BLACK LIVES MATTER

BLACK LIVES MATTER 

So it has been a crazy eventful week on top of an already crazy and very eventful 2020. It is just – so much is happening. And I feel that we are very, very lucky and blessed to be living during this time, because it's truly a transformative, very special time to be in. I already envisioned in the future, all of the history books, documentaries, and movies made about the time that we are living through right now. So first and foremost, I have to say: Black lives matter. It's incredibly sad and frustrating how there still so much racism in the world, how much this racism is embedded in our culture and our systems, our institutions in America. And it's incredibly hard to know that there's generational trauma that goes all the way back to the days of slavery. And there's just so much pain that has not been dealt with, so many biases that have just cycled from generation to generation. And it's compounded to this crazy broken system that we have today. And I know that progress has been made, but at the same time Black people are dealing with racism and police brutality, all of these problems that they have been dealing with for the past 200 years. And it's just transformed into a modern version now. I have muted myself for the past week. I wanted to just learn about this movement, educate myself, take time to listen, and truly seek to understand the pain that Black people have been going through for too long, for way too long in America. And as an Asian who was born and raised in the INDIA, I acknowledge that I have privileges. And it's sad to say that I have more privilege than a Black person in America, whose family has been here much longer than my family has. I may not have the same privileges as a White person in America, but I definitely have some privilege. And I have to acknowledge that. I can go jogging in a hoodie and not fear for my life, not fear that I will be shot and murdered. I can get arrested and not fear that the cops will murder me. I am privileged as an Asian because I don't look intimidating. People don't look at me – cops don't look at me and think that I'm a criminal, just because of the way I look, the color of my skin. And that is something that Black people have to deal with. And it's just so, so, so sad to hear all the stories of the people that have been unjustly murdered by police, whether it's an accident, whether it was on purpose, but the cop gets off without any charges or anything. George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor,Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, the list on and on and on about all these Black people who have died for reasons that are not fair, and it's incredibly sad. Literally add it to your list right now and watch it tonight if you haven't already, because it really paints the picture of why the police are the way that they are. We put so many people behind bars for small misdemeanors. A Black person can get more jail time than a White person, even if they committed the same exact crime. And it's really messed up and it's really oppressive. It's crazy because we're living in the year 2020, and we look back at the times of slavery and segregation, and they feel like they are so long ago. And we feel like we should be so much further ahead by now. You know, we had a Black president, we have Beyonce and Oprah, but we forget that systems and society are not transformed radically overnight. It's not that slavery was abolished and then immediately the society became completely tolerant of Black people and super non-racist and everything was fair. It's not like that. It took many little steps and tweaks, and as society and the systems are slowly changing and adapting to its current times, there's always going to be people wanting to pull it back to previous times, because that's what they prefer. That's what's comfortable to them. And so I see progress as like a tug and pull. Society's not going to change in a positive trajectory at a consistent rate. It's really going to look like that jagged graph, where you make some progress, you take two steps forward, one step back, three steps forward, five steps back. And if you are living through this time, you can probably feel that tug and pull: the tug of the people who want to move forward and change things for the better, and the tug of people who don't want change, who want it to go back to the way it used to be or whatever. I have much more faith in humanity after this week. At the beginning of the week, I did not have faith. I was just so sad at how the system was. I just cried how unfair everything was built, seeing government and media trying to distract us, trying to put down protestors, how police treated protesters, all the tear gas and violence. And that was really sad and hard to see. But I think in the past couple of days, I have restored more faith in humanity because I've seen so many people, so many of my friends and just so many people across the world, share their support for this movement and prove and show that they truly care about human beings, because at the roots of this entire Black Lives Matter movement is love. It's us showing that we care about people regardless of the color of your skin, because people are people. We are all human beings, and we all have this inherent knowing that systems and organizations are created for the people. 

Governments and police and school systems are created to benefit the people, because we make up the society. And it's such a misalignment when we see that the governments or organizations created by people do not have the people's best interest at heart. Police are supposed to be protecting and serving the people. And yet our police in America are killing and hurting more people than it really should, and it's just so wrong. Solving these problems we have in our society is not an easy fix. It's something that has been built over hundreds of years, and to dismantle it and reform it and create something positive that will work for everyone, that will take Time. And this is where the power of community and our unity comes into play, because each of us plays a part in this. I am not an expert at politics or how to change the world in these aspects that desperately need changing. But that's why I need to listen to someone who does, and we all need to listen to that person who does. We need to look to our activists and our leaders in this Black Lives movement, and leaders in community who we know are fighting for good. This is a time for us to keep sharing resources with each other. What petitions do we need to sign? Who do we need to email? I love how K-pop stans have risen up in this movement, and they have done such a huge part in all of this. And that makes me happy, but really this is such a collective effort. And it's really the biggest movement I've ever seen in my lifetime. It is amazing, and we all have a chance to be a part of this. We don't have to be perfect. You just have to do something. All right, so now I want to share Akash Biswas perspective on it all, because you guys know, I like to think big picture: What does this mean? What are we learning as a whole? So astrologically, 2020 is a crazy year. 

It started with the virus, the pandemic. And then now we have the civil rights, human rights, Black Lives Matter movement that's going on. And it's not going to end anytime soon. We are going to continue to change, transform, revolutionize society, I think until 2021. And obviously it'll trickle on beyond that. Anyway, this is a time where we, as a humanity, are collectively raising our vibration. We are raising it so that we can reach a higher consciousness. We're up-leveling the vibration and the consciousness of the earth. And what I mean by “vibration” is good energy. If you think of unconditional love, love for yourself, love for others, for all living things equally, unconditionally, that is the highest level of vibration there is. And there's love, there's gratitude, happiness. All of those are "high vibrations" and low vibrations are sadness, depression, fear, anger, guilt, blame, things like that are low vibe. The people are going from seeing each other as separate, to realizing that we are all interconnected. We are all one, we're united, you know. What I do affects this person, what this person does affects me. And spiritually, we are all connected. Spiritually, we are all just one thing, one entity, whatever you want to believe. You can think about it this way: Love is to "unity" and fear is to "separation" . When you truly love yourself and you love others, then you treat each other with kindness, compassion. You listen, you have empathy, you have less judgment for others. But when you have fear in your heart, whether you're afraid that you're not good enough or you're afraid of other people because of prejudices or discrimination, for any reason, that creates separation. That creates an 'Us' vs. 'Them feeling' .

Love breeds more love, and fear breeds more fear. I honestly believe one of our greatest spiritual lessons on Earth is to learn how to come back to love, how to learn to have unconditional love for ourselves and for everyone else, for the world, and to be able to just get to a point where we release our fears, release limiting beliefs, and only fill it back in with love, to the point where we're vibrating at our highest potential. We are our highest, best selves, the most kind, compassionate selves that we can be. I wrote this sentence in my journal: "All which is not love, teaches us to come back to love." So when we see the lack of love in the world, where we see people hurting each other, where we see systems are broken and not benefiting the people, it makes us mad. It brings up so many emotions and feelings because it feels unfair. There's a lack of justice and equality and fairness there. And I do believe that deep down, each of us, each of our souls understands what love is. And that's why something happens, something stirs within us, when we see the lack of love in the world. Our soul is like, “This is wrong.” And that is the aspect of you that is coming out when you see Black people getting hurt, dying at the hands of police for just dumb reasons or no reason at all. And that is why we are so moved by this movement. And it's just amazing because the more people that are part of this, that are moved by this, we have more and more love, that's vibrating together collectively, and unity is powerful, guys.

If you have not paid attention to what the media and the government are doing, they are trying to divide us. They are trying to make protesters and looters look bad. They're trying to steer you away from what's actually happening, steer you away from the cause and the movement, because they want to divide people. They want us to look at other people and judge them. They want to separate us. And if you guys have ever heard the term “divide and conquer” in military and war, it's because we're easier to control when we are divided. So they are trying to divide and conquer us. But I see so many people stepping up in unity and we have so much power in unity, so much power in numbers. The visual of the crowds of people protesting is so powerful. And this is happening during a pandemic where the people protesting are aware that they are possibly exposing themselves to corona virus, and yet they are still willing to get out there and protest. And I think that is so beautiful. That speaks to the human spirit. So I just want to remind you all to recognise the love that you are seeing in yourself and in the world right now, because it is beautiful. That is our power. That is how we're going to bring about change. That's how we're going to lift up society, change what we got to change, do what we have to do to create a better world for the future. And on top of that, I just want to say: Listen. Seek to understand. Only when we actually have an open, honest dialogue with each other, try to understand each other's point of view, do we actually make progress. Arguing and just getting angry at each other is not productive. So it's a time to listen, to learn, to educate yourself, and then take action where you can take action. You don't have to be perfect. No one's going to be perfect in this journey. I know I'm not perfect. I'm not going to say the perfect things. I'm not going to know everything there is to know about this movement or Black history. I'm never going to fully understand what it's like to grow up Black in America or in this world, but I'm here to listen and to learn and to figure out how I can be of service in pushing us forward, even if it's in a tiny way, like sharing my thoughts. We are here to strive for progress, not perfection. We're going to make mistakes along the way. It doesn't matter, as long as we learn from those mistakes. So just do your best. Be kind, compassionate, understanding. And also don't forget to take care of yourself, because with all this energy and craziness going on, you're going to need to protect your energy and also take time to decompress. I know I had to take a few days out of this past week to just do nothing, to just read, to get in a clearer mind space for myself. So make sure you have those self care practices in place. Love you all so much,  I will list a ton of resources down below: Petitions you can sign, things you can read, things you can watch to educate yourself. I will see you next time. Bye!

How George Floyd killed in police custody. 

Link to the video - https://youtu.be/vksEJR9EPQ8

Ways to help - https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/

Black lives matter - https://blacklivesmatter.com/