By Thet-Htar Thet
I’m only able to organize remotely at this moment. And staring and coordinating through the screen and facebook for so long, it would be very easy for me to forget the human side of all of this. But there is something tenderly human about the ways in which people are organizing, finding, and holding on to community in the Twin Cities under siege, the cities at war, the cities in a pandemic.
We had a total loss of humanity this week–George Floyd lost his life, and not one, but two cities are crushed under the weight of its grief. But the narrative of everlasting grief will not be the same. We have resources that our forebears could only imagine–an online community with thousands of silent watchers and observers keeping vigil, commentators who can quickly be dispatched to send supplies and transport protesters to safety, organizers whose voice and thoughts can be amplified. And it was during one of those human moments that I realized the momentum that could be accomplished–at no point did anyone in this organizing space question why we were doing what we were doing. Why we were sending medical supplies to drop off stations. Why we were keeping watch and updating. Why we needed people on the ground as transport and shields. There was no question why it had to be done. And there shouldn’t be a question of why we are on this path to justice for George.
Division, distraction and diversion will continue to be tactics used against us, but I have hope that we will not let that dissuade us. Because our communities–our Black, our indigenous, our people of color communities–understand more than most the idea of putting others before ourselves. Community is part of our bloodline, our legacy, our power. For today and the rest of our days, this community needs to uplift Black lives and honor them. We need to do it. We can do it. Of that I have no doubt.
Thet-Htar Thet (she/her/hers) is a writer, organizer and consultant from Yangon, Myanmar. She carved a home in the Twin Cities where she engaged in the writing, education and activist communities.