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I have given it a lot of thought and I am okay with Black people wanting punishment for their oppressors. I'm okay with Black people wanting to transcend the desire for punishment, too. Both/and...
What I am tired of is Black people being judged and tsk-tsk'd for legitimate human responses. The desire for punishment after 400 years of oppression is valid. It is also true that even valid feelings and demands may not be able to provide the kind of transformation one seeks..
What's wild is that Black people have literally never been allowed to feel and express the full range of our affect and feelings as humans. It could take GENERATIONS to provide our people with the emotional space to FEEL and witness the pain and grief of oppression..
With all due respect, to imagine that one could or should "transcend" the desire for punishment as political praxis within the space of a few years or even a single lifetime without a dedicated spiritual and even therapeutic practice to support that work is nothing but absurdity.
Transcending the desire for punishment and overcoming violence is not and has never been possible within the realm of politics. I'm sorry but this must be said plainly. It is not the domain of political activism, organizers or advocates. It is internal work. It is spiritual work.
And when I say spiritual, I do not mean theistic. I mean the realm of the un-seen, your BEINGNESS. Spiritual work can be done in collaboration with political activism but it must be recognized as SPIRITUAL labor. Call a thing a thing..
If spirituality is a core part of your politics, say so directly. Don't dance around it or pretend otherwise. Don't portray yourself as a materialist if your ethos and ontology are rooted in a spiritual worldview. I wish people were more honest and transparent about these things
I always pop in here every few months or so to remind y'all that I am not a materialist. I do NOT believe it is possible to "end violence" or abolish forms of oppression without deep, profound, unending spiritual work. I believe it is misleading and harmful to claim otherwise..
And I also believe that even with deep, profound, unending spiritual work, we are looking at transformation that extends over the course of generations. There is no magic wand, even in the realm of the spirit. We are already the outgrowth of BILLIONS of years of Life unfolding..
