systemic violence – Feminism and Religion

Archives from the FAR founders: Systemic Violence and the Killing of Michael Brown by Xochitl Alvizo

This piece was originally posted on August 14, 2014, over ten years ago; add immigrants and Latine where it reads young black men, boys, or women, and it is as if I wrote it for today.

The current U.S. regime gives us more and more to rage and grieve over every single day. It is indeed important to grieve and to give ourselves the time to really feel what is going on under our watch so that we can then move into action with more resolve and efficacy. I invite you then to read, grieve, and then take action. Every day, do at least one thing – make a call to the president, your governor, senators, and representatives; engage in mutual aid; show up to a protest – and choose not to be a bystander. Oppression is systemic, indeed, but it is also a people, it is us. The system is people and we are the system.

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Oppression is systemic. Injustice is systemic. It pervades the whole – it seeps into everyday actions and becomes habits and patterns that function as default. As a result, the actions that fall within these patterns hardly need justifying. If anything, the questioning of them is what is put on the defensive. And those who stand against injustice must usually do so in the face of militarized policing, before vast forces that serve to preserve the status quo.

The Hate U Give by Esther Nelson

These days I live in a perpetual state of simmering outrage given the popular support of the “goings on” and happenings within our current administration. The lies, the deceit, the xenophobia, the racism, the misogyny, the homophobia, the anti-intellectualism—things that have been around a good long time, but now seem to have settled in comfortably with those who have the power to keep it all in place. I’m discouraged.

But then, there’s this:

The Hate U Give, a YA (Young Adult) novel authored by Angie Thomas, spent 50 weeks at the top of the New York Times bestseller list after its publication in February 2017. The book has received numerous awards and also has enjoyed an immense popularity. It has also generated considerable controversy.

The following is the author’s profile from Amazon’s website: “Angie Thomas was born, raised, and still resides in Jackson, Mississippi as indicated by her accent. She is a former teen rapper whose greatest accomplishment was an article about her in Right-On Magazine with a picture included. She holds a BFA in Creative Writing from Belhaven University and an unofficial degree in Hip Hop. She is an inaugural winner of the Walter Dean Myers Grant 2015, awarded by We Need Diverse Books.”

Continue reading “The Hate U Give by Esther Nelson”

Systemic Violence and the Killing of Michael Brown by Xochitl Alvizo

I can’t help but see the similarities between the everyday existence of young black men, of boys in this country, and that of women. The lack of safety in public places; the need to always be aware of one’s surroundings; the lack of trust in the intentions of another; living with the knowledge that people like you experience violence at much higher rates than others. It is a racist, violent, patriarchal world we live in. And, yes, it is also other things, good and beautiful things, but sometimes the hard reality of everyday life blocks out that light. Continue reading “Systemic Violence and the Killing of Michael Brown by Xochitl Alvizo”