Another reminder has come to pass that thoughts are fatal for certain people. The homo sacer  that is the foundation of this country. The extra-judicial murder of black men and boys is a given. Black women have the same fate but the cultural figure of woman or female means that it cannot be made public with the same amount of glee that befalls black men.

And so I question empathy. The role homo sacer plays in society forecloses those who are not in that space to empathize or feel compassion for homo sacers existence. Homo sacer can never be human. To ask homo sacer to empathize with his or her self is to ask homo sacer to see their self as society has structure his or her existence. We are not homo sacer though. We are fully formed humans who love and hate and feel unlimited potential and limited opportunity just like the rest of you. We find joy in little things better than the rest of you though, because that is all we are afforded. We dance loud. We speak loud. We laugh loud. We exist loud. so that the world has to reckon with our existence.

I am one amongst the many but here are my thoughts on the soul murder and actual murder society continues to publicly place on certain people who are reduced to bodies deserving sacrifice to make the world feel safer than it is. I already know empathy with me is foreclosed by my blackness.

I will not be complicit in my own murder. If you thinking I’m a threat justifies my death what reaction should I have when you are before me? Your empathy does not extend to the potential moment of my death. In fact, it seems to be something that many look forward to because when it happens to another I am asked to understand where the murdered was coming from.

To ask of me to empathize with those who hate me is asking me to hate myself. To ask me to empathize with the people whose actual thoughts may kill me is asking me to preemptively murder myself. I refuse.