The Destroyers Aspiring to Extinguish Us

Whom do we aspire to reflect on our own people's death?

For who's entertainment shall we sing our agony?

What are our hopes?

That the destroyers aspiring to extinguish us will suddenly suffer remorse at the sight of their own fantastic success?

If the consequences were not so dire, the sharp free fall into fascism since Monday would tempt me to wax poetic. Its hyper-maximalism feels scripted in the most insidious way. I knew this week would be far worse than I could imagine, but I was somehow still shocked when it was, which is fitting because that is a pattern of trauma.

On Monday I did my best to focus on MLK Jr., my copy of Public Enemy's By the Time I Get to Arizona got a lot of play, but as previously mentioned I was more preoccupied with the broader Black Panther movement. Its comforting that such conflict is not new, even as it feels painfully so.

Most of all I listened to Reflection Eternal's 2000 Seasons. I bought this record in 1997 and the above quote has stuck with me ever since. I shutter when I think about the number of college and graduate school essays wherein I used it as an epigraph. It is an important reminder that the oppressors will not be moved to empathy when confronted with the trauma they cause, quite the opposite.

Please be safe and hug a loved one! XOXO DMP