Phenomenal Essay from Lyla June

Phenomenal Essay from Lyla June

“America is possibly the most primitive society on earth, not just on the planet, but throughout time. You see, just because I got an Apple watch on the wrist, does not mean I am advanced, when nearly all the rivers in my land are undrinkable, when my children are raised in homes made of carcinogenic materials, when the efficiency of my energy grid is less than 50%, when the vast majority of my society suffers from moderate to severe mental illness, and when the souls of my people are starving for any semblance of self-love.

Conversely, newer does not always mean better, and older does not always mean undesirable, contrary to what the tech industry would have us believe. Many ancient societies were further ahead of America, both in terms of social functionality and, yes, in terms of science and technology.

For instance, this culture depends on monocrop agriculture, while clear cutting forests carefully crafted by indigenous cultures for thousands of years - indicating a severe lack of understanding of genetics and of biodiversity as the foundation of thriving life. Indigenous food scientists of the Andes have successfully and famously generated over 200 potato varieties that thrive in all types of climate patterns and weather systems.

Their observation of the stars, the vegetation, the weather patterns, make them some of the most advanced and effective agriculturalists in the planet. Oh, but that's not possible, right? Because they are just stupid Indians right? So stupid that it doesn't really matter if we obliterate them and erase their libraries of knowledge that prove us to be primitive in comparison?

Meanwhile America chugs along on its tractor as if it knows a damn thing. The dust bowl was a direct result of over-confident settlers destroying a soil system that was cultivated by Indigenous peoples for thousands of years through meticulous low-intensity patch burning, habitat creation for buffalo and a host of ecological practices. These would be hard to fully understand since most of these practices have been abolished and/or destroyed by this same over-confident settler society.

Euro-centricism, my dear brother, you have a severe case of narcissistic personality disorder, where your greatest fear is that anything could be greater than you, and anything that clearly is, is a threat to be destroyed. Meanwhile, tragically, you tear down everything around you just for a chance to cling onto your self-serving illusion that you know a damn thing, which shields you from the sad truth that you are really quite lost and in need of an intervention. Please turn in your weapons, admit defeat, or suffer the same fate as all clinically narcissistic peoples: they do not stop until everything around them is destroyed.

Either admit your insecurities now, in a circle of forgiveness, compassion and rehabilitation, or admit them later after you’ve taken everything down with you.

I am overjoyed and excited to stand with my brothers and sisters world-wide as we reject your insistence that euro-centric, English speaking paradigms are the most beautiful, the most smart, the most cool, the most happy and the most privileged. I am overjoyed and excited to stand with my brothers and sisters world-wide as we generates spaces and platforms for other ways of knowing. Where we take over the universities from your crumbling hands and re-teach the children the beauty of equality, the beauty of diversity, the beauty of Creator, the beauty and sanctity of creation. She is not an object. She is a relative to be held and loved with the utmost compassion, for she is precious."

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~ Lyla June (plz follow her amazing work, and also her mother Pat McCabe, both in this picture).

What is the Great Conjunction???

What is the Great Conjunction???

Conversations on Racial Justice

Conversations on Racial Justice