Cops plus climate change equals...?
What do climate change refugees and the CHOP have in common?
An essay in Dissent magazine says police violence will be the common element. As the writer put it, “[I]t’s a simple question of whom and what the political system chooses to protect” during a crisis.
Protester demands on the boarded-up SPD east precinct building, June 2020
Remember the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest area (CHOP)? Activists protesting police violence and George Floyd’s murder occupied the streets around the east precinct, demanding that the Seattle Police Department be defunded. One reason for the demand: police pose a deadly threat to Black lives, not a source of aid.
Police face Black Lives Matter supporters on May 30, 2020. Credit: Kelly Kline/Flickr
Considering this violent history, writer Olufemi O. Taiwo predicts “climate apartheid” will increase. Police will leave refugees to risk death during future climate disasters, while officers protect the powerful.
National Guard troops, Seattle police and protesters on June 3, 2020. Credit: Bruce Englehardt/Wikimedia Commons
At first I thought this argument was kind of a stretch, but then I realized my collage “TODAY, America. Today,” tells a similar narrative. I pointed out people of color usually suffer the most in a catastrophe — citizens as well as migrants.
I wish I could be more optimistic: please, please, please let me and this essay be wrong. But knowing our response to Hurricane Katrina (and before that, the Great Mississippi Flood), that essay writer in Dissent sounds more like Cassandra than Chicken Little.
Getting free on Juneteenth
I’ve seen a few interesting art developments connected to the idea of freedom, this Juneteenth. And though I hadn’t realized it until now, I’ve also been making small works about freedom and its absence.
These collages all have something to do with walls, most of the pieces featuring an enslaved person. Coincidentally, another enslaved person — Aunt Jemima — is finally free. After 131 years, Quaker Oats is retiring the syrup logo and the brand. This is especially great news to one of my favorite artists, Betye Saar, who’s best known for recasting Aunt Jemima as a revolutionary warrior.
Once you’ve liberated yourself, though… then what? Maybe you spend some time recovering from your trauma. Today Black artists are staging a “black out” of the CHOP [Capitol Hill Occupied Protest]. They’re offering a day of art and healing activities specifically for other Black people.
More importantly, these actions are meant to refocus attention on the Black Lives Matter movement. The art drawing people’s attention is still valid and restorative on its own. But this weekend is a reminder the art is also a means to the end: freeing people from constant assault on our existence.
Amped up to #amplifyBlackvoices
Whoa! Do you even know how many people and organizations are using their influence to amplify Black voices? This month, influential people and organizations are chasing Black artists like Brits following a cheese wheel downhill.
You probably know I’ve benefited from the attention, so… I might be a little biased.
There’s also:
YouTube’s “multiyear” $100 million fund to “center and amplify Black voices and perspectives”
Singer Halsey’s Black Creators Fund
Artist Trust’s list of Black-led arts and heritage organizations that you can support with your time and money
A ton of individuals, corporations and non-profits lending their social media to amplify Black voices. Ahem.
All right, I’ll bite (the hand currently feeding me). How long does the amplification last this time?
How many years in a YouTube “multiyear” commitment? Which specific Black creators benefit from the Halsey fund? Any social media takeover invites next year to artists with fewer than a thousand followers? Let’s act on this moment consistently — persistently — not just before and after Black History Month. Pace yourself. We’ll need your support in 2021 and 2022 and 2023…