Black Lives Matter Will Be Over In A Moment
By: Marley K.
Tags: Life Lessons, Equality, White Privilege, BlackLivesMatter, Racism

Black Lives Matter Will Be Over In A Moment

Because White people have short-attention spans and low tolerance levels for Black rebellion.

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

Black lives are mattering in 2020. It’s long overdue and a beautiful thing. But I realize this moment can’t last forever. I realize this moment probably won’t last past 2020 because most White people won’t allow anything to matter except themselves. They are already tired and distracted, seeking late summer trips, bars, and other pacifiers to make them comfortable because we know they hate being uncomfortable. Black lives mattering is always a fleeting moment in the lives of most White people. Most are too arrogant, too ignorant, or too lazy to crack open a Civil Rights timeline to see the trends. White people are as predictable as a broken clock with their concern about how Black people experience America.

Black people forcing White folks to recognize Black lives matter (BLM) is a constant movement for Black people. It’s always just a moment for White folks.

You realize it’s a moment for them when you realize White people are just seeing our struggles after watching the brutality and inequality for decades. What is so different about this moment? What’s different now is that a lot of White people are suffering with us. As long as they suffer, we can move. But we know they hate discomfort, so they won’t be doing any suffering for long. A White Red Cross savior is coming to rescue White people, leaving Black people all alone once again to fend for themselves.

Until they make us whole (reparations), and until America does right by us, Black folks will continue to fight and create movements to hold America accountable for her crimes against Black people’s humanity. We Black folks will continue to rebel, and Blacks and the non-Blacks who fight alongside us will continue to breach the peace because we know for the rest of America, BLM is a moment.

White people hate it when Black folks rebel, even when they know we’re right. They hate it when we ask for what we’ve been owed since the 1800s.

Soon, the federal government, racist militias, and white supremacists will work in tandem as they have done for centuries to put us Black folks back into our places as most White people standby either fearfully or apathetically, unwilling to sacrifice their money, time, or lives to protect us.

History is the primary indicator I have, which leads me to believe that this is just a moment.

The Movement Has Already Been Hijacked

Some time ago I did a personal research project on BLM to see what movement and moment were all about because the people representing the slogan and movement on television did not align with the words, needs, and concerns of folks on the ground in places Sanford, Florida (Trayvon Martin), New York City (Eric Garner), or Ferguson Missouri (Michael Brown). What I discovered is that the movement had been hijacked by many people and centered on groups and issues that did not embody the true purpose, spirit, and intent of the Black Lives Matter slogan.

I followed the money and the national chapter founder’s own words to find a tangled web of lies and deception that I could not get behind. The national chapter of the Black Lives Matter movement had pimped out the pain and suffering of local, uneducated, and poor Black folks to parlay it into a gravy train for themselves in the same way many White exploit and monetize our suffering.

After learning the movement had been hijacked to say I was disappointed was an understatement, because I knew Blacks folks and White folks alike too lazy and too ignorant to read and follow the money would give their own hard-earned cash to the folks they saw on television without giving it a second thought. A good slogan and movement is going to mislead millions of folks. By the time they figure out what happened, the poverty and trauma pimps will be rich and gone on to other things. I was right. Now others have seen the light and bit by bit truth is being revealed, but not before the movement was co-opted.

I knew most people serious about Black Lives Matter wouldn’t take the time to connect the dots, listen to the different messages, and find the disconnects so as not to be misled. I used my professional background to do my due diligence before donating and to warn my people about the potential danger, but people barely read it because as usual, the excuse was that it was too long.

The next thing I knew almost two-years later, BOOM… folks had been bamboozled, the movement had been hijacked, and well-meaning supporters have been misled and redirected to divide Black folks while planting seeds of doubt and mistrust in White folks — and that’s just the way White Supremacy likes things.

This is the primary reason I believe the BLM movement is a moment. I support Black Lives Matter (the slogan), but I don’t support the national chapter or the spokespersons that are constantly called upon by mainstream media in any way, shape, form, or fashion. I support local activists if they are incorporated, or I donate to individual activists and loosely organized social justice groups in cash because of COINTELPRO and other state laws meant to entrap financial supporters of grassroots social justice movements.

Black Lives Matter is a real movement, but because America doesn’t allow us Black folks to organize to protect ourselves peacefully, it’s going to be a moment just like all the other radical Civil Rights moments we’ve had prior to this one. We’ll make a little progress, White people will become violent, the government will terrorize us, and White people will get the tranquility and pseudo-peace they live (and sometimes die) for. If you study American history and Black progress, you know this is a moment. Both liberal and racist White people in America will not allow Black people the opportunity to maintain a movement of rebellion for long.

But there are other reasons I believe BLM is a national moment and not a real movement. I’ll share them.

White People Hate Fighting For Others

White people love fighting, they just hate fighting for other people. They also don’t understand the difference between doing charity for Black people (i.e. token policies) and actually fighting to make things safe and more fair for Black people. If they did, we wouldn’t be in this predicament over and over. Black lives mattering is not about white people, it’s not for White people, and White people get nothing from fighting for us this go-round. Black lives mattering is about doing the right thing for Black people, and White people, especially liberals, don’t have a good, long track record of doing that. Because there are no tangible benefits for White folks, fighting for Black folks isn’t a priority for them. There can’t be an entire movement focused on Blackness, not for long anyway.

White folks are also afraid of each other, and other people. That fear prevents them from learning and engaging in meaningful ways. You can’t fight if you don’t talk to (or listen to) to, and White people aren’t good at either.

The Movement Is Marred By Rifts In The Black Community

Sadly, the Black community is not on one accord which could cause the movement to fizzle fairly quickly. We have Blavity and what some call in the Black community, New Blacks (assimilated Blacks in media, academia, entertainment, and social media), telling very different stories and in different voices than the people on the ground in Louisville, Minneapolis, Ferguson, Los Angeles, Portland, Washington, D.C., and other places around the nation where injustices against the Black people in communities have taken place and where inequity thrives. We also have grifters stealing from local activists in the movement.

These grifters are stealing the momentum and much needed financial resources that could help local activists doing the real work of protecting and advocating for Black lives. Then there are the endless line of sellout Black celebrities like Kanye West, Terry Crews, and Chance the Rapper using their platforms to tend to White gates. Because racist White people and White politicians use wealthy entertainers to speak to Black people, Black entertainers often can’t be trusted. Other celebrities like Jay-Z have also been problematic because of their flop-flopping and undermining the activities of local activists and even national activists like Colin Kaepernick, choosing to use the movement to further their professional/business agendas and protect their rich White friends. None of these individuals are perfect, but they each have vast audiences which may confuse White supporters. It’s one huge family disagreement.

Free-thinking Blacks like myself are drowned out by Black celebrities and new Blacks who support white agendas for financial gain. When we’re not drowned out, we’re chastised making it impossible to have dissenting views. They are Black on the outside, white as the driven snow on the inside.

The movement will certainly be slowed down if not derailed completely by the fractures within the Black community. Because White people see everyone as a monolith, they may believe most of us aren’t on one accord, therefore we don’t know what we want.

Rifts in the Black community stand to derail the movement, making it a moment. We want and need different things. What Black people in Mississippi and Louisiana need differ totally from the people in California or New York. And while there are some things we are all on one accord with (i.e. racism, double-standards of the criminal justice system, police reform), there are many things we part ways on, especially in the deep South. If the wrong Black people (and the loudest or most prominent Black people) are being heard, those who have the biggest needs could miss out. The movement gets derailed when we aren’t on the same page.

White People Hate Being Uncomfortable

White people hate being uncomfortable, and Black lives mattering makes a lot of White people uncomfortable, including the most liberal and progressive White people. Black lives mattering means acknowledging White people have been asleep at the wheel and they haven’t done right by their fellow Black men and women. White people won’t sit with that discomfort for long. Soon, they will be pressuring Black people to make compromises and accept token olive branches to quell our souls so they can reclaim their comfort.

White people need to go to their football games, go to church to see their White Jesus in charge of White blessings, and they need to go out and drink at the bars with their friends. The show must go on for White people. Caring about us takes all the fun out of those things. Caring about Black lives means enough White people would have to put away childish things in order to take the long, never-ending road to achieve equality/equity. Most White people are already sick of BLM. The movement will be over in a moment if these people have their way.

White People Haven’t Prepared For The Black Lives Marathon

Most White people haven’t prepared to fight racism like Black people. Because they aren’t prepared, they are more likely to quit the race, leaving Black lives on the road to achieving equality all alone. Black people have been fighting for everything we have for the past 400-years, with very few White people fighting alongside us. Black people know White people better than they know themselves. As White children are being groomed to pursue the racist American dream, most Black people are teaching their children how to best racism.

Fighting racism is a marathon, and only those trained to endure it can win. White people don’t have to train to endure racism like Black and Brown folks do because they are the authors and facilitators of it. The movement will become a moment because White people won’t fight with us for long. There is power in numbers in concert with the skin colors of those involved in the protests. White supremacy hates it when white people can see through its crap. As White people shift focus, the crowds will be just us Black folks again. White folks require other white folks to motivate them to move. Many have already gone on to other things.

Because most white people aren’t prepared for this marathon, we will likely fall short of our goals.

Too Many White People Don’t See Themselves As The Problem

White people wanting to help fight for Black lives rarely see themselves as part of our problem. Being an ally implies you’re with us, you’re on our team, and you’re helping us. When it comes to racism, it’s almost impossible for White people in America to be on our team because they are a part of a social order that places them at the top of the food chain, even if they are poor.

Instead of good, woke White people calling themselves allies, they should call themselves repairmen and women, fixing the things their fellow White people have broken in the country for centuries. Racism is a national problem created and sustained by White people, and until they see themselves as a problem, this Black lives matter movement will be a seasonal moment that White people can pat themselves on the back for the good deeds they do — the way they do when they serve dinners at the soup kitchens for Thanksgiving or when they work rescuing animals. White people hate thinking about the causes of our misfortunes. Until White people learn to connect their actions with solutions we all work to create, the movement stalls. Black Lives Matter starts and ends with the White people.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Just Died

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died last week and White feminists are falling over themselves paying homage to a woman who didn’t always rule in favor on the civil rights of Black and indigenous people, and did little to address the racial gaps in gender advocacy. There are lots of flaws in her rulings and advocacy, and liberals have already whitewashed her legacy, admonishing anyone criticizing her. She also made inappropriate/insensitive comments on Roe. vs. Wade as well as Colin Kapernick and other athletes protesting racial injustices and police brutality for which she never really apologized. That’s par for the course for White folks. They often recall how they’ve benefitted, not how others were excluded or left behind. In any event, in just three short days since her death, Roe vs. Wade has been centered, and Black Lives Matter has been dethroned. White women are now concerned with having personal access to abortions and birth control, which to me is less important than my right to live free of racism and racial discrimination every day.

I experience racism every day of my life whether it’s online or in-person, and I don’t have a fucking choice. Just think about it. White men are worried about White women not having White children because the option decreases their population. White people = White power. They need more White people to maintain power, which is why they are desiring to seize power. If it weren’t for White people experimenting on Black and Brown women, White women wouldn’t be able to have abortions or have safe birth control options. White feminism erases our past to center their futures, pushing Black lives to the back burner.

Listen to comedian Bill Burr’s SNL monologue on how Black lives mattered for about 8 seconds before White women found a way to center themselves, like clockwork!

https://twitter.com/big_business_/status/1315144857804066816?s=19

Let’s face it, for many Black and Indigenous people, Justice Ginsburg was a champion for Jewish people, White women, and women able to pass as White (i.e. White Jews). Many of her early cases prove that. Her death highlights how shortsighted and tone death many White people are with justice and the law. I don’t expect White people to continue considering the importance of racism in America. Hell, they’ve been looking for a way to change the topic, citing their BLM fatigue. Justice Ginsburg’s passing is just the out White women needed to get them back on track to worry about their favorite group of people — themselves.

White People Will Prove This Isn’t A Moment

If I’m expected to believe America is different and that White people are suddenly somehow new people after history showing me otherwise, they are going to have to show me they are different. They will have to show me that I matter.

Anytime we achieve progress, White people will elect White men who come behind the progress to drag us back into the stone ages where they believe we belong. If they could take us back to old-time slavery, they would. Black lives mattering will be a moment in 2020 because too many White people have not learned how to connect how their action (or inaction) block progress and real change that’s helpful to us and future generations of Black people. I focus on Black people because we are the group America has never done right by, and I don’t always discuss Brown people because America doesn’t treat them the same way they way the treat us. They hate Black people the most. America has been on a mission to exterminate Black people since slavery.

White people have hated the fact that at one time in our history there were more slaves than there were White people. Had they given us access to the same rights, power, and privileges as White folks when they created the nation, we would likely still be in power today and have the rights, liberties, and freedoms, we fight for today.

But Black people will never have those same liberties, power, and rights White people have because White America is a racist nation, and her racism drives the ship. Black lives mattering will only be a moment because White people won’t tolerate it being anything more than that.

In America, the only light allowed to shine is a White one. The only stories that are valid and invaluable to White people are White ones. Whiteness must be front and center at all times. When this nation was founded, the forefathers deemed Whiteness priceless. No other lives mattered. We Black folks have been doing this dance since the early 1600s. We know Black rebellion has never been tolerated in America, and the Black Lives Matter rebellion won’t be any different. Governors are already creating laws that will allow White people to harm protestors with impunity, so I must revel in this moment, for I know it will not last long. White joy comes in the morning — when our Black lives matter no more.

I’m waiting on White people to prove me wrong.

If their attention is needed for issues tied to their anti-Blackness and racism, they are easily distracted because most White people just don’t care about us enough. BLM is a movement that will only last moment because America has zero tolerance for Black rebellion and White people have BADD (Black Attention Deficit Disorder).

Marley K in Quarantine 2020