Agents of Feeling, Not Agent Orange:

Confronting the Empathy Crisis in Trump’s America

By Royal Star Allah

Peace. Welcome to Day 79 of the Second Trump Administration.

The following message is to those who can FEEL. I will profile you and state that you are (most likely) a part of those generations which grew up under integration. That means, Gen X and forward. If part of your childhood was under segregation and you saw all the pain that being forced to integrate caused your parents and Elders, then, this message is not for you.

Dear Fellow Human Being, yes, what you are feeling right now is what we call "confusion." It does not make sense, like a Black psychologist named James P. Comer stated in 1970, that the "white people" around you can read the same news headlines that you are reading, yet, not have the same emotional reaction that you are having.

Slowly, the idea that MAGAhats do not possess the capacity for "empathy" towards the suffering of Black, Brown and Indigenous people is entering the national conversation. I can imagine how it is an absolutely terrifying "idea" that you might be "mistaken" as a "white supremacist" because millions of Black, Brown and Indigenous people do not believe you FEEL anything negative when seeing the impact of Mr. Trump's public policy flowing off the hands of the remaining federal employees.

Individualism is a lie. You are now caught up in the group dynamic. Because individualism is the only "culture" that you truly know, it is going to generate tremendous confusion when Black, Brown and Indigenous people begin treating you as if you are "white" and not your "individual personality." For the first time, you might actually feel that "they" are "scared" of you. Or, worse, you will actually see that they have treated you like a "white person" all of the days of your life and ALL THIS TIME you imagined you were being treated as a "human being."

Thanks to colonialism, all of the words that you use are ANCHORED in an alternative worldview/experience. Just like you watch how MAGA can "re-define" words, like "woke" or "multiculturalism," as an attack upon their very identity, please entertain the idea that all of your own reference points for "trauma," "kindness" or "good" are just as affected as you see MAGA.

From what I can observe, it is this element of white supremacy culture which frustrates those white bodied persons who go on their healing journeys. Where can they find places (emotional spaces) where Black, Brown and Indigenous people CAN treat them as human beings, instead of as "white people?"

White racial violence is in effect at all times. European Americans are permitted to believe that their behavior is not contributing to (and benefiting from) a racial caste system. Black, Brown and Indigenous people have to discuss all topics AS IF race is not a factor (and how white bodied people respond to race is not a factor.) For European Americans, when they discuss public policy, they discuss it as if the United States is not an "empire." When the rest of the world calls "us" Babylon, millions of MAGA cry out in "misinformation" and "propaganda." (Whatever those words mean in the Oppressor class.) As Dr. Robin DiAngelo taught us, ANY AMOUNT of racial stress experienced by the white body is, to the white body, grounds for usage of "racism" to force the Black, Brown and Indigenous person who is questioning the white body's capacity to be "objective" under an open white supremacy to respect the white body's "logic." (Again, whatever those words mean in the Oppressor Class.)

Those choosing to go on their healing journeys NEVER know if they are making "progress" the way that we measure "progress" - using the white supremacy cultural traits of "individualism" and "right to comfort." The question is always on the table of their mind: "Is consent happening or are they managing my right to comfort? But, wait, isn't it human to want comfort? Am I supposed to feel uncomfortable all of the time when I interact with Black people? Do they get all of the power in the exchange? I mean, interaction? Is this fair? Am I - Am I supposed to just let them 'win' all of the time? Are those smiles real? Is this laughter real? Do they really agree with me? I feel shitty right now? I don't want to be here or do this? What is wrong with me? Am I overthinking this?"

If you have made it this far, thank you for FEELING something.

Hear that. On the table, 79 days into an open white supremacy, we, the People, are looking for those who can FEEL. Otherwise, you might as well be looking in the mirror as you read the comments of a white woman complaining that the political protest she attended was not entertaining enough. (She was literally broadcasting her thoughts from Earth 2 of the Marvel Universe. We live on Earth 616 in the Marvel Universe by the way. Well, those of us who can FEEL live on Earth 616.)

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