What happened in Charlottesville over the weekend proves that the notion of existing in a post-racial America is a complete fantasy. The "I don't see skin color" version of public policy mixed with a talking point that helps back away from the cultural and social work we really need to do. I've been sick to my stomach watching footage of the riots and that car mowing down our fellow people.
It's made me so angry that I feel a rush of primal, testosterone-laced adrenaline that reverts to physicality, and wants to pummel those whose ideas I find disgusting and fucked up.
My mind quickly comes back to violence and it's true nature. It's never a solution. It never ends anything. It merely accelerates the eye for an eye approach. It's made me think just how radical nonviolence really is. It's sooooo hard to do. To remain truly nonviolent in communication and action is no easy feat, especially when directed at our perceived enemies.
The thing is, nonviolence destabilizes the entire back and forth that violence perpetuates. It knocks it off its axis. Calling for LOVE for those who desire the annihilation of anyone that doesn't look like them is the hardest test.
Can we truly love our racist brothers and sisters out of their fundamentalist lens? Do we have the stomach for it?
I don't know if we can and I don't know if we do.
I also don't know if violent retaliation does anything more than temporarily suppress those notions, as opposed to changing them.
I just don't know.