Anonymous asked: I can't get over point b, I feel like a monster
part of the violence of this society is that only those who are uncritical of it get to engage wholeheartedly in public displays of grief and joy
part of the violence of this society is that there are those who do not have to be aware of the vast disparities between whose deaths are grievable and whose are not, and these people don’t have to be constantly second-guessing their responses — don’t have to be grieving deaths that others think are deserved, or alienated by public grief for conspicously acceptable victims
it makes you feel like a terrible person just for perceiving certain structural violence; like you are the one at fault
having said that, there is a time and a place for everything — I will be pretty unimpressed if someone minimises this horrific tragedy and uses it to build a soapbox to talk about, say, the lack of attention given to Indigenous deaths in custody, just as I was revolted by this guy on facebook talking about “one woman in brunswick is raped and murdered and everybody is all over it, but what about the murder of millions of foetuses every year??”. it’s a matter of basic respect.
but you’re absolutely not a monster for feeling alienated from this public display of grief
