Yesterday was such an intense day for us all. Especially if you watched the homegoing service for brother George Floyd - who is now a member of the realm of the Ancestor/Angels - which was held yesterday, June 4, in Minneapolis.
From beginning to end it was a packed with bold, unapologetic Blackness - and the message was so clear - Black people are not going to take it any more. Perhaps the world was looking for a lot of weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, Biblical readings - but the Floyds brought their warriors out to send a message to the world. And the message was clear - Time is Up!
The heinous, untimely death (read murder) of George Floyd became the lightening rod for Black activism, protest, demonstrations, rebellion, riots, and retribution. Ben Crump, Esq. and Rev. Al Sharpton galvanized the family, friends and the millions of people who were watching. Rev. Al's exhortation "take you knee off our neck," resonated with us all. I was so proud and happy to know that he was working with the Floyd Family because I know that he will leave no stone unturned or resource untried.
I was also happy to see Rev. Jackson, Martin Luther King III, T.I., Kevin Hart, Ludicrus, Tiffany Haddish, and others there in solidarity and sympathy with the family - leadership that spans all that others tries to divide us - from Millennials to us old guard seasoned activists from Black in the Day. I was glued to the TV - watching every nuance, reading the comments on FaceBook; making my own comments as well..
Following the homegoing ceremony, I made the mistake of bingewatching MSNBC -
Why "mistake?" Because the more I watched, the more I listened, the angrier I got, and the sadder I got; and the less I wrote - by the time it got to Chris Matthews, I realized I had been sitting in the same place for 9 hours !!! - from the service at 2:00 until 11:00PM! Yikes!
I had allowed my brain to be saturated with negativity in which T-rump was mentioned at least 500 times. Where his egregious lunacy was highlighted over and over and over again - no wonder people are hypnotized. I realized that I had written nothing, spoken to no one, did no housework, cooked no dinner, didn't even go on FaceBook!! Wow!! (I even lost an important file that I was working on! still trying to retrieve it).
I realized I had allowed myself to suffer from sensory overload - the overload of too much negative news, delivered under the guise of news analysis. Normally the TV is watching me while I write, or do other things - it's background noise keeping me company as I continue to social distance. But I had allowed it to invade my consciousness - and that's not a good thing. For all you news junkies out there, I used to be just like you - but once I weaned myself from that habit - because it's really nothing more than the regurgitation of the same information or misinformation over and over and over again until you can regurgitate it yourself. It gives you something to talk about with your family, friends, associates, and makes you feel and appear knowledgeable - until you realize there's no new news. And most of the news we get is contrived and manipulated. You never get the real story or the full story - you get the manipulated story. Not that I'd really want it. Just this little bit of overdose has already messed up my psyche. I hate to imagine what it does for those of you who swear by these shows.
Even though I write a lot about current issues and concerns about Black people, I try to post from the most positive, self empowering standpoint. Not always easy given the escalation of the predator in chief in DC, and the effects and aftermath of the plandemic we're facing. But it's difficult to write positive and hopefully inspiring posts if I'm constantly digesting slanted, continuously negative news.
And it's hard for you to see things from more than one standpoint if you, likewise are always being fed an overload of mind numbing negativity.
So it's two thirty nine AM, and I am determined to not go to sleep until I find some positive something to this very sad, over saturated day. Add to the situation that Trevor Noah is on hiatus, and we're left to the devices of the meanstream media - at a time when we could have definitely used a lift from his wit, wisdom and insight. So I'm going to have to dip into that reservoir of resilience our ancestors gave me/us - the resilience that has seen us through 401+ years of these kinds of situations, and come up with the mental and spiritual toughness to see this through. Because in the end, whether we like it or not, Chauvin and the other three Minneapolis police may have meant it for evil when they killed brother George Floyd, but God meant it for our "good" - and my responsibility is to make sure that I, along with others, communicate that "good" in a way it transforms us all.
I want to be optimistic and say that we've got five months to transform this tragedy into triumph - not just in reference to law enforcement, and police procedures, but in terms of our unity and solidarity; transforming our neighborhoods into spheres of influence and centers for growth, empowerment, development. That this is a catalyst for registering, voting, and no longer taking abuse - graphic or subtle - leveled against us as a people, individually or collectively.
I'm still working on it.
Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
