“...the North was the Promised Land, and they did not see the thorns amidst the roses. They never dreamed that the new gleaming mega-cities would become traps as oppressive as the ramshackle huts and shacks they fled from back home. They went North and West because their Black lives mattered.”
- from “Have Black Lives Ever Mattered?”
by Mumia Abu-Jamal (City Lights Books, 2017)
“Did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?”
- from Pink Floyd's
“Wish You Were Here”
While wondering about the roots of African Americans aka Black Peoples, I was reminded of a key aspect of the spirituality of the Bushmen of the Kalahari. Bradford Keeney conveys a sense of what “shaking medicine” is:
“Yet the value of trembling, vibrating, quaking, and shaking as a medicine for the body, mind, and soul has been all but lost in recent times, particularly among the more literate and technologically developed cultures.”[1]
Suddenly, after months of quiet lockdown with the brunt of people's interactions happening via technology, the streets of the USEmpire are shaking.
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
– from George Orwell's “1984”
Orwell’s picture was off. Minnesota policeman Derek Chauvin stamped George Floyd’s neck, and the sheer degradation and humiliation of the action was the straw breaking the racist repression back, then the straw set ablaze leading to riots. When the ashes settle, perhaps Orwell will be proven wrong and positive change will arise like the mythical phoenix.
What's in a name
Derek Chauvin. To be fair, not necessarily all people with the name behave like that yet the script is uncanny. The root of the Minnesota policeman’s last name sums up the root of the systemic problem: "1840, "exaggerated, blind nationalism; patriotism degenerated into a vice," from French chauvinisme (1839), from the character Nicholas Chauvin, soldier of Napoleon's Grand Armee, who idolized Napoleon and the Empire long after it was history, in the Cogniards' popular 1831 vaudeville "La Cocarde Tricolore." The meaning was extended to "excessive belief in the superiority of one's race" in late 19c. in communist jargon, and to (male) "sexism" in late 1960s via male chauvinist”.[2]
"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” begins with Breathing
Just as the country was just beginning to re-open and experience a collective sigh of relief from a waning coronavirus, one of whose symptoms is difficulty breathing, George Floyd’s last words were the same as Eric Garner’s in 2014, “I can’t breathe!” Mr. Floyd also called out for his “Momma!” . . . who by this time has greeted him in what some call heaven.
Climate change activists, scientists, Original Peoples, First Nations, and many others have been and continue calling out for Mother Earth whose face has born the brunt of the capitalistic fascist boot for too long; mining, extractions, plus factory and auto pollution have created a global atmosphere where millions of deaths a year have been attributed to air pollution. George Floyd was not just speaking for himself.
The psychology of Spartacus vs. Little Eichmanns street fight
To be fair, there are many good policeman doing the proper job, yet in general, the protests/riots are like the common folk against the police state that does the bidding of its masters. Many of the common folk are tired of being slaves in a system that more than treats them unfairly, a system that literally tortures. Spartacus (of Roman historical and of Kirk Douglas film repute) is The People, the common people enslaved to a system that wants to keep them as slaves whether imprisoned in prisons, imprisoned in ghettos, in jobs, whether homeless or unhealthy.
Little Eichmanns, after Adolf Eichmann a Nazi bureaucrat, is a phrase referring to people who do brutality jobs so as to serve their higher-ups, “just taking orders.” If the police sided with the people, things would change fast. If there was a forum for dialogue and discussion, there would be more of a peaceful chance for positive change.
“The Looting Machine,” a book by Tom Burgis, reveals the multi-national corporate looting of Africa's resources. So while the looting of stores is destructive and seems disconnected from George Floyd, what's the difference between a man with a tie destroying cultures and polluting land, air, and water for resources, and a young man without a tie looting a store for a pair of Air Jordans?
And some of the looting may be instigated, as this headline shows, “Piles of BRICKS mysteriously sprouting up near riot hotspots all over US have journalists demanding answers.” [3]
The deeper answer is beneath the street fights
Migizi – an organization headquartered in Minneapolis – that assists Native youths, had there 'home' destroyed as a side-effect of the burnings. In their report of the situation they cite Minnesota history:
“This is a struggle that is about much more than police brutality. Sure, that’s a huge problem. … This is about more than the police. It’s about nearly every system in Minnesota - institutional racism. Minnesota has among the worst disparities in education, health, housing, and incarcerations of any other state in the Nation. These problems go deep, as far back as the Minnesota state leaders who legalized taking the best Dakota farmland and Ojibwe timber.”[4]
Interestingly, in the same city/state:
“The American Indian Movement (AIM) is a Native American grassroots movement that was founded in July 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A.I.M. was initially formed in urban areas to address systemic issues of poverty and police brutality against Native Americans. A.I.M. soon widened its focus from urban issues to include many Indigenous Tribal issues that Native American groups have faced due to settler colonialism of the Americas, such as treaty rights, high rates of unemployment, education, cultural continuity, and preservation of Indigenous culture.”[5]
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was founded in 1966, in Oakland, California.
What was thriving before chauvinism
“Mni Wiconi/Water Is Life” became a popular phrase at Standing Rock along with “water protectors.” The name of the state and part of the city name is from the original lands of the Dakota. From what I could gather online of what to me is a foreign language yet actually one of the thousands of truly Native languages:
“Minnesota comes from the Daḳota name for this region, Mni Sota Maḳoce — "the land where the waters reflect the skies" or cloudy/smoky waters.[6]
Also, “Mni is a Lakota word for Water and goes beyond any translatable word in the English language...” & “... becomes a little more understandable if we say Mni is 'you and me of that which carries or causes feeling with another through itself.'”[7] For that is some of what so-called water is and does as a living being; each of us is born from the amniotic sac where our first feelings with someone else, mother, are formed.
where and how is the river flowing?
Will the protests turn to further chaos and violent repression? Will this uprising, this medicine shaking become like a Black Peoples Standing Rock of solidarity? As with Standing Rock, rubber bullets, tear gas, helicopter surveillance and scare tactics are being used, and the cultural appropriation/misuse of sacred names are a form of chauvinism:
“New York Times homeland security reporter Zolan Kanno-Youngs, covering the demonstrations on the ground in D.C., said Lakota [Eurocopter (now Airbus Helicopters) UH-72 Lakota] helicopters and at least one Black Hawk [Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk] [8] 'were positioned just above rooftops, sending gusts of dust into the air. A part of a tree fell, nearly hitting passersby. These are Lakota helicopters performing what's known as a show of force, which is often conducted by low-flying jets in combat zones to scare away insurgents,' Kanno-Youngs wrote in a tweet accompanying videos from the scene. 'A Black Hawk performed the maneuver minutes later.'”[9]
Ironically, “Black Hawk” refers to the Sauk Natives Peoples.
If there is enough room to breathe, enough space to feel and be able to express those feelings in a non-violent fashion, enough room for shaking as a medicine, and enough sense for honoring the original name for Minnesota, the chances improve for the healing of many longstanding wounds.
NOTES
[1] “Shaking Medicine”
[2] See here.
[3] See here.
[4] “We are all related, we will Rebuild; Migizi Communication Responds to Loss of their Home”
[5] See here.
[6] “The Land, Water, and Language of the Dakota, Minnesota’s First People” & see here.
[7] “Living In Relativity”
[8] See here and here.
[9] “After Trump's Authoritarian 'Law and Order' Speech, Military Helicopters Descend Low Over DC to Intimidate Protesters”
Mankh (Walter E. Harris III) is an essayist and resident poet at Axis of Logic. In addition to his work as a writer and small press publisher, he travels a holistic mystic pathway staying in touch with Turtle Island. See his new book of nonfiction with a poetic touch, “photo albums of the heart-mind”.
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