{"id":904,"date":"2020-04-26T17:00:20","date_gmt":"2020-04-26T17:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edblogs.pugetsound.edu\/the-public\/?p=904"},"modified":"2020-04-26T17:00:20","modified_gmt":"2020-04-26T17:00:20","slug":"bounce-rock-skate-roll-on-the-gift-of-covid-19-for-afam-graduating-seniors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/africanamericanstudies\/2020\/04\/26\/bounce-rock-skate-roll-on-the-gift-of-covid-19-for-afam-graduating-seniors\/","title":{"rendered":"Bounce Rock Skate Roll: On the Gift of Covid-19 for AF AM Graduating Seniors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t\n

Written by: Prof. Renee Simms<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What a beautiful time\nto be living and engaging antiracism work. You already know this. That\u2019s why\nyou majored and minored in African American Studies. That\u2019s why you\u2019ve spent\nthe last four years reading difficult critical texts, writing papers, doing research.\nIf your family questioned your decision to study AF AM before March 2020, they\nhave been forced during the coronavirus crisis to confront injustices that are\nfoundational to our discipline, its literature and praxis. The pandemic has\nrevealed disparities in access and privilege across systems of health, housing,\nemployment, incarceration, farming, politics, and education. For example, as of\nApril 9, 100% of the Covid-19 deaths in St Louis were of African Americans[1]<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This virus has\nlifted a veil and this clarity is its gift to graduates like you. Unlike previous\ngraduating seniors, you won\u2019t hear empty platitudes that your anxiety about the\nfuture is \u201cnormal\u201d and \u201cit will all work out in the end.\u201d No one will pretend\nthat structures undergirding our society always work. No one will argue when\nyou say black communities are at risk and treated as if they\u2019re expendable. No one\nwill tell you with a straight face that security or stability are features of adult\nlife.  Instead, you are graduating and walking\nout into the world with your eyes wide open. Better yet, you are armed with\ncritical cultural knowledge that explains the current cruelties and collapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this is true as well: There is still a lot of beauty during this pandemic. Have you noticed how many newborn babies there are? Just look around. And spring arrived this year, showing off as usual with her bright blooms. The wonderful details of being human remain. We still appreciate the scent of flowers, still laugh and dance. We will continue to fall in love, experience joy, suffer through sorrow. We are human. And while we acknowledge the distinction between \u201chumanity\u201d and \u201cblackness\u201d made by Afro-Pessimists, African American Studies also teaches that we have a responsibility to create a society that reflects and supports all humanity. Sometimes we understand this responsibility without directly experiencing or witnessing injustice. But sometimes it helps to have this experience. As our scholarship instructs, there is no imagining future liberation, nor creation of blues or jazz, without remaining in the hold of a slave ship[2]<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having\nexperienced society before Covid-19, you stand at a critical juncture that provides\nimportant perspective. You will be able to explain how society operated before\nthe virus and what came afterwards. You will be able to describe the nature of\nthis pivot and whether it was just.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The easiest way to\nexplain what I\u2019m trying to say is through metaphor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n