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One of the first things we learn in American Studies is about the "myth and symbol" school of thought. I'm thinking a great deal about that as I notice the inability to account for the Black residents who live in DC and are impacted by what has happened in the city this weekend.
2/ Any and every one who knows me knows how fiercely proud I am to be a native Washingtonian. How much I love DC. Not the myth and symbol of the Federal city (intentionally capitalized) per se, but DC. Not the myth & symbol that brings millions here on patriotic pilgrimages; DC
3/ DC, the city of GoGo, Ben's, Anita Hill & Marilyn Monroe speaking to each other across the foot of a bridge, the Rib Shack (RIP), Stan's, the old & new 9:30 club, Delta, Kramer's, Sankofa Books. DC as a place where people live. Where multigenerational Black families live.
4/ It's true that Washingtonians are veterans to living in a city that's often used for myth & symbol. Folks who come to protest and know not one thing re: DC and the folks impacted by living here. We learn to maneuver & negotiate around the Federal city as symbol.
5/ We learn to negotiate regular acts of dispossession. We understand the fluctuations between Federal city & DC. What happened here this weekend and the inability of many to understand or think re: the impact on Black residents of DC is unsettling - & that's putting it politely.
6/ Space, place, & race matter. DC, the city I love, is beyond a simple myth & symbol. If you don't know anything re: DC & you only parrot opinions re: the Federal city? You're participating in a project that erases the lives of a city that's *still* mostly folks of color.
7/ Want to learn about DC? Read Chocolate City by @gdmusgrove and @chrismyersasch; Black in Place by @_blusummers; Go Go Live by @NatHopkinson; Black Georgetown Remembered by Carrol Gibbs; Read @MaritaGolden ; Read Lost in the City by Edward P. Jones
8/ Know that displacement of Black residents happened more rapidly in DC than in *any other city in this nation*. And then to have white supremacists march through Chocolate City over an aesthetic commemoration of how Black life used to matter in this city.
9/ In DC we have a saying, I'm going to use it but not identify it b/c I don't want it appropriated. Folks use our city to make points re: their rights even as they are occupying a city where residents, mostly Black and Brown, are denied full enfranchisement. You don't know us.
10/ And I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge Baltimore. This south of the midAtlantic region that people think they know but really don't know.
DC is a place where people live. Not just where people protest. The disregard/lack of compassion for residents...
DC is a place where people live. Not just where people protest. The disregard/lack of compassion for residents...
11/ As a friend said, it's not that white supremacists were never hear, the numbers just increased this weekend. Point well made. I overstand
