This is the first time I’m experiencing this level of social unrest. I have never seen downtown look how it’s looking with my own eyes. This whole thing is surreal for me, like an episode of Twilight Zone or Black Mirror. All the black & white photos and videos of social unrest materialized onto storefronts and sidewalks are live and in living color now.
Honestly, I’m becoming a bit numb to it all, and I think that’s probably a very bad sign, but I take numbness over anxiety, depression, or any kind of stress.
I have a bit of insulation from the chaos, but only “a bit,” because I don’t want to overestimate my comfort.
A lot of people were already suffering very badly in the city before the pandemic (and all the social and economic distress). I believe most of the petty crime oozes allover the hood out of hopelessness and apathy. I only imagine that apathetic despair to deepen exponentially if this unrest bubbles at this level (or higher!) for much longer. The (Black) middle class and upwardly mobile (positions I qualify myself as occupying) were already in a precarious situation pre-pandemic; and it’s so much worse now for those of us who are/were builders in our community. I have over a dozen Black friends who have businesses in Chicago (some of which I’d invested in) who were randomly targeted in the looting and rioting that has been flashing throughout the city. Some will never recover their businesses or investments. A lot of the destruction that personally impacted me was instigated by other Black people (likely those who don’t build or own or invest anything), but I primarily blame the agents of chaos who I believe are fanning the flames and adding gas.
I wonder if it’s too much to hope that lasting progressive legislation will somehow rise out of the ashes of all of this chaos and destruction.