TORONTO URBAN BOOK EXPO 2020 // "The Crumbling of a System" by Kamilah Haywood

It was a term used by many of us: "2020 Vision." We were excited for the new year, with New Years' Resolutions ready for execution, and a clear perspective for activities on a global scale. Visions for upliftment, success, love, and awareness with an undercurrent of positivity. These messages were clear, because 2019 had been a year of extreme learning, self-reflection, and healing.

A worldwide pandemic causing a global lockdown, international protesting against police brutality and the lynching of African people, and the continuous fight for racial equality with Black lives mattering: these predictions were far from the vision we had planned for.

It wasn't anything we had prepared for, but 2020 became a vision that would open our eyes clearly. History had been broken. Conditions that we had never experienced before, were now realities the human race was forced to face. This fog was removed from our collective eyes, only for us to realize that there is a need for change. Major change.

Months later, the conversation is different. The awareness has heightened. Now, the systems that were put in place to keep individuals oppressed are somehow crumbling right before our eyes. We are witnessing as many of the oppressors are doing everything possible to hold on to their controls.

This is our moment in history. This is the test of our generation's resolve and determination.

And while "divide and conquer" may have been the agenda...we are witnessing that you can only segregate a collective for so long, until the truth is found through unity. Eventually. The resources can only be destroyed on Mother Earth for so long, until destruction forces her planet to heal.

Causes have led to inevitable effects, and now as a human race, this is where we stand.

We are faced with choices. We can stand up and reconfigure the system before us that has proven to no longer be humane to our livelihood. We can also continue to exist as modern-day slaves, begging for freedoms while the programmed prisons continue to pollute our minds.

There are lives slaughtered daily, and widespread injustices. There is enslavement of the minds, and it has become increasingly harder to dispute this.

While the pitfalls are evident, so are the potential solutions. We are also now aware of how much power is embedded in this moment of history, and how we can individually contribute to ending the pain and suffering from continuing on to future generations.

We have been forced to face ourselves, to look in the mirror, and realize that we are all a part of the state that humanity is in. In some way, we are all complicit. We can no longer ignore these realities, and act like these systems of oppression and bias are not affecting every single one of us in some way. We know that we have to begin with ourselves to be the change we hope to see.

Each day, there are verbal and visual reminders that a revolution is beginning. We see elements of situations where many are called, but few actually run to battle. We observe the strategic dark forces that have cultivated fear and illusion in support of greed and control--the forces that have maintained power for decades, but are swiftly losing hold of their grip.

The universe has laws of its own, that cannot be broken. These laws are proving to be too powerful for the circumstances we had once accepted.

With each day, we await a sign that things have changed...conditions have ended, and rebuilding is underway. In the interim, we remain in relative uncertainty, asking ourselves how we got to this moment, and where we go from here. We are in a rare position to witness the dismantling of a regime and ideology that has ruled for too, too long.

We have the power to rebuild, and rethink, and reestablish, and my hope is that we all use this moment wisely, and that we give it everything we have.
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Written by author Kamilah Haywood for Kya Publishing's Toronto Urban Book Expo 2020 Virtual Presentation