2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: The one thing that will stop Bernie Sanders.....his supporters [View all]calimary
(80,522 posts)Both excellent points. Both worth recommending in and of themselves!
I've noted here, myself, as a white woman, Raine, that the main way I can relate, since my family is pretty monochromatic on the lighter side, too, is through being a mom. I just sink myself into the faces and voices of those mothers who've lost their precious children to police brutality, senseless gun violence, or the Stand Your Ground overkill, and ponder how I have the luxury of kissing my son goodbye on his way to a gig and I can feel pretty confident that he will come home on his own two feet and not in a box.
Black moms do not have that sense of security. Why do they not deserve that sense of security too? Why on earth should they be denied that? I could add the trite little comment about how no mother anywhere should be denied that, but CRIMINY, it happens so damn much more often to Black families that it is a genuine, and almost transcending crisis! As a mom, I know how critical it is for me to know my kids are safe. That's as big a bedrock fundamental issue as there is, for a mom. I can only imagine how that fear and dread gnaws at any Black mom, every moment of every day and night that her kids are not, physically, safely within her view.
Perhaps this is why, for many, social justice outweighs economic justice on the scale of importance. Because no job, no matter how good it is or what it pays, can comfort a mother who's had her son or daughter violently and unjustly ripped away from her forever.
So I relate that way, and I've gotta say, it just tears up my guts.