The More Important Things
Are the subjects I tackle in this newsletter frivolous? Most of the time, I would say “no.” Maybe they’re not life-or-death, but I’ve seen firsthand the kind of effect the media I consume can have on my life, and that kind of power can’t be understated. Frivolous or not, I try to approach it all with the utmost respect.
Yet, I acknowledge that both this newsletter and the things I write about in it are, ultimately, distractions. I started writing “Do You Know What I Love the Most?” to chronicle the things I was doing to keep myself busy during the Covid-19 pandemic, and to create something productive for myself to do with all my newfound free time. (I’m still out of work, not that I’m complaining; I hate my job, and I’m making more on unemployment than I was going to work, which I think says more about my job than it does unemployment. I’ve been fortunate.)
In such intense times, I think distractions can be important. It’s vital to stay accurately informed about the ongoing crisis, but taking in too much news in a pandemic will very easily drive you into a dark pit of depression.
Yet, before one crisis could end, another has begun — or, more accurately, has been reignited, because the crisis of police violence and institutionalized racism has been a part of this country since its origin. With the protests over the murder of George Floyd raging across the country, sitting down to write a newsletter today felt frivolous to me for the first time ever. It feels like a distraction from the depressing news surrounding us, but sending a distraction straight into your inbox doesn’t sit well with me right now.
I don’t talk about this sort of thing publicly very often. As a white man, I feel like my role in the discourse is to shut up, listen, and learn, which I try very hard to do. I’ll challenge the people around me when their opinions need challenging, but thankfully, it doesn’t happen very often. In my situation, making a public statement every time something like this pops up in the news feels performative; I have a limited online platform/following, the majority of whom I already know, and who I know are just as well — in fact, usually better — informed than I am. I like to declare my stances to the world through my actions every day rather than by pressing “send” on a tweet every time a new catastrophe hits the news.
But doing my part to listen and learn right now, I’m seeing over and over that my role as a white man right now is not to be silent, it’s to speak up in solidarity with those being oppressed. So yes, I believe that black lives matter, and that the police need to be held accountable for the people they murder. I stand in support with those exercising their right to protest. I don’t even want to deign the topic of violence in these protests with a response right now; if anybody’s being “violent,” it’s because they’re being pushed into it either by decades of systematic oppression or the direct actions of the police instigating crowds. If you want to talk about violence without talking about the police, totally unprovoked, opening fire on peaceful crowds or people sitting on their own front porches, then I don’t want to hear a word you’ve got to say. The people on TV preaching for “peaceful” protest are the same ones who lost their minds when Colin Kaepernick kneeled. They aren’t arguing in good faith, and have no interest in anything other than maintaining their own power. Don’t give them the time of day.
I trust my followers enough to believe that I’m just preaching to the choir here, but, if you aren’t black, educate yourself in the ways anti-blackness is built into the very core of this country and its policies, laws, and institutions (including the police). If you’re in a place financially to be able to do so right now, donate to some bail funds or other charities that support the protesters (those links are a good place to start, but you’ve probably seen links to plenty more over the last couple of days; find the ones that work best for you).
I’ll send out an actual new newsletter on Thursday. Stay safe, and take care of each other.
—Spencer
ABOUT
“Do You Know What I Love the Most?” is a newsletter from Spencer Irwin. Spencer is an enthusiast and writer from Newark, Delaware, who likes punk rock, comic books, working out, breakfast, and most of all, stories. His previous work appeared on Retcon Punch, One Week One Band, and Crisis on Infinite Chords, and he can be found on Twitter at @ThatSpenceGuy. If you like this newsletter, please subscribe and share with your friends!