I truly appreciate this conversation and your idea of Democriziation of Democracy, where everyone is legible not because western rational justifitory narratives affirm their existence, but simply because they exist is something I truly value... I have been thinking a lot about what it means for black people to continue seeking to save the failed project of "Western Democracy"? When, as you beautifully said, its birth and ongoing maintenance are rooted in black death? Is it wisdom or foolishness then to take up such a rescue? Is it us giving grace to a nation that actively denies us grace? Or is it merely accepting the fate that existence outside an anti-black heteropatriarchal democrated system, which negates the very democracy it pretends to be, is nearly impossible without the world completely resetting itself? How do we meaningfully hold the fact we understand why some gave up trying to save what is continually killing us without mirroring the neoliberal tactics of shaming them into action? Cause it also makes sense why we must save our executioners to save what is left of our shambled selves. Yet I still wonder are we the sages or the fools? What if we have been simply foolish in our belief that the sage and the fool are separate, so we must simultaneously occupy both positions? In the same paradoxical way, the only thing scarier than believing in a law that doesn't protect you is believing in no law at all. I don't know; I just appreciate you for how many questions you force me to consider around anti-blackness, the law, and their incarceral impact on our material and metaphysical existence. So I thank you agin
I truly appreciate this conversation and your idea of Democriziation of Democracy, where everyone is legible not because western rational justifitory narratives affirm their existence, but simply because they exist is something I truly value... I have been thinking a lot about what it means for black people to continue seeking to save the failed project of "Western Democracy"? When, as you beautifully said, its birth and ongoing maintenance are rooted in black death? Is it wisdom or foolishness then to take up such a rescue? Is it us giving grace to a nation that actively denies us grace? Or is it merely accepting the fate that existence outside an anti-black heteropatriarchal democrated system, which negates the very democracy it pretends to be, is nearly impossible without the world completely resetting itself? How do we meaningfully hold the fact we understand why some gave up trying to save what is continually killing us without mirroring the neoliberal tactics of shaming them into action? Cause it also makes sense why we must save our executioners to save what is left of our shambled selves. Yet I still wonder are we the sages or the fools? What if we have been simply foolish in our belief that the sage and the fool are separate, so we must simultaneously occupy both positions? In the same paradoxical way, the only thing scarier than believing in a law that doesn't protect you is believing in no law at all. I don't know; I just appreciate you for how many questions you force me to consider around anti-blackness, the law, and their incarceral impact on our material and metaphysical existence. So I thank you agin
Thank you so much for this meditation. I'm sitting with all of it; as I work on this next piece.