Cruelty is Contagious
Jim Crow teaches us that Cruelty is not the point -- power is.
[WARNING: This is pretty personal, and I found it disturbing to write. However, I needed to set this out there, so I can strive to get back to writing history.]
For my Parents, Jim Crow was everywhere. Every public place appears to have been a reminder that they lacked power.
That meant that every White person, knew they had power. Poor? Brutal lot in life? Southern American society took an Orwellian glee in reminding you -- you're better than the richest Negro in the world.
I started to write about lynchings, and sexual assault, and so much more. Whites could inflict upon Negros damn near anything, without a moment of worry. Yet we don't need to dive into it, save this --
-- these invasions? These cruelties? They weren't hidden.
Everyone knew. Some instigated. (Too) many, followed, even frolicked, when they happened.
It's how you learned that you were better. It wasn't (just) school, it was every level, from the nursery rhymes sang to you as a baby, the movies you watched as a kid, the "parties with rope" your friends pulled you to...
That you, too, have power and permission to be a brutal,cruel asshole is very important, here.
(This is not to let the Northern US off the hook -- yet that's a different discussion, for another time.)
But first: This is but one example of the level of cruelty we now see so many demanding to apply in America, again.
And, again, they do this to fill the hole of personal disempowerment that empowers racism, sexism, homophobia and so many issues. Fueled by people who seek power themselves, these folks ache to punish others
Worse, so many want to be the hand with the lash, the ones throwing the bombs. They dream of being the new KKK, protecting the people" -- while creamy off the casual violence they inflict.
And that's the thing people miss about this, about these discussions on "cruelty" -- there are levels.
There's the level of state cruelty, where you can vanish without cause or reprieve. That's scary enough -- but the kind of scary we write dystopias about. We love to fight the system!
But there's another level, the level Jim Crow gives you. Where the system corrupts and co-ops you. Where you, too, can Get Off on inflicting violence, and get away with it. Where someone like me can never fight back, so you can do damn near anything you want.
We want this, so, so much. And it's hard to accept, and acknowledge, that we can be so mean, so easily.
That Trump triumphs this kind of violence, this kind of cruelty, should be of the highest level of fear.
Because we don't have any stories, no cultural inoculations, for these power grabs.
When they allow you to lash out at The Other, history says you won’t resist.
(I’m so very, very sorry.)