring the fact that Black people are being disproportionately targeted and killed is adding insult to injury. The reason we are focussing on the fact that Black lives matter right now is that there are large sections of society, most of them armed and dangerous, who seem not to agree.
We are focusing on Black lives right now, because they are the ones getting killed in huge numbers. LGBT people, women, and people with disabilities are much more likely to be killed if they are Black. Black men, women, and children have been shot to death by police. There is a full list here, going back to 1999. These deaths are completely out of proportion to the crimes committed by some of those killed; there is no death penalty for shoplifting, for example. Many of the people killed were innocent of any crime. None of them deserved to be killed.
It is hardly surprising that faced with the massive injustice of these deaths – 14 teenagers have been killed by police since Michael Brown’s death (and half of them were Black), including 12 year old Tamir Rice – people are driven to riot. It is hardly surprising that when a peaceful protest is faced by tanks and guns, people start rioting. When the authorities are doing everything in their power to destroy your community and take away your well-being, of course you are going to riot.
Why have I been silent about this issue since 14 September 2014? Because I am so horrified by what is going on that I couldn’t find the words. I have hardly posted anything on this blog since that post – but I have been posting numerous articles on Facebook about Ferguson, systemic racism, and other killings of Black people, trying to change hearts and minds, and reading stuff myself, trying to get educated. I have joined a Facebook group that is campaigning against racial inequality, and involves real dialogue between Black people and white people. If there was a #BlackLivesMatter protest in England, I would join it. (Mindful of the issue of allies not speaking over the people we are trying to help, I am not sure it would be helpful if I organised one.)
Here in England, anti-racists and allies are busy campaigning against the racist bigotry of UKIP and other far-right groups. There are significant concerns that their anti-immigration rhetoric is being picked up by the mainstream parties. I am also engaged in a campaign – Movement for Justice by any means necessary – to prevent LGBT asylum seekers (the vast majority of whom are from Africa) from being sent back to countries where they would be persecuted. The asylum and immigration system in Britain is deeply unjust, and members of the MFJ mailing list (including me) write to the government to ask them not to deport people. Also in the UK, there is a massive backlash against people with disabilities and a rise in homophobia and transphobia, all triggered by the rhetoric of the neo-conservative ConDem coalition.
If I was in the USA right now, I would be out there joining in the protests – but using these 5 tips for how to be an ally by Chesca Leigh. As I am not in the USA, I am trying to figure out what I can do to fight racism here at home, and trying to raise awareness about the issues via Facebook and Twitter and everyday conversations.
As a Pagan and as a human being, I believe that all people are equal, but that different oppressions arise in different contexts, and therefore we must address oppression and inequality in context, and we must engage in the struggle for equality, using all the tools at our disposal, because nothing is going to be handed to us on a plate by the powers that be – every right that we possess has been struggled for by generations of activists. The right to vote in Britain was gained by riots in the 1830s, and the protests of the suffragettes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The rights to fair pay, maternity leave, health and safety at work, equal pay, limited working hours, and all the rest, were gained by the efforts of trades unions. It is a myth that we get these things by waiting patiently.
I will finish with a quote from Rosa Parks:
I’m tired of being treated like a second-class citizen.
Dowsing for Divinity
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