In the Wake: On Blackness and Being by Christina Sharpe

Author:Christina Sharpe [Sharpe, Christina]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 2016-10-21T07:00:00+00:00

of keeping our children safe and teaching them well is something we can only do together. . . . In that way we come to realize that we bear responsibility for each other. . . . Can we honestly say that we’re doing enough to keep our children, all of them, safe from harm? Can we claim, as a nation, that we’re all together there, letting them know they are loved and teaching them to love in return? Can we say that we’re truly doing enough to give all the children of this country the chance they deserve to live out their lives in happiness and with purpose? I’ve been reflecting on this the last few days, and if we’re honest with ourselves, the answer’s no. We’re not doing enough. And we will have to change. . . . If there’s even one step we can take to save another child or another parent or another town from the grief that’s visited Tucson and Aurora and Oak Creek and Newtown and communities from Columbine to Blacksburg before that, then surely we have an obligation to try. (Emphasis mine)

He continues: “In the coming weeks, I’ll use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens, from law enforcement, to mental health professionals, to parents and educators, in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this, because what choice do we have?”48

On January 29, 2013, Hadiya Pendleton, a fifteen-year-old Black girl, a Chicago high school student, was murdered in Chicago, one week after she performed at Obama’s second inauguration. On February 12, 2013, President Obama delivered his fifth State of the Union address to a joint session of the US Congress.49 Obama calls Hadiya Pendleton’s name in his State of the Union address and places her death in the context of the gun deaths and the mass murders committed, largely, by white men in the United States, and the recent stripping away of parts of the Voting Rights Act. He says,

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