Introduction to Black Lives Matter
Early in her novel Washington Black, Esi Edugyan describes the barbaric acts the white master perpetrates against his enslaved workers. He orders limbs severed, tongues pulled out, blacks burned alive or decapitated - this in order to coerce the loyalty of the remaining slaves. Edugyan says she did not invent any of the “punishments” that appear in the book. Indeed, she found it difficult to believe human beings could conjure so perverse an array of cruelties. When she was doing research, she says, she often put the book down and went out for a walk to erase grotesque images from her mind.
Slavery is largely the story of white brutality against the black body – a legacy of violence that survived Reconstruction, Jim Crow and Civil Rights and lives on in the racist violence of contemporary police forces. Which brings me to the murder of George Floyd. His life squeezed out in slow motion right before our eyes, turning us into helpless witnesses after the fact. And Chauvin, the murderer, posing for the camera like some great white hunter. How utterly I despise him.
We have been here before George Floyd, countless times; and incredibly we have been here since: More than a dozen black and indigenous people have been killed by police in North America since Floyd’s death a month ago.
What now? Police forces, as we know them, must be eliminated. Let them fight crime where it’s out there and let social workers, nurses, addiction counsellors and community programs take care of the rest. Defunding the police might actually prove easier than fully integrating newspapers, publishing, banking or even education. Canada’s white establishment is nothing if not tenacious: It will simply sit tight and wait for the storm to pass. If and when the public protests cease, we must find ways to keep the pressure on.
In gratitude for the leadership and courage of Black Lives Matter, and in honor of George Floyd and the thousands upon thousands of men and women who have lost their lives to police violence, I have put together a small series. Lorna Goodison, recipient of this year’s Queen’s Medal for Poetry, shares a moving poem about Sandra Bland who was brutally arrested in 2015 after a minor traffic incident and later found hanging in her cell. Poets Kwame Dawes and John Kinsella share their heart-wrenching exchange about race in our times. I am excited to post my in-depth, two- part interview with Jeffrey Colvin, author of Africville. Colvin, who grew up in Alabama in the 1960s reveals how a history of segregation and racist police violence has influenced his writing. I am also including my profile of extraordinary Dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, who I visited at his home in London in 2015. I hope these pieces soothe you and uplift you.
Sincerely,
Donna
