We need to watch
our language. The debacle at the Montgomery
Pier, where enslaved people were once
offloaded and sold, is described as a “brawl.”
The dictionary says a “brawl” is a “fight or
quarrel in a rough and noisy way.” The
Saturday, August 5 attack on a Black dock
worker who attempted to do his job should be
described as a vicious and racist attack, not
a brawl. To be sure, thanks to the vigilant
Black people who defended a conscientious
worker, an attack descended into a brawl, but
let’s not make it a mutual thing. According to
the video I saw, three white men attacked a
Black man, and others attempted to defend him,
with one swimming across the water to protect
him.
Language is
essential, especially in a racial context. The
massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921 was
described as a “riot.” But Black folks weren’t
rioting. They were trying to live.
Economically envious white people attacked
Black people and property on a ruse. Even
today, though, the events of Tulsa are
described as a “riot” without attributing the
genesis of the violence to white people.
Indeed, thousands lost their homes and were
incarcerated in a so-called “riot” that was
nothing more than white people hating the
reality of Black wealth.
So when at least
three probably drunken white men attack a
Black man, don’t call it a brawl. Call it what
it is. A manifestation of antiblackness. An
attack on a man just trying to do his job. A
justified defense of others who loathed how a
senior man was kicked and stomped by
unrestrained idiots. An attack, and then
perhaps a brawl.
Language is
important. I am exhausted, for example, from
hearing people talk about “white supremacy.”
There is no white supremacy. If the Montgomery
debacle is any example, there is white
unrestrained drunken inferiority. Whenever we
say “white supremacy,” we promote the myth of
white delusions. Structurally, a system has
been developed to advance whiteness and its
twisted attempts at supremacy. Every time we
use the term “white supremacy,” we reinforce
the myth. Can we call it white delusions,
white myopia, or white ignorance? Every day I
breathe air, I am reminded that there is
nothing supreme about white people except the
legal structures they use to prop up their
predatory capitalistic tendencies.
Black supremacy is such that a Black man, Nathaniel
Alexander, invented the folding chair used as
a defense instrument at the Montgomery Wharf.
Black supremacy is such that we are still
here, despite the Caucasity and the ignorance
of some white men who so resented a Black man
in authority that they chose to attack him.
Black supremacy is such that, in the words of
Dr. Maya Angelou, “Still we rise.” But Black
folks aren’t asking for supremacy (although we
exhibit it daily); we are simply demanding equality.
All he was trying
to do was his job. White delusionists seem to
strongly object to a Black man instructing
them to move their boat. There was no
supremacy in their attack on an unarmed black
man, and they should be prosecuted to the
fullest extent of the law. Jail time is a mild
penalty for their absurd behavior.
The African
Americans who attempted to defend the dock
worker and boat co-pilot are to be commended,
and the community is to be commended for its
spirit of “no more.” No more will people stand
by and allow a Black man to be attacked by
white thugs. No more will people stand silent
and accept white delusionalism. Enough.
Watching the
Montgomery madness brought me to tears because
it reminded me of the many times Black women
have swallowed white insults and, careful for
their survival, refused to say anything.
They took it
because they had no choice in the 1950s and
early 60s. We have a choice now. There was no
brawl; it was madness precipitated by an
unwarranted attack. When referenced, this
incident should be a response to an attack,
not an equal brawl suggesting both sides had a
grievance. A man was attacked. His community
fought back. Enough.
