Is there a way to suture the outrage over revelations in the CIA torture report to the #BlackLivesMatter demonstrations around the country? It seems readily apparent that the way black Americans have been treated for centuries is nothing short of torture. The only difference between then and now is that the torture has been sanitized and compartmentalized for easier consumption, but the dehumanization has fundamentally never changed, let alone abated.
The CIA torture report is low-hanging fruit to feed the incredulous, and it's easy to see why: the practices detailed within it are truly horrifying. People should be outraged over the abuses committed in their name. But our incapacity for nuance makes it easier to feel empathy for the torture of enemy combatants than for our kinsmen who have always under siege, and often through many of the same tactics. Of course, that would require us to acknowledge that black people are in fact our kinsmen, as easily as we acknowledge that Islamic terrorists are indeed not.
The ultimate commonality between the two is the sanctity of human life and human dignity, and how unevenly they are distributed in times of crisis, whether real or imagined. The threat of continued domestic terrorism from abroad after 9/11, no matter how unlikely, contained within it a kernel of truth enough to justify all manner of abuses. The intervening years have demonstrated that the lengths we've taken to prevent further attacks have not only been grossly inhumane, but ineffective. The war on supposed "Black Terror" has been waged for centuries now, much to the same end; perhaps there's a way to illustrate that to those who condemn torture in any form? I don't have an answer; I just hope I'm asking the right questions.
The "Smartphone Dispatch" series is my effort to record my thoughts and ideas in real time as a basis for discussion. They are by no means complete, so take them with a grain of salt, and let's keep the conversation positive. I look forward to hearing your thoughts, and I hope that you've appreciated mine. Thanks!