“Every Institution We Trust Lies to Us” — Dave Chappelle’s Truth-bombs we all need swallow
If you haven’t seen Dave Chappelle’s latest set then I recommend you watch it first before reading the rest of this article. Chappelle’s 27-minute set starts off with a somber tone — and pretty much remains somber for the entire duration sprinkled with humorous undertones.
However, while this set might not be designed to elicit laughs, it does take you on a dark journey of what-is-happening-now. The current state of “it all”. A perspective that many people desperately need to hear, especially critics of the #BlackLivesMatter protests and public out-lash against systemic police brutality targeting black people in America.
The Journey of Sorrows
Chappelle starts his set talking about George Floyd and continues to what seems to be an endless list of victims at the hands of the police. However, there was one line in particular that really stood out when he was talking about the Christopher Dorner case. This was at the point when 400 cops showed up in Big Bear CA to, as Chappelle put it “Swizz-Cheesed” him. He said;
“…and you know why 400-cops showed up? Because one of their own was murdered. SO HOW THE FUCK CAN’T THEY UNDERSTAND — what’s going on in these streets? We saw ourselves as you see your self” — Dave Chappelle
That was precisely what everybody was feeling when George Floyd was being murdered on camera. Within our brains we have these neurons that imitate neurological behavior when observing other people. It’s the reason why you cry at certain movies or get goosebumps when you see someone performing a heroic act. These are called mirror neurons.
I remember feeling sick to my stomach when I was watching Floyd being murdered. I remember the screaming, the desperation, the panic. I remember seeing the blood spill from his nose as the blood pressure in his head built-up due to the constriction in the back of his neck. As I write this — I see it playing out in my head and in the pit of my stomach the same feelings stir as if I am watching it all over again.
I’m not even an American and I could empathize with what was happening to Floyd & to the rest of Black America. And not just black America but every single person who have ever been afflicted by violent injustices of an oppressive system targeting them for whatever shallow justification the oppressors can come up with.
Wake Up and Smell the Carnage
People choose to live sheltered lives because when you see the system for it truly is — and always has been — it can be terrifying for some. When people realize that those who are supposed to “protect them” or “be the ones of reason” are more often than not the ones “stealing, raping and murdering”.
Just take a look at the presidential elections — two 70+ White millionaires pretending to be on polar-opposites when in fact both receive money from Police Unions and support the acts that led to the murder of George Floyd.
Then — you go back and take a closer look at the history books and realize that one of the very FIRST FUNCTIONS of the Police in the United States was to literally “catch slaves”.
As Chappelle mentioned — that wasn’t too long ago. In fact, I am a firm believer that slavery never ended — it was simple transformed.
Once it became unpopular to legally “own” people due to the Civil War — the oppressors or slave-owners needed to create a system that could circumvent this technicality so they could continue exploiting manual labor at virtually zero cost.
In fact was written as such in the Constitution;
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
Yes — turns out that the South didn’t technically “lose” either. They simply “amended slavery” and then diverted their funds to building prisons. Today Prisons is BIG BUSINESS!
That’s because politicians — who are bought out by these “owners” leverage laws that enable the police to become more effective in tracking down and stopping criminal behavior.
However — what constitutes criminal behavior then becomes the issue. And to give us an idea on how these slave-owners managed to pull it off we take a look at something Lincoln said,
“…prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes.”
Maybe stuff like selling loose cigarettes could be one of those non-crimes? Or smoking a joint, or doing any kind of drug? Cutting hair without a permit? Think about all the non-crime laws keeping you restricted — a good little citizen?
In fact — The War on Drugs is essentially a blanket policy to enforce slave laws not only in America — but the rest of the world as well.
“Tough on Crime” and “Tough on Drugs” are all justifications politicians use to pacify the masses while receiving fat checks from shareholders in these Mega-Prisons, or Police Unions, or Weapons Manufacturers, or Drug Companies, and so on.
Hell, Nixon essentially started the War on Drugs to stop anti-war protests and crack down on civil rights protestors after the assassination of Martin Luther King.
During the 1980s — the Reagan administration inflated the War on Drugs with their “Crack epidemic” which lasted all the way up to the 1990s when a young Senator by the name of Joe Biden wrote his 1994 Crime Bill in response to the “violent crime associated with the crack epidemic”
Biden reveled in the politics of the 1994 law, bragging after it passed that “the liberal wing of the Democratic Party” was now for “60 new death penalties,” “70 enhanced penalties,” “100,000 cops,” and “125,000 new state prison cells.” — VOX
But the crime bill was nothing compared to his Drug Bills — which gave cops super powers in “fighting the scourge that is drugs!”
Not a few “bad apples”
I took you on this journey to show you that no — it’s not a “Few Bad Apples” but a system of oppression that has changed many hats throughout history and continues to target minorities & the poor — who are often one in the same.
If you want change — and I mean real change — we have to approach this problem completely differently. Instead of spending half of the US budget on war and war machinery — to then later sell it to the police who then later use it on civilians — why not invest in the poorest and most affected neighborhoods?
Why not plant community gardens and invest in empowering the local communities? Providing better healthcare, better education and more opportunities of employment?
The only reason why these alternative and more effective solutions NEVER happen is because irrespective of whether you choose left or right — it’s always been two sides of the same coin. The illusion of choice may have kept people passive for a long time — but the spell is wearing off and the streets are raising their voices.
Can you hear them roar? Can you hear their collective hearts beat as one? Break down these institutions & policies that have never deserved your trust or respect. Let’s build a future where the color of one’s skin is truly irrelevant and only the merit of their characters matter. That’s not too much to ask for and there is no reason why it can’t be so.
