I recently read an article regarding the most recent example of white terrorism cast onto black bodies– the vicious car-ramming in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Before beginning my analysis, I want to take a moment and grieve any member of the black collective, or anyone standing for a black cause, who was injured by the calculated efforts of an individual who represents a collective sullied by centuries of evil.

Commander in chief Donald Trump also had a few words in response to the attack:

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides,”

The statement surfaced because clearly as the leader of the free world, Trump had to say something. But the ambiguity of his statement prompts the casual gaze to inquire whether Trump is referencing the protestors or the twenty-year old murderer. To most, blacks are complainers who play the “race card” inciting contention throughout the masses. These are the same individuals who not only defend slavery, but consider it necessary to the advancement of “this great nation.”

The word “display” is also rather significant, as visibility appears to be the condemned behavior—with regards to whites of course.

Trump’s words proved lucrative to many journalists who used his statement as yet another means to paint the Commander in Chief as a scapegoat of white evil. To many, both black and white, Trump has awaken a new fervor, or hate. To the conscious gaze, Trump is merely exposing an already gaping and infected wound to a familiar virus. Trump is not any different than the white men referenced in late black journalist Ida B Well’s Southern Horrors who torched, stabbed, mutilated, shot, and bludgeoned black men, women and children for fictive crimes. In aligning Trump with past evil, it is essential to note that whites in general are also contemporary manifestations of the monsters who created southern, northern, western, and midwestern horrors.

As Kwame Ture says in Black Power:

This is not to say that every single white American consciously oppresses black people. He does not need to. Institutional racism has been maintained deliberately by the power structure and through indifference, inertia and lack of courage on the part of white masses as well as petty officials. (p. 22)

He continues:

“One way or another, most whites participates in economic colonialism.”

Every white person, or person who believes him or herself to be white, performs a similar act to the white man who drove his car into black bodies this weekend, or the whites who have heinously murdered blacks centuries ago. Whether it is in gentrifying a neighborhood, or enjoying the bountiful privileges afforded by the blood, sweat, and tears of abducted Africans—whites remain economic colonialists.

An elevated black, or free African if you may, stated a powerful phrase over the weekend that I must repeat. He eloquently stated that whites are “collectively irredeemable.” While a masterful use of language, this phrase brilliantly transcends the individual, a common act that allows each act of white malice to function in solitude. In viewing these acts as individuals, the white collective remains unscathed by the burdens of their deeds. Also, this collective amnesia enables whites to eventually emerge as white saviors, “rescuing” blacks from the tyranny of Trump right back into our historically disenfranchised place, somehow veiled as something new.

It is seeing white evil as something new and not as a historical pattern that results in the misplaced efforts of black people. While I can appreciate the acts of anyone who feels strongly enough about something to get up, go out and do something about it, I must say that anti-white demonstrations are misguided and a misuse of valuable energy and thought. We live in an anti-black world, so anti white demonstrations whether explicit or implicit should be anticipated. Countering these acts is not about showing up and showing out. All this betrays is a need for white acceptance, a need for white validation.

The remedy for anti-blackness is pro-blackness. Blackness has never existed in a manner similar to whiteness. I mean that blacks have never needed to destroy to thrive, to create inferiority to construct a false superiority. Blackness is a pillar, whereas whiteness needs a pedestal. With this said, rather than crashing white supremacist events, why not create pro- black events that unite blacks?

Blacks taking part in anti-white actions simply provide a means for whites to inflict evil onto black bodies. It also suggests that whiteness is essential to blackness, a fact that is utterly untrue. It is whiteness that relies on the fictive deficiency of blackness to exist. Blacks do not need whites. We did not need whites to build the sphinx or the pyramids. We didn’t need whites to come up with our own language, currency or method of embalming. We are the beginning, middle, and end—whiteness is simply an overextended interlude preying on the causalities of a war they initiated.

As a community we must prioritize celebrating our ancestors, and raising our children to run towards blackness not away from it. There is no much pro-blackness work that needs to be done, that anti-white behavior should not even be a fleeting thought.

However, it is imperative to note that even in acts of collective appreciation the black collective must anticipate deadly acts from our oppressors. It is essential that participants are not only willing to live with the consequences of combating white supremacy, but be willing to die for what they believe in. I know this sounds morbid to many who see death as an unnecessary compromise, but as a collective we put too much emphasis on living a meaningless or oppressed life, and not enough on fighting for justice by any means necessary.

To be pro-black is to love yourself by any means necessary. Whiteness is not the center of the black universe. To believe any such thing is to possess the mind of the oppressed. In this same chord, it is imperative to note that the tragic death of a white female demonstrator will not function to deflect from blacks as victims. This illustrates that any form of intentional anti-white behavior will inevitably be anti-black. I say this to say that a pro-black demonstration would have attracted a vastly different crowd. Identifying overtly bad behavior is not a challenge for most, but acknowledging their own role a corrupt system or country is beyond the scope of most within the white collective.

So while the death of this young woman is certainly sad, it is perhaps even more sad that the issues of blackness are once again usurped by another attempt to paint feminism or white women as the antidote to racism.

Blacks fading to the background for an act that has plagued their mothers, fathers, grandparents, children and loved ones is another act of racial terrorism.

Some may read this and consider my analysis cold hearted. To this I ask what how they would compartmentalize the killer? The killer, a man who will probably pay for his actions solely because his actions qualify as a crime solely because he inflicted harm onto a white, rather than a black body.

As part of the pro-black initiative that anchors this post, my assertions are about how this young lady’s death will function and has functioned to discount black disenfranchisement. Soon, many will place her along sacrificial lambs like Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Lennon Lacy, Reneisha McBride, Sandra Bland, and the countless black bodies murdered in the coldness of the anti-black climate of North America. So just as many black communities have underwent gentrification, our sacrificial lambs are undergoing a similar process, as will our heroes in due time.

May the events in Virginia over the weekend, and the racist media coverage and commentary inspire the blacks to fight the battle without our collective as a means to combat external forces.

Cheers to the phrase “black is power” eventually emerging from a hollow phrase to a collective realization.

❤