wit & wisdom

I just wanna say, can we back up a little bit and talk about this whole international development charity aspect of this? You know, we have places around the world that are not doing well, and yet they're rich in natural resources, there's hard-working people there. They're poor, but they're not poor because some young person in Canada doesn't care enough about them. They're poor because of the legacy of colonialism, imperialism, neo-imperialism, continued corporate exploitation, state intervention with world trade organizations, banks, even armies. And there are solutions to this. We could end foreign debt, we could end or change these predatory international regimes, we could pay back all the loot we've stolen from them, we could teach young Canadians about that, that history, about the on-going exploitation. But instead, we tell young people it's all about them. It's their inherent worthiness as good Canadians that's going to save the world, so forget about politics, forget economics, you know, forget about restructuring the way the world works, you're going to save the world by being a good person. [references a recent Canadaland article that ask what it is Me to We actually does] So what does We do? Not a whole lot apparently. I think it's really the perfect neo-liberal structure to not change the world.

The one other thing I want to say before we more on to those issues you brought up is related to, you know, how people are able in engage in this time of a global pandemic, where the economy has largely been shut down, people have largely been in their homes, or have been forced to continue working as essential services. In perhaps a reduced way, or perhaps their just doing more, depending on how the economy has affected you. Generally, more and more people are at home, and the fact that people can now engage in their democracy in this way, in such a way where we can literally see the shift in how we engage on an issue and how we prioritize an issue so effectively, should also get us thinking about how much we work, and what that does to our political engagement and civic engagement, and how we give up – how much we give up – on building our society.

And America moves on, America moves forward. I think to a large extent, white power structure waits for us, as black people especially, to quiet down. Settle down. Get it out of our system. In terms of unrest, in terms of online protests, I'll be writing my column, and that moment will happen. But whether or not it will result in any concrete change, is really up to people who may be least involved with the trauma. It matters whether or not people who are not affected by this do something.

“What makes the trauma worse is not the event itself. It’s the isolation, the secrecy, and the shame that you have to then live with afterward.“