I 
try not to stay glued to the TV and social media about the day’s events because simply put, I grow weary and have become wary of all of it. The criminalization of Blacks in America and outright police violence and murder of Black men, women, and children has become all too commonplace, some would even say ‘normal.’ Please do not categorize my response as one of complacency; it is not. I’ve simply chosen to focus my efforts on working diligently in small but meaningful ways, and on loving up fiercely on those I believe need my gifts the most, my family and the children of my local and broader communities.
Still, there is no getting around the difficult conversations that we all know we must have. If we are to engage honestly on the topic of the riots in Baltimore attributed to the police killing of Freddie Gray or any matter on civil unrest, we must also be willing to have our perceptions challenged by someone else’s reality. Every situation has a context; therefore, any reporting on a situation without seeking first to understand its context is insincere and futile. So, while reporters express a penchant for ‘normalcy,'” understand that there is nothing normal about a wish to return to normal in America as either side remembers it.
A return to ‘normalcy,’ you say?
What good is normalcy
if I can’t play
in my own garden of Eden too?
Instead
you come ‘roun here
surveying us
like some display
they just pulled from out back
in a museum of your own construction –
surely you knew we were here
would be here
long before now
before we ourselves knew–
trotting along here
like newfangled missionaries
with special microphones
flashy cameras
measured words
calculated questions
crafting observations
for catchy soundbites and news spin
for what will become your story
and stellar reporting
for best coverage awards
You don’t impress me
parading ‘roun here with your lanyards dangling
press badges having
air-conditioned vehicles retreating
like you can’t stand the heat?
Do tell!
Where were you
in our coldest of winters
in our most unbearable of summers
in our everyday,
when the block’s been getting hot
where were you exactly?
‘Normalcy,’ you say?
Child please!
I want normalcy too
the kind without a riot
or reason to riot
without burning buildings
which is now all too normal … to you
I want something beautiful
blooming
something to nurture
and till
and cultivate
and beautify
with good soil
and bountiful crop
with trees tall
and fruitful hope.
Ain’t none of that ‘roun here!
What’s normal ’bout
scant shapeless fields
and abundant weeds,
should you find anything that looks remotely like grass?
What’s normal ’bout
cement cracking
beneath the pressure of fallen bodies
beneath the discolor of faint blood and
ghostly last-breath cries?
You probably walked right over ’em
didn’t even notice.
What’s normal ’bout
empty lots
reserved for renewal
for somebody else
when it’s me needing restoration
now?
What’s normal ’bout
half-erected gardens
abandoned midstream
neglected by some
dismissed by others?
Keep your normalcy … please.
Life As An Art Form 
I can not figure out for the life of me why I don’t get e-mail notifications for your blog post. I have subscribed and followed you for ages but the notifications just will not come to me.
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😦 Just as I thought! WorstPress. Thanks for the reblog. You made my day. 🙂
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well I just wanted to chime in on some of the glitches that have happened with wordpress – and I am just speculating – but I think that sometimes when glitches happen – it is because they are beefing up security and fixing things to keep us protected more – there are so many hackers and sometimes they find ways to get into blogs via comments and other little things – so I try and keep this in mind when we lose follows or when glitches happen… 🙂
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I hope I get notifications when you post, if I don’t could you give me a heads up? Here, or Twitter or E-mail. jblb2628@yahoo.com
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You got it! I promise. 😏
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Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.
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I completely agree and this has been a sore topic for me for a long time. While I am very glad this issue has come to my attention (I was quite ignorant on the topic previously), and we do need real conversations about it pronto – the media is famous for exploitation and cheap clickbait. They misrepresent and oversimplify whenever possible to sell outrage. I’m so fed up with our little rinky dink local stations for covering all negative news stories, like the Nepal disaster – when I already read about it on award-winning sites like Guardian and BBC. We need positive, local stories too. There are film festivals, cultural events, social and economic forums going on right in our back yards but NECN thinks they should cover every shooting, every house fire, drownings, vandalism, and to what end? How does me knowing about ten house fires make people’s lives better? Again, I think police corruption and endemic racism is a HUGE problem that needs to be discussed, the way the media handles these stories is unproductive. Thanks for the great post.
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You are welcome! As always, thanks for chiming in. Good local news make for great stories – provides both encouragement and evidence that there are wellsprings of good work and activism right where we live! Racism – and any ‘ism’ for that matter, unfortunately is both a local and national problem. Its roots run deep and wide, and must be cut off if we are ever to be fully productive. One of the major and most direct ways for addressing these ills is to have the media change the narratives it so desperately feeds off, and capture the stories behind the stories- the local behind the national behind the global. I want ‘those’ stories to one day be worth the round-the-clock coverage too, one day. We’re not there yet, but I’m hopeful. The more we humanize and less we demonize, the better we’ll be.
Thank you loads for your thoughtful takeaway.
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Great piece! And how on earth did you find that video? Quite interesting discussion. James Baldwin was a great thinker. And I love how he chose his words carefully. As a side note, I love what you’ve done with your website. It’s beautiful.
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I knew what I was looking for. 😉 I do a lot of research to do work justice. Seriously. Now the MLK pic, I didn’t expect to find. I only found it after I had finished the piece, which was a real nice bonus…confirmed I was on the right track. Glad you liked it, Michele. Thanks for chiming in. I’m so glad you also like the new look of things around here. (Moving on up!)
P.S. Baldwin was a literary assassin.
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A very moving and thought provoking piece. I like your portrayal of the media as scavengers just looking for their step up on the backs of others’ demise, forgetting that this is their very own brothers and sisters that they are treating so compassionlessly.
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Thanks for your thoughtful reading, Sreejit. They media has, and often does exercise the privilege of standing outside and apart. Always good to see you.
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