Lateral Violence

Growing up in the U.S. I have seen and experienced Lateral Violence my whole life. I never could define what was happening or why. I remember an older white man once told me, “you guys and the blacks are saving us the trouble, by killing each other off.”

Now as an adult I have moved to Europe and I see it here again. I think also me being from the United States adds to it. I understand the U.S. has meddled in many countries and killed millions of people. I understand their frustration, and anger. It is just very frustrating to me feeling like any average “MuriKKKan Martin” can walk around with a stupid red hat, and a big U.S.A. flag t-shirt, and not one BIPOC will approach him. Likewise, I see racist skin heads with SS tattoos and no one says a word.

On the other hand, I feel like I am constantly taking abuse. the harassement, countless dirty looks (not including the hundreds of dirty looks I already recieve from the Germans). I have been pushed several times, insulted, denied service, and I will never forget the man who insisted on fighting me, while showing me his bullet wounds.

These experiences make you angry. These experiences can embitter you, and this is also what we have to fight against. I started this project for myself as well. To understand that souls are different. That every group has monsters, and every group has saints and every group has every other category in the middle and there are people capable of change.

Disappointment produces despair
and despair produces bitterness, and the one thing certain about bitterness is its blindness. Bitterness has not the capacity to make the distinction between some and all.

– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.