About

I attended a BLM solidarity rally organized by young people in the district from which I graduated high school.  Beautiful, brave, impressive young people.  A friend provided advising and support when asked and needed, and I committed to record the environment around me...primarily because I needed to give myself something to do to take my perserverating brain off the topic of cycling anxiety, worry, and existential crisis. But this isn't about me.  At all. I attended a rally in the community where I spent formative years, just minutes from a house, rented, in which I lived until 1992. Shaler is a suburban, really exurban area, north of Pittsburgh, PA.  There is a distinct socio-economic divide between several zip codes.  That I remember.  But being a cis het white boy in the district, I didn't experience any of the other aspects of bias, including racism, both systemic/generalized and explicit/targeted.  Obviously, it was, and is, all there. The rally was organized by the Shaler Area Anti-Racist Advocates and a "back the blue" counter protest was swiftly proposed by MAGAts in the community.  I write, "MAGAts" because the signage of the countering group included Trump/Pence flags and placards and thin blue line black-and-white U.S. flags along with several tiny dowel rod U.S. flags. Content and Trigger warnings for hate speech against trans and queer people (...because of course the extermination of queer people is an expected response to a solidarity rally indicating camaraderie with Black neighbors...) as well as plenty of racist tropes and not-even-dog-whistles from the MAGAts. I love yinz so much, those who are in the struggle and impacted by the centuries of relentless trauma, gaslighting, oppression, marginalization, experimentation, incarceration, and murder. -G