Put below a cut as sort of off topic, probably not very coherent and I realise it might seem a bit ‘off’ to some.
Summary
I’ll start this by saying that I’m not an eloquent person, and sometimes I don’t write phrase things in a way that expresses my thoughts properly. I know that I don’t have the words to say what I feel here, but I’ll try and get as close as I can.
The situation is obviously horrific, and that the fact this is an evil inherent in societal institutions rather than some bad people within them is starting to be recognised and explicitly stated is very important.
I’ve seen a very strong sentiment on social media of demanding that people outside the US with any kind of following post about it, and calling out where people haven’t. I follow low-profile actors, for example, who have put up posts about it, some of which acknowledged the pressure to do so (though as a good thing). On one hand, I completely get the sentiment, this really does feel like an important moment, and ensuring that the message is as widely heard as possible is really important. And maybe with that wider realisation people will look at the global picture. Maybe.
But I also feel desperately sad thinking of communities around the world where people are imprisoned, tortured and murdered by police and state institutions on a daily basis. When students are murdered by police in West Papua, with complicity from Western governments and corporations, nobody is insisting that people need to be posting about it, that voices need to be heard. If it even makes a brief article on a ‘world news’ section it gets a shrug and a ‘well, that’s the kind of thing that happens there’. All these white people shouting ‘black lives matter!’ but they don’t care about the racial injustice against Melanesian people (not those Black lives).
I’m expressing this terribly. I’m in full support of the protestors, I just find it difficult to understand how people, celebrities, even corporations can all apparently see this injustice and the need to call it out and call for action but are utterly indifferent to horrific human rights abuses elsewhere that our countries are complicit in. That officer is ‘us’ as a nation in so many places around the world.
If people can care this much, why are we letting so many people suffer and die? Why are we not out there demanding an end to these injustices that we cause, facilitate, or at best turn a blind eye to? Why can they not have a movement? Their lives are no less important.
I say this meaning myself even more than anyone. I wish I knew what to do. There is so much evil in this world and my primary concern is always making my life as easy as possible. My life which comes at the expense of so many others.
