The colonized and the marginalized are often condemned by the same forces that oppress them, or they are asked to utter condemnation at the whims of their rulers.
In a colony, condemnation is like the deformed blood of the lamb we begrudgingly paint on our doors praying you—the colonizer—will distinguish us from the rest of the rebellious population you come to slaughter. Thus, to complete the ritual, when a plague of resistance occurs that bleeds outside of your blood drawn colonial lines, you demand our condemnation. You insist we deplore the "use of human shields" when nothing exists behind them but more human beings whom you will bomb and sanction into oblivion whether they choose to resist or not. You urge that we denounce the pig provoked riots incinerating your plundering cities, claiming they "undermine the cause" as if we share one in common. You implore us to rebuke the "terrorists" and "extremists" who fume smoke from your crimson empire, because of course "violence is never the answer" but how did you get here? Protesting peacefully?
Yet, after we proselytize ourselves before your patronizing demands, after we denounce, rebuke, deplore, castigate, censure, disavow, reject, repudiate, renounce, impugn, scold, disband, disown, every resistant bone of our people—there remains nothing left to show for all the blood we smeared but the same mark for death we kowtowed to avoid. You led us to believe that there was redemption in snitching on our own.
Finally, after hunting down the rebellions through your police killings, mass lynchings, anti-indigenous hangings, child perishings, land thievings, church and mosque bombings done to "defend yourself" from the "beasts"—the "beasts" you identify as us—you have the nerve to still expect that we pinch our pitch Black souls, and return with a humanity of forgiveness. Forgiveness is futile when humanity is a quality you have never possessed, and are utterly incapable of forming. You could not grow a soul even if you purchased it with everything that you stole.
See, you need our self-mutilating condemnation to prove that we are just as morally bankrupt as you. Only then is the colonial process complete for you to rinse and repeat. But your thirst for our condemnation inevitably condemns your own survival. We are done condemning ourselves.
Instead, we have some questions for you: Do you not denounce America standing on the side of Palestinian genocide? Does your support for an open air prison not make you a "global sponsor of terrorism?" Does it not strip the people of Gaza of any modicum of honor? Do you believe in Africa's right to exist or is colonialism a more "efficient" fix? What's your stance on gathering reparations for slave masters? At what cost were you in favor of Chase Bank laundering money for Nazis during the holocaust? Is the Anti-Defamation League not a modern zionist front? Do you denounce the United Nations spreading of cholera in Haiti and the raping of teenage girls by UN troops who abandoned them with babies? How about the theft of their earthquake relief funds? Is the Clinton Foundation not an "extremist" organization for imposing more poverty on their economy? Is the CIA not flat out "pure evil" for their assassinations and coups? Why have you not condemned any of these mother fuckers yet?
Mr. President, what will be done for the refugee victims of capitalism? Despite all your enormous wealth, your streets are filled with homeless vets and tents. So does capitalism even work? Should there be regime change in the U.S. since the police keep "murdering their own people?" Based on this logic, maybe the Middle East should invade to save Black America then? My sources say the people want you to withdraw, what is your response to this international call? Frankly, why are you still here??? We thought you said you were leaving?
We are not interested in your polluted answers because we already smell the stench of your lies. We know you will set lose your neo-colonial puppets—who delusionally believe they are free—to condemn us to death with the "nuance" of "both sides" but we no longer fuck with them either. There is no moral high ground in upholding a colony. Just like your sheepdogs, your false morality is a counterinsurgent distraction to corral us against the liberation we seek.
If we condemn anything, we condemn the precious time we wasted arguing with you as if your mind was subject to change. As if some progress could be obtained by appearing redeemable inside the banality of your eyes. Moving forward, any flaws and imperfections we possess or wrongs and transgressions that we commit, shall be judged and addressed by only us. No press releases, organizational statements, rallies for prayer or calls for world peace will be forwarded to you. You are blocked, and your position is irrelevant to our goals. We want EVERYTHING back with interest. Call it socialism, call it communism or just call it your end. We condemn your condemnation. We are done!
Signed,
The Colonized
(Because certainly what we need right now is another statement)
Too Black is a poet, host of the Black Myths Podcast on Black Power Media, member of Black Alliance For Peace, communications coordinator for the Defense Committee to Free the Pendleton 2, co-director of the documentary film The Pendleton 2: They Stood Up and author of the forthcoming book Laundering Black Rage. He is based in Indianapolis, IN and can be reached at tooblack8808@gmail.com or @too_black_ on X
Johanna Fernandez touched many lives through her scholarship, activism, and belief that people themselves can change history and be "the ones we've been waiting for."
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