Harm Reduction

First things first: the phrase “harm reduction” is so funny cause of how it’s used and by who. I promise this isn’t gonna be a long drawn out post about how much I hate the Democrats and “liberals” and “leftists” and people who champion terms like POC who just learned to call us Black people and not Blacks (who also like grouping us in whenever it’s convenient and using us as a metric of support for other movements, but that’s an article I’ll let someone else write). What this is gonna be is a look at how we can actually achieve a world of reduced suffering and harm and ultimately premature deaths of unfulfilled lives who never had a chance in the first place.

It’s maddening the predicament we find ourselves in, truly. The grandfathered in oppression is overflowing like no measure of volume I’ve ever analyzed. I don’t even wanna localize this to Black people, just all oppressed people under global white supremacist (racial) capitalism. Individuals of all shades feel utterly depressed and helpless to our current situation. Though we know it’s hitting Black people hardest, and that will always be my focus, our liberation is predicated on everyone being free. The fact is that change will never come until the most downtrodden of humanity is cared for.

But what does that constitute? I mean those of us who “do the reading”, or more accurately read the right shit, can only read so much before we choose to act if and when it’s appropriate to mobilize. But I’m finding all the reading in the world don’t mean shit if only a subset of our communities understand what exactly we are fighting for.

Honestly, I believe we have a different battle before we take to the streets ever again. It’s the fight for reality. We have to win the war on our minds, bodies and souls. We need a shared reality. But reality constitutes a generally shared agreement of perception. And most of our perceptions have been skewed by programs primarily of the patriarchal and bigoted type. That is unless you were blessed to grow up in a pro-Black household. And we all know that’s not been the de-facto upbringing, though some Black people will default to their simply being Black as evidence as such.

So how do we get there? Well we need to acknowledge the shared reality there has been a great deal of harm done to us and then perpetuated by us by not contending with the issues we face in a real way. Why? This is due to the gospel of silence brought on by unwarranted shame.

It’s an unwarranted shame I gotta re-iterate again; I am the descendant of an enslaved people who were brought here against their will and made to be less than human not only in general practice, but codified into the law of the land as if it were provisions made about livestock (never to be fully amended). And regardless of these facts we still attempt to integrate into the system as is. Regardless of the work our ancestors have made to put the fire out, the house is still ablaze. Almost burnt to the ground even.

Instead, by and large we have chosen to lean in, not just survive capitalism’s evils. I’mma tell y’all like I told the realest nigga I know the other day. “That seat at the table start looking rather disgusting when you realize it’s Black people on the menu.” I know it’s tough to contend with where you fit in all of this. I struggle too, you ain’t alone. But what I do know is if given the opportunity I would not act in a gross opportunistic way such as to step on others to get ahead. Let that be a general rule of thumb.

But of course it’s deeper than how you make your money in this system that says if you’re not able to work you deserve to die. We gotta speak up against sexual abuse way louder and be less afraid about it. Silence is the vehicle for the continuation of that 6 out of 10 Black girls getting assaulted by a family member or friend to the family statistic. It’s why these rape culture oriented Greek institutions these frats and sororities have modeled themselves after have anonymous threads every few months on who’s got the worst gang rapists. I’m placing less of the onus on the sororities here, but what I really wish to impart is I expect Black men who are adjacent to abusers to not be afraid to be ousted from their communities for taking a stance and calling them out by name. Even if you fear they will call you out on some inappropriate behaviors. Let the shots fly. There are varying degrees to sexual abuse and we should handle accountability on a scalable level based on restorative measures set out by the victims of assaults and their support systems. But the fact at hand remains the conversations need to happen way more often than they do and more honestly than they do. This is evidenced by the horrible takes surrounding the latest abusers T.I. & Tiny and the silence around Nicki Minaj devilishly supporting Kenneth Petty (who also bankrolled her pedophile brother’s lawyer fees for raping his then stepdaughter who’s younger brother happened to witness and testified to).

Women are on the run and in fear of their lives from the power and influence certain Black people have accumulated. They have fully bought into white supremacy’s ultimate function: getting away with whatever the fuck you want. And acting like you’re a family person and upstanding citizen while simultaneously being tied to your roots as an oppressed Black person in America. A deep perversion of the American Dream and Black resiliency being used to sanitize the dark reality it’s at the expense of Black people being cannibalized by this system at large. Need another example? Ok, fine. Jay Z, Diddy and all the rest of those Black billionaires pulling all kinds of strings to clean up the serial rapist Russell Simmon’s image.

So, I demand you stop glorifying the likes of these people when they have to kowtow to their white masters at some point down the line because they lack the infrastructure to operate the same within the sphere of “business” (see: TIDAL being sold to Square). These niggas bought and paid for. You really tryna be a house nigga only with Cartier frames and a Benz? I didn’t think so. So stop drinking the Kool-Aid and realize we gotta champion new systems where success don’t look like exploitation and dehumanization. You know where I’m headed with this: Socialism and Communism. I’m talking free shit and not having to live a life in fear cause we have connected neighborhoods and nobody is less than the next man, woman, gender non-conforming individual or child. We can create something resembling a meritocracy of the best ideas where we take care of those who cannot take care of themselves. If it’s fathomable, it’s realizable.

That means no more screen pressed T-shirt companies just cause and way less beautification industries. We need to be commodity makers in the new world. Meaning I want you to be able to source fabrics to make a clothing line, not buy the clothes and put a brand on it. I personally want to make phones and shit and pay people living wages to put them together in America. Shit like that. If you aren’t commodity minded you really shouldn’t be in such a rush to “start a business” or convert a hobby you’re good at to something you profit from. Some people just don’t have the acumen. AND THAT’S OK. We don’t need a bazillion versions of the same shit that pushes us to consume way more than we are producing for the planet. Doesn’t really matter what it is. Capitalism has turned the greed meter up to 11. This is compounded by a false sense of scarcity. There are enough resources. We can all work on each other’s best ideas. There can be great innovation if there was healthier competition of products and services we offer at reasonable pricing with better quality. If only we choose not to keep making flimsy shit. Lot’s of us start businesses with the intent to get rich enough to exist at a higher comfort level in this system and will then abandon the teams and work done as soon as it doesn’t suit them. So long as you good, it’s all good, or “I got mine, you get yours.” as the saying goes.

Of course that all seems fanciful to anyone who’ll tell me “this is the world we’re in, get used to it”, but that's the thing, I can’t. I refuse to let things get worst without identifying the issue and trying to solve it to the best of my abilities. We can choose to do this collectively though. There don’t have to be subsets of us who feel that shit like the gospel and those of us who are committed to survival vs. thriving. It’s quite the fucking undertaking if I do say so myself. And it’s all quite complicated once you get to the nitty gritty of a lot of shit. But nothing worth having comes easy. For damn sure not collective freedom, where harm is minimal.

So where do we start in real terms? Where does the battle begin again? Well maybe we should reframe this… We are not ready to fight. There are Black people who are integral to our collective freedoms who choose to stab us in the back and keep the knife there and act like nothing is wrong, just like the white people they so desperately desire to be. Some are just ignorant and haven’t been exposed to the right people or education. And it’s up to those people, just like it’s up to white people, to have a come to Liberation moment where they realize there has to be a better way and all that “social justice warrior talk” may just be the first place they should look… once they take the knife out our backs of course. Then maybe we can heal. And then once we’re healed, we can truly organize. And then once we’re organized we can take the fight to the white supremacists. Even if some of those people are Black.

The best harm reduction is harm prevention.