My body doesn’t belong to me, is what I keep thinking to myself. I think about how others are also drowning in the dissolution of their rights and how we’re told to “suck it up,” stop “whining,” and be “smarter,” to stay afloat.
I think about how we’re blamed because our legs spread, even when forced apart. How they defend child brides and rape, under the veil of religious “freedom” and “anti-murder” campaigns. I think about how being a secretary who is sexually assaulted is now declared a victory because their boss, just maybe, will pay for a medical procedure. I think of the number of people who will die- many have already. How are the ones who preach “life preservation” okay with this? I think about the irony behind who the real killers are.
I think about human rights and how it’s so easily stripped away. I think of how revolting it is that we need a term like “human rights” as a reminder not to be cruel to one another. But it seems as though so many have yet to receive the memo.
I think of recent conversations about freedom and how I’ve never felt this in the U.S., even before the ban. How there was never a time I felt the blissfulness of relaxation living in my body. I think about how this is the laceration many Black and Brown people sustain.
I think about the people who say, “Why are we acting like a third-world country,” with repulsion dripping from their lips. How they can so easily pull back the layers of their skin to reveal how deep nationalism and ethnocentrism are etched into their bones. How they exclaim THIS IS AMERICA! I think about how I want to slap those people. How yes, they’re correct, this is America.
I think of the hypocrisy of those who’ve never uttered the words “freedom” and “rights” before this day. How they’ve lived life thinking the game of Oppression would never make them losers, would never make them question the sincerity of those they call “friend,” would never make them feel like the other in the room.
I think of the hypocrisy of those who now want to question Independence Day because it’s the first time they’ve realized they too aren’t free. How now the same people who justify high sentences for stealing or nonviolent drug crimes simply due to “legality,” ironically question the morality of our justice system.
I think about the sea of Whiteness that constantly has input on my existence- even when in solidarity. How they say, “If you thought the BLM protests were bad, just you wait…,” as if the pain of my people wasn’t “real” activism because White people were excluded from the club of police brutality. Even when our rights are shredded, racism is still used as a bonding agent.
I think about how people’s life jackets are finally popping- realizing the world has always been underwater.
Powerful words, thank you for putting this out there. Put into words what ive noticed for a while.