Black lives matter. Period.
I have done little with painting — just a dozen of oils. One of my favorites is the portrait of a black girl. Take a look while I talk about human rights in the 21st century and hope.
After the brutal killing of George Floyd, a lot has happened in the USA and in the world. During the protests, we have seen more and more confirmation of Police violence. In the following thread, Greg Doucette reports more than 400 episodes:
Is the situation going to change? I don’t know. I hope so, but politicians are very good at talking about change while also doing very little to reform the system.
In San Francisco, where I live, the major seems to go in the right direction, but one thing is to announce a change, one thing is to implement it. I will believe it when I see it.
I am Italian, and my father was a cop. There, Police can use guns only if there are particular conditions, and if the decision of using a weapon is proportionate to the case. In other words, if nobody shows up with a gun shooting someone, cops cannot shoot; if they do, they will be charged.
When I moved to the USA, I was shocked by discovering that Police can kill unarmed people without being even fired. Honestly, I was not surprised that black people were disproportionally hit because I use my eyes. I see how the city is. There were only a couple of black engineers at Yahoo in the San Francisco office in a few hundred. And I see the bars. In some, inside, you find only whites and Asians, in others only Hispanic, in other only blacks. I would call it segregation.
Socially, I loved Oakland because, as a black city, a generous one, was much more inclusive than San Francisco. I remember that in Room 389, there was always a great melting pot of races. But, even there, things were changing. My favorite coffee shop — Coffe With a Beat — , a fantastic place managed by an old black man, was forced to close because of a crazy rise in renting. Even from a business point-of-view, it didn’t make sense because, still now, after four years, the space is empty.
Where are we going? I don’t know. The Supreme Court just refused to discuss the abolishment of qualified immunity.
I think that a lot more has to change. I was tweeting about this a few days ago:
Instead, I am afraid that the change will be small. More killing will be allowed, more protests will happen, and, sooner or later, if still nothing really changes, the protests will become violent. If so, the powers will use it to reverse everything good has been done in the meantime.
Am I too pessimistic? I hope I am.
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Originally, it has been published at https://room29.art/black-lives-matter/ on June 15th, 2020.
