Note: this was scheduled as yesterday’s #Goddess101Texts but did not go out because it violated community standards. I tried to find out why but got nowhere.
A Facebook sharing by Brig Feltus
Heal Thyself, Heal the World
Spanish is the language of European colonizers.
I watched the Superbowl halftime show. I am not a fan of gladiator sports that lure young people into systems of extremes which leave so many of them permanently maimed, brain injured, etc… all for entertainment. I feel the same way about many sports. I’m not militant about it. I get the attraction and respect the aspects of mastery and excellence at play. Sure. But I don’t like football for the same reasons I don’t like bullfighting. Or boxing. That part. To add on that it is such violent sports that are used the most as distractions and pacifiers, and venting tools which redirect public dissent and tension. Keeps the people at bay. Gladiator sports serve a powerful and manipulative socio-political purpose. Anyway, I didn’t come here to say this.
I watched the halftime show on somebody’s YouTube account a day after. A field of sugarcane was a perfect way to start out a Puerto Rican extravaganza. Europe and America would not be what they are today without the sugar grown there for centuries.
I enjoyed it very much and I found myself having thoughts about why white supremacists hate people of color so much. It’s like our very existence is a reminder of the horrific things Europeans have done and what they lost because of it. And then to top it off, that Black and Brown people shine so bright with the history and energy, and sound, and body language, and beauty of generations of our ancestors, despite the Ma’afa, despite colonization, despite multiple genocides, despite white supremacy, despite everything… we still move, and think, and conjure up our roots, POWERFULLY. The workers in the sugar cane fields, captive prisoners of colonialism, enslaved, and treated as livestock… yet spirits unbroken, rhythm survived, Afro-Taino identity intact. The show starts out reminding us that slavery happened, and Africans and Tainos were sacrificed for labor, begging the question to white folk…what have you and yours sacrificed?
It is remarkable even to me. There was a moment when a bevy of Boricuas bent over and shook their culitos at the camera while looking back over their shoulders smiling, and the three dancers did a very signature side to side neckroll thing, some might say is so natural that ALL Black women do it (not true but close) and I thought, Europeans have lost this natural part of themselves. The part that had an identity before imperialism. It must be hard to watch a field full of people you consider to be inferior as they access their root chakras and pump and girate that way so unapologetically. One can only react one of two ways… either watching this immediately activates you and Spirit moves you to move yourself, or you feel instantly lost and lacking because your spirit has been smothered to death.
Some folks were even appalled and disgusted apparently. Complete lack of knowing the foundational importance of activating this energy meridien. For Black and Brown folks that freedom of expression is rooted in spirituality, rituals, somatic intelligence, and SURVIVAL. And in order to homogenize Europeans into artificially constructed colonial cultures of passive bland whiteness, rooted expression was quashed in white supremacist culture. That’s why diversity feels so bothersome. It’s not fair is it? “Why should they get to keep their free expression when I’ve lost mine?”
I also thought to myself how weird it is that so many white Americans think English is their language. English is not American. It’s… English. LOL That is a country in Europe. They know nothing about language at all. Let alone their own history. White people’s ancestors aren’t all from England. Don’t they know English isn’t even pure itself? Being comprised of at least 5 or 6 other languages INCLUDING LATIN. Spanish is a Latin language. Don’t they know? Yeah, they know. How to say you’re poorly educated without saying you’re poorly educated.
It must feel pretty bad to feel so lost and disconnected from parts of one’s identity, and then to have it thrown in your face that generations of white folk over centuries of time have traded their souls and freedom of expression for the benefit of the farce that is white supremacist privilege. How sad. What a rip off! Seriously. I do not mock. All of that privilege and most are still poor, poorly educated, and completely disenfranchised from their own heritages, AND most of what white people call culture is borrowed and amalgamized from the cultures they despise. The cognitive dissonance alone must be difficult to hold. The cognitive dissonance of it all! Whew.
I’m looking at the performance, the sounds, the beauty, the joy, the power, the sensuality…. Not even the most powerful white men in the world can exude such brilliant freedom of expression like that. The people so many aspire to imitate…And that scarcity of true free expression, because of profound disconnection from one’s roots, is tragic. There should be movements of white people passionately disrupting this. And I’m not talking about the new age-y white folks who gentrify everything that is Black and Brown. I mean actually dig deep into their own ancestry and realize European imperialism is killing their lineages. Not Bad Bunny. Oligarchy. Not reggaeton. White supremacy. Not immigrants. Western hegemonic capitalism.
Anyway… my point is, I get why it’s upsetting to have Black and Brown expression in one’s face. For descendants of Europe who’ve lost connection to their roots for the sake of Empire, and bought into it, the envy must be very difficult to bear. But you could choose to be inspired. Not to mimic, but to practice Sankofa. Go back and get your own. I know that you can, because I am an avid student of culture and I know a lot more about indigenous Europe than the average white person. At some point the people will have to disavow themselves from the imperialism that requires this sacrifice of them. Not to mention the sacrifice of integrity that unearned artificial privilege requires.
May we remember what we once knew before we forgot who we were.
Heal Thyself is for white people who have a SINCERE and HEARTFELT desire to BE the change they want to see in the world.
A Thank You to KaDi Katherine Allen of Forest and Village who led me to this post. From KaDi: “I am taking an anti-racism class with this author right now and I highly recommend it. The class is designed for white people who are ready for more unlearning and dismantling from the insidious pervasiveness and indoctrination of whiteness. You can follow her on FB to receive more of her powerful writing.”
This post is part of Goddess 101 Texts – telling another side of Our Story.
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