{"id":108939,"date":"2020-06-10T09:00:23","date_gmt":"2020-06-10T09:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpstaging.afromagazine.eu\/aminata-cairo-amsterdam-zuidoost-june-10-2020\/"},"modified":"2020-06-10T09:00:23","modified_gmt":"2020-06-10T09:00:23","slug":"aminata-cairo-amsterdam-zuidoost-june-10-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afromagazine.nl\/en\/aminata-cairo-amsterdam-zuidoost-june-10-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Aminata Cairo | Amsterdam Zuidoost | June 10, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/div>
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We need everybody, we need your energy, we need your fire, your passion, your love and your compassion\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Wi kon wi kon dya<\/strong><\/p>\n

We come together right here right now<\/strong><\/p>\n

We come together right here, right now.\u00a0That is important.\u00a0Not only do we come together here in Amsterdam, but all over the world people are here and are coming together, and we know why.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I told my 16 year old black American son a black man has been killed by the police, he said \u201cWhat else is new?\u201d.\u00a0When I told my 21 year old black American son people are protesting, he asked me \u201cWhat is different this time?\u201d\u00a0You see, we used to live 20 minutes from Ferguson when Michael Brown was murdered, so unfortunately for my children this is nothing new.\u00a0So when we are talking not just about police brutality but about racism and what it does, this is nothing new.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I am glad that people are standing up all over the world, that we have new people.\u00a0For some people this is new.\u00a0And I don\u2019t care if you joined up last week, 5 hours ago, or 5 minutes ago.\u00a0I am glad you are here because it is time. A lot of things are being said and I know we are anxious and I feel the pain too.\u00a0And we feel the anger and we feel the rage and all that is okay.\u00a0We know what is out there, that is nothing new.\u00a0We deal with it at our jobs, in our education, in our health care system.\u00a0It is nothing new.\u00a0So like my son asked, what is going to be different this time?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Do not underestimate how hard this work is.\u00a0If you want to judge, sometimes you have to be loud, sometimes you have to be quiet.\u00a0We all come to this whenever we are ready in whatever way, when we are ready.\u00a0But do not underestimate how hard this work is.\u00a0Because this work has been going on for hundreds of years.\u00a0We are just the extension of those that came before us and those that came before us, and those that laid down their lives for us.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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You are here and that means something.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So what does this work ask of us, because this work is hard. What this asks of us, is that when you come to the table to do this work, that you bring all of yourself, and that\u2019s the challenge.\u00a0This thing has been going on for 400 years.\u00a0And it is not just about what is going on out there, but about what it has been doing to us.\u00a0Because racism is so insidious. We have been ingesting this racism and it is in our pores and it is in our being and it is normalized.\u00a0So we don\u2019t question when somebody puts us down.\u00a0We don\u2019t question when our stories are not heard.\u00a0We don\u2019t question when we are marginalized, because it is normalized.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And so the challenge is, we come with our rage, we come with our pain.\u00a0The challenge is we all need a detox. In America we say \u201cWe all drank the cool-aid\u201d, which is a horrible reference I\u2019ll tell you about some other time.\u00a0Toni Morrison said racism is a distraction.\u00a0Somebody else said it is not a distraction, it is systematic.\u00a0But I am telling you racism is tiresome.\u00a0Racism drains your life energy, racism drains your humanity from you.\u00a0And so that is the fight.\u00a0When we show up to do this fight, how can we do this with the fullness of our humanity?\u00a0Racism is tricky and you don\u2019t notice it, and we look at each other like \u201cwell, that one is a little bit dark, or that one is a little bit lighter\u201d.\u00a0Because it is in us, that\u2019s how tricky it is.\u00a0So we have to work and detox that nonsense that is so stuck within us, so that when we show up ready to fight we can bring all of us in our full humanity.\u00a0That\u2019s what it takes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And you cannot show up to fight and demand justice if you don\u2019t believe in it for yourself.\u00a0You have to understand your value and that you matter.\u00a0So I want you to look to your left and look to your right.\u00a0I want you to tell your neighbor \u201cI see you, I will listen to you, I feel you.\u201d\u00a0Because that\u2018s what it takes.\u00a0And it is a good thing that we are here on the earth.\u00a0I want you to bend your legs.\u00a0You are standing on Mother Earth because you have to understand that you stand on the shoulders of, of the shoulders of, of the shoulders of.\u00a0You stand on the work of, of the work of, of the work of.\u00a0This is not about you, this is about ALL OF US!\u00a0And this is about those that came before us.\u00a0So when we do this work, when we do this cleansing, when we make this change, it is also in honor of those that laid their lives before us.\u00a0That is what we came here to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And next time we go around and we look at our beautiful black children I want you to see the brilliance in them.\u00a0I don\u2019t want you to go around saying I wonder what this one is going to be.\u00a0This one is brilliant, that one is brilliant, you are brilliant.\u00a0We have to hold these children up.\u00a0When we go into their schools, when we see them in the streets, when we see them playing sports.\u00a0You are brilliant and I will hold you up.\u00a0And if you need to lean on me you can lean on me because that\u2019s what it takes.\u00a0So again, if you showed up\u00a0last week, if you showed up 10 years ago, if you showed up 5 minutes ago, we need you.\u00a0We need everybody, we need your energy, we need your fire, your passion, your love and your compassion.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aminata Cairo: We come together right here, right now. That is important. Not only do we come together here in Amsterdam, but all over the world people are here and are coming together, and we know why.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":108940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[2583],"class_list":{"0":"post-108939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-opinie"},"authors":[{"term_id":2583,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"mermar","display_name":"mermar","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b97554d899a7ce8df2bc286c2f73beda56ebbc97d5d9ced74f7a04498e0fb0d3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108939"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=108939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}