I have been reading conservative articles and Libertarian articles and news reports from all over America in the past couple months since the slaying of George Floyd and the protests for justice that were awakened in its wake. Some of these journalists and writers seem to think that what Black people want is to overthrow America. No. We just want to overthrow the oppression that has plagued America since its inception.

If you are having difficulty understanding that what you are seeing in the streets today is the people you have oppressed striving to throw off your oppression, understand your own history. Own it. When I say you, I am referring to all the people who have benefited from the free labor and economic, political and social subordination of people of African descent. If you work for the government or a corporation or a mom and pop, if you live in the suburbs or downtown or a farm, if your 401(k) or stocks or bonds are thriving or suffering, if you have never been challenged by the police or an employer or an educational institution or barista or a Karen because of the color of your skin, Im talking to you.

For those of you still arguing for your privilege, questioning Black Lives Matter (still saying all lives matter), railing against the proposed repeal of Proposition 209, unquestioningly supportive of police brutality because it doesnt happen to you, believing that you can make America great again as if it ever was as great as you think it was, still believing there are good Nazis for all you good folks: you cant stay woke until you get woke, so please wake up.

To paraphrase Upton Sinclair, Its difficult to get a [person] to understand something if [their privilege] depends upon [them] not understanding it. Upton Sinclair was born in 1878. He lived long enough to see Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated. Sinclair was an American novelist and social reformer best known for his books calling out the atrocities of American industry near the beginning of the 20th century. His words still ring true today. Some people are just not going to get it. They dont want their comfortable situation to be disrupted. Who does?

If you are a product of American society, a derivative of European western civilization, a remnant of the Roman Empire and a believer in its cultural prerogatives, it is difficult for you to see outside these perspectives. Your parents probably believed in these things and taught them to you. Their parents did the same. When you are comfortable vis--vis others in your society, you are far less likely to question the validity, morality and truth of what you have been taught.

And when your entire culture and society, all of its institutions media, schools, government, industry, economics, military, social/gender roles, religion, law and politics have been constructed to reinforce these beliefs from the day you were born, it is even more difficult to let them go, no matter how much evidence you may have that these narratives are false, untenable and unsustainable. After all, you may have your own set of alternatives facts to support your beliefs. Facts that have been propagating since long before you or your parents and grandparents were born. Like any good teacher, I am focused on the students success your success. In spite of my own fatigue, after more than 40 years of doing this work, I must continue to try to help you understand, for your own good and the good of humanity, what you have been programmed not to understand.

The disharmony you have seen in the streets of hundreds of cities in America is the product of western civilization. More than 500 years of European colonialism has brought this about. America was created out of 13 British colonies. You have to think a certain way to be a colonizer. I think no one has put it better than Albert Memmi in his classic work, The Colonizer and the Colonized, in the introduction to his book:

There are neither good nor bad colonists: there are colonialists. Among these, some reject their objective reality. Borne along by the colonialist apparatus, they do every day in reality what they condemn in fantasy, for all their actions contribute to the maintenance of oppression. They will change nothing and will serve no one, but will succeed only in finding moral comfort in malaise. (Emphasis mine)

Western civilization thinks this way. It is, after all, western civilization Europeans who are the modern colonizers. Three-quarters of the globe was colonized by Europeans. There was a time when the sun never set on the British Empire. All seven continents countless islands, lands, nations and territories are still under the influence of European colonialism. For centuries, European colonizers and their descendants have lied, propagandized, warred, killed, oppressed and enslaved to preserve their way of life your way of life colonialism. Today is no different.

These protesters include young people of all persuasions recognizing that the false narrative of colonialism has oppressed their minds and attempted to narrow their choices of who they can be. Many of these children are your children. All of these children are our children. Before you see them being gunned down in the streets by your relatives in uniform, you need to wake up and stay woke. Because we are all going to get it, one way or another, hopefully not like we did at Kent State when our flower children were gunned down by our children in uniform. Lets all wake up and turn our nation and the world into the world we all claim to believe should exist. It is not the overthrow of America we are seeking. It is the elevation of America to the realization of its highest ideals for everyone.

Peace.

Go here to read the rest:

Clovis Honore: An open letter to White and other privileged people who still dont understand the protests - The San Diego Union-Tribune