Rock Creek Park by Dr. Jeffrey Fearing (c) 1990
A problem is one thing. How that problem is solved is quite another. In fact, how a problem is solved can be bigger than the initial problem itself. What makes the difference is if the problem is correctly identified so the correct solution can be applied. If the house is flooded you don’t solve the problem by mowing the lawn.
The problem America now faces cannot be solved with notions of saving a democracy. You might as well go mow the lawn. Something that never existed cannot be saved. Face it. This was never a democracy, America simply bears it as a brand. If I brand myself a champion ice skater, it doesn’t mean that me in a pair of skates is going to be anything but a freak show on ice. Champion skater might be my brand - I might even wear some knock-off goldish looking medals - but without training, discipline, and a physiological application of motion, speed, balance, and rhythm, gravity will work and I’m gonna break some bones. It won’t be good.
America wears democracy like a brand on a T-shirt. It has never applied the discipline, practice or authentic application of a democracy. America is as it’s always been since its beginnings, an environment of systemic oppression- and it is now in the midst of the costly consequences of its truth.
I see this upcoming election as a matter of salvaging any chance at civility. I hold no illusions about the limits of the American electoral process such as it is, but given what is going on this is an emergency. In my view, I know I would be better served by voting to block any chance of a convicted felon who made it clear what he planned to do if elected. It would be in my best interest to vote to elect a public servant who will provide a chance to confront our true situation, recalibrate, make changes and for the first time do the work toward building a real democracy instead of chasing the foolishness of saving what never was.
The elements of a democracy do not align with America’s facts. The repeated practice of murder, torture and terrorizing citizens to keep them from voting, that whole 3/5ths of a man thing and events like the Suffragette movement just don’t compute with what a democracy is.
What is meant by systemic oppression?
Someone overpowers another with a hit over the head with a brick and robs them of their money. This is an attack.
The one who was attacked starts bringing their money to the thief on a regular basis - even apologizes for being short a few dollars. Being overpowered is no longer a hit over the head. Not with a brick anyway. This is oppression.
Oppression exists through domination by way of repeated assault and abuse. Domination is not natural and can only exist by levels of force including violence, subtle accusation, implied threat and a show of force by symbol. It exists in an environment that justifies domination as necessary and deserved.
Domination morphs and mutates through a mindset that is conditioned to rationalize what was seen is erased, what is heard is silent, what was felt is imagined and what happened is nullified. Down is up. Up is down.
Dominate or be dominated is the basis of a rationale under duress. Rationale codes the thought process. The thought process codes behavior. The ongoing behaviors that excuse, applaud, deny and institutionalize abuse are the moving parts of America’s well-oiled machine. This is what makes oppression systemic. This is where we are.
The land called America was stolen. The indigenous nations of this land endured both gruesome acts of genocide, holocaust and bureaucratic betrayal as more land was stolen and dehumanization continued. An economy was built on the bondage of human beings dehumanized as chattel who would also be objectified by an identity of inferiority. The invention of a superior white race co-dependently requires the invention of an inferior black race because it is false. Racializing must be enforced to accommodate a setting for white male domination. The patterns of erasing the original inhabitants as human beings to justify invasion brought the romantic rebranding of the stolen land to become America. All this was therefore and thereafter engraved into the American mind set of who it perceives itself to be and by what authority. This is America’s original identity base that holds fast up to this minute.
What has recently been referred to as white grievance (that can easily ignite into white rage) is rooted in any perceived threat against America’s original identity base. For example, any success or demonstration of excellence of those alleged to be inferior is perceived as a threat. The process of disguising ugly realities while the perversions of those realities continue is how it is accepted as normal. Again, this is systemic oppression. This is where we are.
A problem must be confronted by what it is. The toxicity of white domination won’t go away because it is the original identity of America. There aren’t enough parades, history months, holidays, or honors and oaths that could make it go away. It will take a collective change of mind of a detoxified populace to break it. This starts by understanding who we are, by what authority and most of all, start out by knowing that we are good.
Our natural good wiring
We are human beings. We are good people. Our innate will to survive is part of our human wiring. We are compassionate beings by nature driven by empathetic intuitiveness to save ourselves as a species. We can really build an authentic democracy but we have to do the work which starts with being real about what’s in front of us. Without an unconditional purging of oppression and the related dependency issues everything will repeat. Like that person we know who got out of that bad relationship with Dracula and then married Godzilla, the pattern repeats. Same bruises, different fists. It will take a commitment to do the work to break the cycle. Breaking oppression means recognizing the narratives, myths, cherished ideas and straight up lies that served to cover and disguise what we need to face. We can do this.
Contrary to popular belief, America is not a nation of immigrants. Nobody brought any land with them when they arrived at Plymouth Rock, Ellis Island or anywhere else. All those who arrived on this soil set foot on stolen land cloaked in sentimental myths of an American dream. Have some people who immigrated to this country done well? Yes. But make no mistake, the original identity of America’s white supremacy personality disorder can flash like a jack knife putting all on notice who is who and by what authority. The notice might be delivered by a marauding mob with a lynching rope. It might be delivered through a piece of apple pie.
As a woman indigenous to the Matinecoc Nation of what is now called Long Island, I don’t say all this with resentment or hostility. I share this with hope and faith in our human wiring for saving ourselves and each other. The “go back where you came from” rant is simpleminded and wouldn’t work anyway. If I thought it would I’d put some of my folks on that boat. Then again, I’m sure there would be those who would want to put me on a boat. We would all go floating on a bunch of boats.
“You go! No! You go!”
Here we are, we have to fix it together or else we just take the baggage with us and marry Dracula again. We didn’t create it but we are responsible for what we’ve been conditioned to become and how we behave as a result. We are responsible for the cover-up of America’s truth-in-fact and the consequences that for damn sure come with it.
Repeated perversions morph and mutate into more of the same. What isn’t corrected is protected. We do have the ability to connect with our human altruistic wiring for empathy, connectivity and kinship. Like blades of grass, the goodness of our humanity keeps cracking through the hardened concrete. Oppression is forced and is not natural. The goodness of our humanity is.
I am going to apply my vote like a tourniquet
I see this upcoming election as a matter of our collective preservation. Forget the individual candidates. Being for or against anyone personally should not be the point of any election ever. Ego and personality has gotten slopped into the process of designating leadership.
Forget voting by right / left wing labels or by political party. At this point, none of that is worth the risk of how this election could steer us into the chaos of authoritarian madness. I intend to vote by the information in front me. As far as I’m concerned, It would be best to vote in the direction for a chance to confront America’s toxicity, recalibrate, make changes and for the first time take the opportunity to do the hard work toward a real democracy instead of chasing the foolishness of trying to save what never was.
This particular election is an emergency. I think of my vote as a tourniquet that can allow us a chance to get it together instead of bleeding out under the rule of an extremely dangerous individual. Twenty-seven psychiatrists outlined their warning in their book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.
Having said that, even if - especially if - he loses the election it’s not over. This is still toxic America wherein an election will not eradicate the systemic problem. Not only are certain operatives still in positions of political power but so is the machinery that produces the end products of oppression.
Consequently, no matter which way the election goes, America is at risk of being plopped back into its mental framework of complacency that got us here in the first place. Understand, it is not any single individual or event that is a threat. The real threat lies in America’s inability to defend and protect what it alleges to stand for. Because the so-called ‘rule of law’ has historically been inconsistent, manipulated and selectively applied, this repeated pattern has evolved into a fog of bigoted preferences instead of the justice that a truly enforced rule of law would deliver.
No matter who is on the ballot, my view is that candidates serve as the vehicles to our societal choices. This is not about voting for a prom queen. Any position of public service should not be determined by how charming they are, what they look like, the advancement of their careers, personal aspirations (like avoiding jail), status or power. Nobody should be judged or devalued as a person by the victory or defeat of an election. A candidate is not personally a winner or loser.
The concern for Mr. Biden’s aging and cognitive state was nothing against him personally. Whether cognitively or physically fit or not, it was a legitimate concern and not a rejection or condemnation of him as a person. His ultimate courageous decision and noble act of a true public servant to step aside as a candidate illustrates the merit of leadership minus personal ego.
This also applies to Mr. Trump. The focus on his alarming narcissistic behavior is not against him personally although he internalizes this as either liking him or persecuting him. The concern is out of a well-founded apprehension for what his behavior has already demonstrated. In addition, the information provided by his niece, Dr. Mary Trump expanded and explained the pattern of behavior, what he is capable of and why. Detachment from the realities of vicious behavior is extremely dangerous. As abhorrent as his behavior is, none of it would be possible without permission, encouragement and protection of an incapacitated and enabling society.
I could care less about how this election pans out for Kamala Harris’ career or her being the first anything, a glass ceiling or a glass slipper. I have no investment in any of that. However, I do require competence, professionalism, maturity, a sense of reality, integrity, ability to represent the people as a stateswoman or statesman and everything it takes to be a public servant. It ain’t for everybody. It takes a special kind of human fabric to be a professional, reputable and humane public servant. Whether or not I like her is irrelevant. I am voting for her.
Where we land ultimately depends on the ability/disability of the American populace to confront its state of oppression or admit it even exists. On that note, America at large could use a psychiatric work up to confront its delusional supremacy issues laying dormant at its core.
By the way, the dread of another Trump presidency is shared by many. But is America ready for another Trump loss? Has there been any reconsideration on the part of every American law enforcement agency from the Department of Justice to the local sherriff regarding the response to the loss in 2020 and what could happen in 2024? What preparations are being made for his proven reactive behavior to incite a mob if he loses? From what I have observed, how all the inflammatory statements and name calling comes off to society at large appears to be of no concern to Mr. Trump. It is all meant to fire up the base 'standing down' right now. He got away with unleashing his mob before, he’s tasted the power in so doing. There is no singular degenerate act or person who can do anything to destroy America. Failing to uphold and enforce the rule of law of an authentic democracy is the actual threat of destruction.
If you don’t understand systemic oppression, everything else will confuse you. What is not corrected is protected. Break systemic oppression.
See. Hear. Feel. Think. Speak. Care. Share.
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Asiba
Matinecoc Nation
Previously on SOJ:
"There can never really be justice on stolen land"
KRS One - The Sound of Da Police
What, you thought stolen land came at no cost?
Did you think the power to change or obliterate what some dismiss as ‘America’s painful past’ meant the consequences went away? That because the holocaust, genocide and displacement of indigenous peoples, the kidnap and dehumanization of those reduced to chattel whose free labor set up an economy and who were objectified as racialized inferiors to serve a convoluted notion of racialized superiority - that the rebranding of stolen land masqueraded as a nation of laws, a democracy and ‘the land of opportunity’ could be enforced without cost?
See, the beginnings of America is one thing. But, the process that it takes to pretend it all never happened by calling it something else while the behaviors that perpetrated the original crime continue is quite another. When invasion and holocaust are covered up as entitled occupation, belief systems are invented and enforced to uphold the falsehood.
When repeatedly practiced, such belief systems block or at least clog the natural ability to comprehend, feel, communicate and make choices. The inability, failure or refusal to deal with conflict results in more conflict on top of conflict. Existing problems are worsened through reactionary behavior, faulty reasoning and ridiculous expectations. Emotionally, physically, ideologically and institutionally invented and enforced belief systems are not characteristic of a democracy but are instead characteristic of chronic oppression. A cult.
Stolen land and the holocaust of peoples indigenous to that land (or theft of anything and murder of anyone) is never without cost. Romanticized cowboys home on the range, pilgrims landing on a rock, pioneers settling amber waves of grain or huddled masses yearning for a beacon on a hill can never cover up the continuing cost and continuing consequences of existence in a system of chronic oppression. The tells are there from the ancient remains of the murdered to current cheers for a team with a tomahawk chop.
Some years ago, one of the 27 psychiatrists who co-authored The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump discussed in a television interview what is called a duty to warn, an official act taken by psychiatrists, therapists or counselors to inform those associated with someone whose behavior could result in a dangerous threat to themselves or others. The interview was the psychiatrist’s effort to present a duty to warn America about a dangerous situation that could result in great harm to the country through the office of the Presidency.
As journalists continued to interview and ask psychologist Dr. Mary Trump about her uncle and his behavior, she repeatedly reminded them all to stop treating him like he’s normal. Time and again she tried to explain the psychology of narcissism, the past behaviors and family dynamics she experienced as the same questions and comments were asked of her. She repeated, stop treating him like he’s normal.
Why wasn’t America able to heed the Duty to Warn and then take preventative action? Why couldn’t America stop treating the abnormal as normal instead of continuing to engage with a bombastic vulgar maniac through standard American channels such as a ‘free press’ - would the rantings of Charles Manson be legitimized through news outlet microphones? America did not have the ability to be “the grown up in the room” or provide more oxygen being sucked out of that same room, nor protect itself as a nation of laws for one very important reason. The rationale of American identity is woven into the same condition described in the ‘dangerous case’ which is consistent with perversions of entitled occupation and its morbid habit of normalizing the abnormal.
While America is distraught about its current state of affairs, the reality is that a degenerate individual, a plague, a cult, a flat tire while problematic, is not the problem. The problem lies with the failure or inability to do anything about it. This ‘nation of laws’ is apparently falling short of its self promotion.
It’s just not efficient to approach America’s problem like it ever was a democracy at all. It’s like applying the skill of scoring a touchdown to the game of baseball. It does not make sense to apply the rules or expectations of a democracy to the problems rooted in chronic oppression. It just won’t work. The problems will only complicate, mutate and continue. There can never really be justice on stolen land.
America would do well to admit that because of it’s chronic oppression, lives have become unmanageable. And as the American rationale continues to generate more conflict, toxic reactions and other problems of its own making, it would do well to admit that it is powerless over its oppressive condition.
In 2016 and several times after, Donald Trump recited a poem “The Snake” at a rally to associate the danger of allowing Mexican immigrants into the country. The words coming out of his mouth looked more like he was the snake putting out a warning about himself. It was a surreal foretelling. He was up front and could not have been more clear about putting all on notice who he was.
Time after time, the question is asked about him having so much power in spite of being indicted and charged with so many crimes. Why and how is he able to prosper at every indictment handed down? How is it that he is able to wield so much power in America while being in so much trouble in America?
The duality of the American rationale to dress-up as a democracy and a nation of laws while at the same time function as a system of oppression is at the core of the answers to these questions. One is the costume the other is the functioning reality. Bottom line is that the power to blow off any legal problems with America’s costume is cancelled by America’s real authority from the outset, systemic oppression by racist white male dominance. Trump simply served as the conduit from what was already set in place to what lay dormant but ready to pounce. His loud and brazen endorsement enabled his hold on the functioning element of American authority - the American white violent mob.
Some might feel that the insurrection of the January 6th raging mob was put down. However, that incident was but one layer of the take over which I would say is in effect and has been since the beginning. The violence that resulted in death, destruction and trauma that day served as a show of force. A show of force that struck and still strikes fear in the hearts among politicians whose constituents include those called ‘the base’ are paralyzed by a hanging threat of the wrath of a thug who has the nuclear button to activate the mob at will.
Another critical element of domestic terrorism is revealed in the silence on the part of those elected representatives who don’t want to go along with degenerate extremism and have the power to legislatively put it down but don’t dare vote their position or say it out loud. For all the death threats hurled at good people from the most local level to duly elected politicians, officers of the court, trying to do their job or citizens who dare to challenge the malfeasance brazenly committed by domestic terrorists, the so-called laws don’t seem to mean much.
Confront oppression
All it takes is a change of mind
_______________
Rock Creek Park by photographer Dr. Jeffrey J. Fearing appeared on the very first issue of my print newsletter, “The Spirit of January Monthly” in 1990. Rock Creek Park is in Washington, DC where we both attended Howard University in the late 60’s. It was a golden time at a phenomenal institution where I met Jeff, a friend for life, Nemot - my brother. I am honored to share this photograph once again 30 years later.
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