#historical progress

Like his brother Prometheus, Atlas defies Zeus. The image of him bearing the world on his shoulders is less an image of punishment, as the Olympian theologians would have us believe, and more of an image of bearing responsibility for governing the whole world. It is closely connected to why "Atlas" became the term for the maps of the world, not just of the Earth, but star maps of the heavens. Like the fire of the secret science and technology stolen from Olympus by Prometheus and gifted to mankind, this is a symbol of godlike knowledge and a perspective over the world as if from outside of it.

We all want to believe in progress, in history that marches forward in a neat line, in transcended differences and growing acceptance, in how good the good white people have become. So we expect racism to appear, cartoonishly evil like a Disney villain. As if a racist cop is one who wakes in the morning, twirling his mustache and rubbing his hands together as he plots how to destroy black lives. I don't think Darren Wilson or Daniel Pantaleo set out to kill Black men. I'm sure the cops who arrested my father meant well. But what good are your good intentions if they kill us?