Comments
ACCORDING TO LIZ - Zenna Henderson. Along with Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, her stories addressed the challenges arising between people of other worlds and those on Earth.
She may best be remembered for books and short stories about the People, alien refugees who fled to our planet after their world was destroyed by a natural disaster.
In their search for community and communication in this, their promised land, the People try to suppress their natural abilities of telepathy, telekinesis, prophesy and healing in an attempt to integrate into human society.
Long after those books were out of print, the larger-than-life rapper, actor, poet and Black activist Tupac Shakur hit our headlines, teaching that T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E. must be overcome by a love for all mankind to give people a chance for a better life on earth.
For Blacks and Chinese, Palestinians and Jews, Aliens and Earthlings. And all Americans.
T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E. stands for: “The Hate U Give Little Infants F***s Everybody” underlining that when society teaches children hatred at an early age, it inevitably causes problems for everyone: a child reared on racism, to hate those who are different, will join a White Supremacist group or become the next Adolf Hitler.
This cycle of hate can only perpetuate more hate which will come to dominate people’s lives and be passed on to their own children.
It is this hate of “other” that forms the background of the Trump alliances. Not only of Palestinians and Muslims but also of women, lawyers who cross him, students, progressives, seniors, people taking stands against corporate abuses and the government’s support for wars of foreign aggression, people fighting climate change, voter suppression, and for universal healthcare.
To build a resilient coalition to rise above the current challenges facing the United States in a manner to move beyond them forever, these “others” must lay the scourge of racism to rest for all time by consistently looking past stereotypes to see the real human at the soul of those labeled “drug dealer”, “gang banger”, “welfare queen” and more.
No-one can judge those who fall prey to T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E. unless they take a walk in their shoes.
To empathize with those who barely scrape by in neighborhoods where people have criminal records and can’t get jobs, who must choose between heat and food for their families, where it’s easier to find crack than an education, fentanyl than steady employment. Whether black or white.
Where million-dollar businesses won’t locate or hire – whether in Watts or Appalachia – because the multi-billion-dollar drug industry has already monetized its social infrastructure and aligned it to maximize their profits.
The oppressed will continue to do what they have to for survival. Rioting when the abuses become unbearable – from Rodney King to George Floyd to pro-Palestinian protesters. And fear-driven factions in our police forces will continue to do what they do best, beating and pepper-spraying the rioters and throwing as many as they can grab into the ghetto-to-prison feedback loop. Or, now, to the hell-holes of El Salvador.
With cops legitimately fearful for their own lives, and so long as white-aligned policies, judges, Wall Street and the wealthy get away with crushing minority opportunities underfoot without being held accountable, the system will continue to be self-perpetuating.
And, if the petition to Trump to pardon Chauvin gains traction, there will be war in America.
The system has to change and, to make that change, people have to speak up no matter the risk; no-one can remain silent.
Being brave doesn’t mean a lack of fear, it means facing that fear, moving forward, doing what’s right in the face of being terrified.
It starts by breaking with T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E., exposing vulnerable hearts and hope and, in return, asking for R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
The similarities between FDR’s Economic Bill of Rights in 1944, building on the Declaration of Independence, and the Black Panther’s 10 Point Program of 1972 far outweigh their differences. Other than in the color of the writer’s skin and the oppression or lack thereof they experienced growing up.
As a minority, blacks may sometimes be the tail that wags the dog but, with leaders from Tupac Shakur and Oprah Winfrey to Huey Newton and MLK, often the tail points all people in the right direction.
The foregoing was inspired by the breakthrough novel The Hate U Give by Angle Thomas.
(Liz Amsden resides in Vermont and is a regular contributor to CityWatch on issues that she is passionate about. She can be reached at [email protected].)
