A Mandate Beyond Violence
Image Description
An African person in the street holding a sign that says "COLONIALISM IS INDIGENOUS GENOCIDE". Behind them are other people protesting and a partial sign can be seen that says "...IS A HUMAN RIGHT"
Content Warning: mentions of violence, medical negligence, poverty, human trafficking and slavery.
Pain upon pain
Pain beyond political pandering
Pain beyond posturing
Pain beyond performative activism
The pain of a plantation
The pain of a prison
The pain of poverty
The pain of people kidnapped
The pain of a perpetual occupying colonial force
Pain
The sum of bloodthirsty violence and the mandate to enact it.
The mandate to enact the violence is on our lips, it's in the scientific papers, it's brainstormed by award winning marketing teams, it's embedded in the curriculum, it's the foundation of the nuclear family, it's assigned at birth, it's for your safety and security, it's on the ballot, it's the blueprint for your house, it's the final diagram by the city planner, it's your doctors first guess.
And it's so simple.
So easily evil
It's the suspicion
That you might be "worth-less"
And that is the mandate
And once that suspicion hardens into belief
Unbelievable violence will be justified
Violence upon violence
Violence via politicians
Violence via police
Violence via concerned tax paying citizens
The excruciating violence of the plantation
The excruciating violence of the prison
The excruciating violence of poverty
The excruciating violence of human trafficking
The excruciating violence of settler colonialism
The excruciating violence of the authoritarian state
Hierarchy is not inherent.
Violence is not inevitable
Domination is not our destiny
From the Niger Delta to Ayiti
From Gaza to Maui
From Brazil to the DRC
From Sudan to Belize
From Mali to Papa New Guinea
From Cameroon to Mozambique
From the river to the sea
Palestine will be free
Indigenous people around the world
Will be
Indigenous people existing
Safe and free
Indigenous people existing
Safe and free
Let it be.