434- BLM 1

It has been over 2 weeks since George Floyd's murder and the start of new riots in USA. Thus far, I have been only sharing articles and memes on social media, concentrating on Facebook and Twitter. I was able to edit this blog's background from my lavender photo into the above support of the BLM movement, a copyright free image that I further edited for the purpose of this blog entry, with the added text. 


There are multiple reasons to why I kept quiet until this particular entry, including reduction in eyesight and feeling overwhelmed, both with the riots, police brutality, misinformation from the american gov, but also with the question of where do I even begin a blog post about BLM movement, why we need it, ways to help, etc, simply because there'd be so much to say in the face of centuries of history, resulting systemic racism, social injustice, inequalities and so forth, so where, indeed, do I begin ? 

I still don't really know the answer, so I let my stream of consciousness guide me from one topic to the next. Even though this blog's main topics were mental health/mental illness, and some lifestyle ones, I did include a few sociopolitical ones - namely feminism and lgbt. Today, I start a new series on previously un-discussed but important subjects, around and inspired from BLM, and should include any and all of the above, from racism to history to current events, wishes for social change and equality, but I know that I can never be exhaustive.

The first thing I want to say is that despite having mixed racial backgrounds, I appear as a (tanned) white person, and that, much like the meme says, I understand that I won't ever fully understand the struggles of people of color in general and anywhere in the world, and black Americans in particular. 

Secondly, to complete the meme, I stand with the black american community who has been through centuries of oppression, separation, inequalities and injustices, facing views that were already outdated when they started, and which resulted in the current prejudice, police brutality, many unlawful imprisonments and some even paid with their lives when they were innocent of the crimes they were charged with.

Thirdly, I won't claim that I know everything about the history, but I did read and get a different education than the lies, mis and disinformation that the american system have been giving to its population, and this is where my privilege shows in having lived elsewhere. 

Fourthly, I will share some of my thoughts and opinions, experiences, but also links to websites, articles and videos that I find informative, interesting, important on all of these inter-sectional subjects. I'll try my best to bring attention, raise awareness and give voice to the voiceless, as an integral and most important part of the BLM movement is to shift from the white privilege and to showcase, and emphasis those who have been silenced for far foo long. 

A few more, last points I want to make : you may think 'all lives matter' but that also has a set of answers to it, the short of them is that of course they do, but right now, we must participate in this BLM is vital. No country is exempt of racism, bigotry or any other form of prejudice but current events show that BLM has to take a front seat. 

Of course, other sociopolitical causes are important as well, and I won't be quiet about them either. So, whilst I gather some links, I'll wish you a good day for now, and come back later.