Your Attention Belongs to You
Heal intergenerational racial trauma through conscious media consumption by Ono Mergen
Hello there, Starchild,
Do you feel overwhelmed by the injustice surfacing all over the place? Seeing Black and Brown and Asian bodies beat up, traumatic images and videos shared posing as “raising awareness”? Thanks to the internet, we have footage to prove what happened, but are they helping or are they just feeding into outrage media? I don’t see the criminals getting persecuted. But the images and videos of the violence persist.
We don’t get to decide if we want to see deeply, painfully traumatic videos of a white boy kicking and assaulting an elderly Asian lady in Brooklyn. That lady could have been my grandmother, my mother, your mother, your grandmother.
We don’t get a break when people send us photos, articles of Black people killed by the police, dying moments included. Our bodies, rights, lives, humanity, dignity violated by white people.
Do you feel overwhelmed by the violence used to lay hidden in the shadows, under the clean surface of eurocentric ideologies and white supremacy?
Do you feel your blood boiling when you see all the injustice that was folded neatly and tucked away? The inequity we endured for generations is bubbling up, but do we get justice? Do we get open hearts and listening ears?
We get denial, aggression, fear. Rage, attacks: We are snowflakes who are looking to get offended. We are dramatic, aggressive; we are overreacting.
Instead of being heard, we get invalidated.
We get suffocated instead of listened to.
Instead of holding space, our friends look at us disbelievingly. “Are you sure what they said was racist?” “What if you misunderstood?” “I have never seen Asian people being treated that way; you must be mistaken.” “Can’t you look at the positive side of things? Why do you always have to bring the negative up?”
As if we had the privilege of not being political, not caring about social issues. We don’t have the option to assume that our privileges will endure because we do not have them.
We get performative allyship, skin-deep understanding and bullshit non-apologies. “ I am sorry if that is what happened.” “I am sorry if you found what I said was offensive.” “I am sorry if you felt that way.”
Explaining ourselves, validating ourselves every step of the way is exhausting. The media today makes it even harder to tune out.
But listen, you do not owe anybody your attention. You do not owe your answer, your opinion to white people asking you how you feel about current affairs. It’s okay to leave them on read. You do not owe anyone emotional labour, further explanation.
It’s okay to take a break from the news, from social media, from chats when you feel overwhelmed. Reclaiming your time and emotions will only make you stronger. It doesn’t mean that you don’t care. It means refusing to overextend yourself for the system.
Love,
Ono
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