If We are Going to Live in a World without Privacy, it Should be the Tyrants who are Afraid
And those who keep them in power
There are a lot of people who would rather not know that George Floyd was murdered by police officers in Minneapolis. They don’t want to know that Breonna Taylor was shot eight times by police who had entered her home by mistake.
They also don’t want their children to know, preferring to shelter their children from the disgusting face of racism in America. Facing the weight of just how much is wrong in the world is overwhelming, and many would just rather let themselves be distracted away from it.
In 1991, people were enraged to see Rodney King beaten by four policemen who were later exonerated of all charges. Police were being exposed for engaging in what has long been routine practice. The visibility created by this moment in time should have ended it. But police got better at hiding, and white people who didn’t want to face the reality of racism allowed it to continue. My children were littles in 2014 when Eric Garner was murdered in New York City, a city I love, where I wish it were true that that sort of thing shouldn’t happen. The stop and frisk scandal was still fresh news at that time, and it is unfortunately true that that sort of thing happens all the time in NYC.
It is chilling that in the few days between the murders of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, a white woman called the cops on Christian Cooper while he was bird-watching in New York City. There is simply no way she didn’t know she was literally, directly threatening his life. Clearly she knew, but doing so in her mind was equal to him asking her to follow the rules and leash her dog. She is the recipient of grace in that Christian Cooper is now using his voice to protect her safety.
People don’t want to be confronted with the fact that this kind of casual, deadly racism exists.
The ability to share information directly around the world is important because it makes it harder for people with privilege to pretend we don’t see, and it makes it harder for people to keep uncomfortable truths from the next generation. Brilliant youth advocate, organizer, and orator Ella Baker said “Give light and people will find the way.” The only way to get rid of this darkness is to shine the light on it. This is in part how I interpret the famous Strength to Love quote that “darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that,” and please, let’s not forget the radical nature of MLK and his work.
Our privacy is at risk on so many levels, including social control and surveillance programs used by governments and border-less hoarding of personal data by corporations and other manipulators.
On the other hand, people have the ability to directly share footage, photos, and first hand experience with other people who give a shit. The war in Kosovo happened while I was a college student in 1999, and I remember one of my professors telling us about receiving emails from colleagues in Kosovo, telling him what was happening. He called it “Web War One” (see this article from 1999 using similar terms). The role of the internet in Kosovo had sometimes contradictory effects, much like reporting in Vietnam. But without internet-driven awareness, the war in Kosovo might have stayed a dirty little war everyone quickly forgot. Unlike during Vietnam and the beating of Rodney King, which happened before social media, people in Kosovo weren’t dependent on the established media to share their information. I think it is telling that, with the inability to control information, police are even targeting mainstream media during protests across the US.
While policing hasn’t changed much since 1991, people are growing less willing to just sit back and take it. The Black Lives Matter movement is Speaking Truth to Power, in the tradition of Baynard Rustin, continually speaking up while they are denounced for making people uncomfortable. We know about what happened to George Floyd, about mistreatment of Black people during social distancing, and about the police violence taking over peaceful protests because people have learned to record the police — because the same technology that threatens our privacy also empowers us to make sure that others know what is really going on.
The modern world system has always been based on racism, exploitation, and inequality. Violence is a tool of that system. So are segregation, isolation, and silence. Americans have an uncanny ability to stuff this under the rug, starting with school curriculum. This has to change. Urgently, because this is a state of emergency.
“One of the things that has to be faced is the process of waiting to change the system, how much we have got to do to find out who we are, where we have come from and where we are going.” Ella Baker
We have to teach children about injustice and racism in a way that protects their mental health and privileges the needs of young people from marginalized communities, rather than teaching despair and tokenizing the children of color in the room. “One of the things that has to be faced is the process of waiting to change the system, how much we have got to do to find out who we are, where we have come from and where we are going.” (Ella Baker). Culture change is a long term project, and we have to keep each other safe while walking down this long path.
Ella’s Song is as relevant today as it was when Sweet Honey in the Rock first performed it and as relevant as when Baker wrote the words. We need to raise our children to refuse to accept what is being passed off as normal. We must keep shining the light on darkness hiding beneath the surface, and we must refuse to look away, even when it hurts and makes us incredibly uncomfortable.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6Uus--gFrc[/embed]