Shawnette Ellis echoed from I.G.

Monday, August 26 · 12:24 PM ·  

🌶 Thinking about how the non-stop imagery of Black murder and suffering contributes to the overall dehumanization of the Black American experience.
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Remember when undercover videos and documentaries about industrial farming came out and people were sick to their stomach because they had no idea that farm animals were suffering that way? Remember how entire food and animal rights movements came out of those documentaries and images? Do you see how today there is a whole part of the food industry that is devoted to ethical, fair and kind farming practices?
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Compare that to the regular depiction of the Black experience as one of pure suffering. When you’re 5 they show you detailed drawings of Black Africans chained and stacked in the hulls of slave ships. When you’re a teenager they show you videos of Black Americans getting water hosed and attacked by dogs. They make you study Emmett Till and look at his little face, demonically destroyed and entirely unrecognizable all because a White woman lied and because White men got pleasure out of violently murdering a defenseless child. They showed you pictures of White Americans watching public lynchings with wide eager eyes like it was a new episode of Game of Thrones.
It has been years of the normalization of Black trauma and violence for profit, for punishment, for entertainment get to college and at this stage the only Black history the average Non-Black American has learned is the history of suffering, save for a few random examples of the guy who made peanut butter and the lady who did hair, an athlete here or there, and then those civil rights activist but oh they were violently murdered too.
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Whether intentional or not it’s not hard to imagine that non-Black Americans are extremely desensitized to Black suffering. They’ve seen it everyday. Black suffering is as normal in the American media as a storyline about a jock falling in love with a loser nerd who happens to be a total knock-out but he has no idea bc his jock brain couldnt see her beauty with her glasses, ponytail and brain in the way 🤪
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Today, try to remember that normalization does not mean normal.
Try to remember that #BLM @healthgeenie #QuarantineShot #WithJay ...read more

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🌶 Thinking about how the non-stop imagery of Black murder and suffering contributes to the overall dehumanization of the Black American experience. . Remember when undercover videos and documentaries about industrial farming came out and people were sick to their stomach because they had no idea that farm animals were suffering that way? Remember how entire food and animal rights movements came out of those documentaries and images? Do you see how today there is a whole part of the food industry that is devoted to ethical, fair and kind farming practices? . Compare that to the regular depiction of the Black experience as one of pure suffering. When you’re 5 they show you detailed drawings of Black Africans chained and stacked in the hulls of slave ships. When you’re a teenager they show you videos of Black Americans getting water hosed and attacked by dogs. They make you study Emmett Till and look at his little face, demonically destroyed and entirely unrecognizable all because a White woman lied and because White men got pleasure out of violently murdering a defenseless child. They showed you pictures of White Americans watching public lynchings with wide eager eyes like it was a new episode of Game of Thrones. It has been years of the normalization of Black trauma and violence for profit, for punishment, for entertainment.You get to college and at this stage the only Black history the average Non-Black American has learned is the history of suffering, save for a few random examples of the guy who made peanut butter and the lady who did hair, an athlete here or there, and then those civil rights activist but oh they were violently murdered too. . Whether intentional or not it’s not hard to imagine that non-Black Americans are extremely desensitized to Black suffering. They’ve seen it everyday. Black suffering is as normal in the American media as a storyline about a jock falling in love with a loser nerd who happens to be a total knock-out but he has no idea bc his jock brain couldnt see her beauty with her glasses, ponytail and brain in the way 🤪 . Today, try to remember that normalization does not mean normal. Try to remember that #BLM @healthgeenie #QuarantineShot #WithJay
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