Stop being a cool online data point
Its the era of cringe
Being a cool online data point will not matter when you are in a concentration camp. Your nonchalantness to catastrophic events, your love of saying you should of voted for the Black lady, the pseudo intellectual snarky post and comments, stating your identity purity simply won’t matter when the fascists have us working in the fields. So, be cringe online and try to save the world. If it doesn’t work it won’t matter.
Early this week I came up with the idea to pass out water because my a couple of Substack paid sub money hit. I got the other Black guy in my DSA chapter to come along with me. I grabbed him from the trolly station picked up the water and realized I don’t know where to go to hand this out. Should we hit up parks? Maybe hit up random busy streets? Shit was hella cringe. Then it hit me oh wait there were bunch of people at the trolly station, let’s hit that up. It ended going well but it wasn’t smooth luckily my friend was just along for the ride.
So cats out of the bag I don’t know how to practice being a Black revolutionary without absolutely looking cringe. This year has been a series of failures. I typed up an entire article explaining how I wanted this publication to turn into a writer ran publication and was looking for other people to be founders with me. Literally one person replied back and they weren’t even fr about it.
I could go on, there are more things that absolutely have crashed and burned on Substack or elsewhere online this year that has probably looked extremely cringe.
The contradiction in this rant is that everything is going well. I have friends I can hit up to pass out water on short notice. The publication has gained 4 paid subscribers which is enough to buy a few cases of water a month to pass out. The weekly DJ set list after being a bridge for writer block so I can say I posted something that has turned into a mutual aid hub and job board for Black creatives.
The finally paragraph of Klan in the Stan from back in February read “ Malcom X is an ancestor I hold in very high regard. Discovering this bizarre side story to Malcolm X’s life was shocking. However, it was a reminder activism does not mean perfection. He was devoted to giving us a better future. He thought the NOI was devoted to the same cause, but they were not. When he came to that realization he left the group knowing the danger it put him in. He then spent the rest of his short life continuing to fight for us. It is our turn to return the favor and do our best to move progress forward knowing that we don’t have to be perfect in our work, but we have to work.”
My follow up on this thought is that you can’t be a Black revolutionary without being cringe. You have to fail and you have to not quit. Being nonchalant, being a beloved social media figure will only serve the fascists. Fail like Malcolm. Fail like W.E.B Dubois who threw his weight behind a president candidate that once elected showed a movie hyping up the KKK in the White House. Our most beloved ancestors failed at levels you could not imagine. Their greatness was never their ability to get it right the first time.
If you are still on the fence on rather or not you should attempt to do or be a part of something revolutionary; let me leave you with this question. What kind of ancestor do you want to be?
Stay woke,
Loc
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