I give you / a legacy / of doers
“But if we don’t do this for each other, who is going to do it for us?” An entirely reasonable question, from a great friend doing a good job of forcing me to examine my premises.
What are we going to do for each other, in this moment of crisis? What are we doing for each other, right now?
These are not abstract questions. These are not rhetorical questions, either. Because this is not an abstract moment and this is not an exercise in rhetoric.
Because it is clear what we are not doing for each other. We are not defending black and brown people to the elected officials who are increasingly comfortable denying their basic humanity. We are not comfortable calling a spade, a spade; we describe them, at best, as dirt-tinged shovels. We are not willing to interrupt the banality of our day to day with an interrogation of how our work enables evil.
We are unable to concede that we are not, in fact, better than this. We are averse to having the difficult conversations about how to move forward without also denying the realities of the past.
We reject the collective of this “we”; we stammer out examples of our singular excellence; our exceptions to this rule; we are determined to show our distinction; we reject the plurality of the guilt.
Perhaps we might yet remember the power and the necessity of owning up, showing up, and standing up for each other.
Attribution:
but I give you
a legacy
of doers
of people who take risks
to chisel the crack wider.
Take the strength that you may
wage a long battle.
Take the pride that you can
never stand small.
Take the rage that you can
never settle for less.— from legacy, III by Pat Parker
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