My trip started with news of the shooting of Alton Sterling at the hands of police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As I was sitting in the airport waiting for my connecting flight, I decided to pass the time by checking social media. Another story about a Black man being killed by police. Unfortunately, this did not immediately surprise me or cause me to pause. I simply kept scrolling. The more I scrolled the more it became obvious that I needed to pay attention. This wasn't just a simple story; this was a story that evoked lots of emotions from lots of people on both Facebook and Twitter. Lots of those emotions stemmed not just from the story but also from the harrowing cell phone video showing the struggle and moments after Alton's life was cut short.
Alton video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOH9Ltcoqis
I continued following the story on social media until I reached my destination. As I was dealing with the three hour time change and willing my body to stay up long enough to adjust for the next day, another story caught my eye on social media. This time, there were posts about another shooting involving a Black man and police officers. In the blink of an eye, I was now glued to social media and learning more about the death of Philando Castile in Minneapolis, Minnesota. How could this possibly be happening again? But it did happen again. And again, there was cellphone video showing Philando bleeding to death as his girlfriend shared details of the deadly encounter.
Philando video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaUs9egLCO4
Enough is enough. My emotions are raw and real. I don't know what to do with myself, but I know sleep won't come easy. It was one thing to keep hearing Alton's son crying for his daddy during a news conference, but it has gone to a whole other level seeing Philando literally bleeding to death right in front of my eyes. How am I supposed to get these images out of my head? How am I supposed to unsee, unhear, and unfeel all that comes with the continued loss of life? It is overwhelming and reaffirms the relevancy of my upcoming presentation about racial battle fatigue. As much as I want to unplug from social media, I cannot. I cannot stop watching the videos. I cannot stop reading the posts. I cannot stop getting mad, sad, and upset. I simply cannot unplug. This is the unfortunate side to social media. I am now well informed, overstimulated, and overwhelmed.
Racial battle fatigue: http://justjasmineblog.com/self-care-for-people-of-color-after-emotional-and-psychological-trauma/
Things cannot possibly get any worse, right? Wrong. At the end of day 2 at the institute, I am looking forward to getting some much needed sleep. It's something I've longed for but have been unable to find. As I'm winding down and having a conversation with a fellow participant, I decide to check Twitter and there was the latest breaking news story. There was a shooting in Dallas with at least 11 police officers shot and three are dead. WTF?! This can't be real. This can't be true. And social media is confirming it minute by minute. I sit in astonishment as tweet after tweet emerges about this horrible attack. I can't unplug. I switch between Twitter and Facebook trying to figure out what happened and why. By the time I make it to a television, social media has already confirmed the worst, police officers participating/protecting a peaceful rally in light of the recent killings of Black men at the hands of police had their lives taken away.
When I started typing this post, there were three dead police officers. I am almost done and Twitter is now telling me a fifth police officer is now dead. Instant information. Instant pain. Social media has kept me well informed in the first 48 hours of my trip. Social media has kept me completely overwhelmed in the first 48 hours of my trip. I'm not sure that I want to welcome sleep at this point as I am not sure if I can take another 48 hours like this.
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