A lot of folks believe that President Donald Trump and his administration are ushering in dystopian America of sorts — one in which only wealthy white people will be able to survive without needing to fight one another over food...which will presumably only consist of the rodents we’re fortunate enough to catch.
But while many prepare to adjust for this new “normal,” it’ll be business as usual for Black folks...who have lived in a dystopia since the day we were torn from our homeland. That’s why you always hear Black folks say “we gon’ be alright.” Because we’ve lived through worse.
According to the Oxford dictionary, a dystopia is an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice. But when have we not lived in such a state? Was not the separation of children from their parents, brother from sister, the destruction of Black families an example of a life lived in the bitter embrace of injustice?
What about living through chattel slavery? Being told that the divine created us for a life of servitude?
Our ancestors had to fight for everything they received. Freedom, the right to vote, the right to live where we pleased. These were all gained not because they were given, but because they were acquired by those who would not take no for an answer. Those brave Black men and women who dreamed a better future for their children and grandchildren. Who would not rest until the rights they saw others enjoy was theirs.
That is what it means to live in a dystopia. What we have survived is as bad, if not worse, than any author or filmmaker could envision. You may say 1984 by George Orwell is a dystopia, but what about 1719? The year the first slave ship arrived in Louisiana. Perhaps you think Margret Atwood’s “A Handmaid’s Tale” is an unrivaled dystopic vision. I suggest you research the experience of Black women in America.
Or, better yet, just watch “12 Years a Slave” (a dystopian film if ever there were one) and watch how Massa treated Patsy. Or watch Roots and observe how Chicken George came to be.
Living in a dystopia is nothing new to us. We were born in one. Live in one. And yet, we never lost our joy. We created art that white people tried to steal. We created food that was filled with soul. Our dystopic experience never beat us down for we were even able to find love.
So, yes...America is going through a reckoning of its on making. Those who voted thoughtlessly have welcomed a dystopia of their own making. But we know how to survive a dystopia. In fact, we can thrive in spite of living in one.