• eldavi@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    there’s a STRONG trend of black and brown social media influencers warning people not to get involved if they have too much melanin for american standards and learning about the black panthers and the night of the long knives (coupled with my anecdotal experiences with white-passing family members) makes me think that they’re right.

    some small part of me hopes that my contributions to the greens and psl are so long ago that that i’m no longer on their rosters.

    • DeepSpace9mm@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      I mean, the Black Panthers murdered by the state are heroes in my eyes, ya know? That seems like a strange argument. As bleak as it is to mention, I feel I must point out that having only the fear of future violence while others must face violence presently is a privilege. The good thing is that getting involved in organizing is also a privilege, the other side of the coin I guess you could say. Way I think about it, you’re gonna live with the fear of state violence already, so the fear from organizing is marginal, possibly negligible.

      • xtr0n@sh.itjust.works
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        21 hours ago

        I’d rather be alive than be your hero. Black and brown people in the US already face violence without voluntarily painting targets on their backs. If people want to stick their necks out, good for them. But it’s kinda ballsy to try to shame black and brown people in the current USA for avoiding violence from some “place of privilege “

        • DeepSpace9mm@lemmy.ml
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          10 hours ago

          Alright. Privilege is still relative. Being defensive is not going to change that.

          The fear of “sticking your neck out” is still very individualistic thinking. The goal is to learn and organize so WE can stick our necks out together. My lionizing of former martyrs is not an attempt to shame you. I still think that “don’t be like the people who actually induced change because they were martyred” is a terrible take.

    • causepix@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      If that day comes, do you really think that the absence of your name on a roster is going to stop them? Obedience in advance only teaches authority what it can get away with. The capabilities of authority generally are much less far-reaching than what they lead us to believe. Oppression breeds resistance and struggle, whereas the state would have us believe in the fantasy of unilateral control and suppression of dissent.

      You owe it to yourself to study revolutionary history beyond just the most shocking events that scare you away from organizing. In the words of the late assata shakur; It is our duty to fight. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      I’m sorry you have experienced that, comrade. I can only say that the goal is such a society where this kind of bullshit will be a thing of the past.