“If the youth are not initiated into the village they will burn it down just to feel its warmth.”
—African Proverb
“There is no individual or group leading this. It’s the youth organically leading this effort”
—Unicorn Riot
These youth were born tired y’all. That’s what happens when 400 years of oppression in your blood rises to the surface.
These are the kids who grew up with police killings/brutality and school shootings every week.
This trauma is their normal.
Paste people will post about how wrong rioting is and then turn this up on the classic rock station on their lunch break and sing every word:
This was my generation. I was 8.
I remember knowing that they weren’t wrong despite a very conservative white culture I was surrounded with saying otherwise. I knew the anger was coming from somewhere much deeper than this isolated incident.
You wanna let it burn or not?
These kids … most weren’t even born yet … are way farther advanced than us in their understandings.
You don’t have to understand but are you listening?
Because they are telling us how much WE have hurt them.
So WE need to either fix this shit or make sure they’ve got enough gasoline and matches to burn it all the way to the ground.
—andru defeye
Flommist Andru Defeye is the Guerrilla Poet Laureate of Sacramento. Copyright © 2020 Andru Defeye.
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