Rioting in New Mexico

New Mexico might have one of the smallest black populations in the United States. While there are a number of reasons for this, the biggest one is almost certainly that the state is composed of another cultural minority, the Spanish, who are not actually a minority here. The state is still largely agricultural, despite that the oil industry has increased economic growth. In short, culturally and economically, the state hasn’t offered much to black people.

That has not stopped the protests that turned into violent riots from coming here. And I couldn’t help but consider the irony inherent in busting out windows and spray-painting businesses, many of which are owned by Hispanics and already hurting from the governor’s shut-down orders. Gosh, it almost reminds me of my book The Minäverse, which I wrote originally in 2014 when I could see the world was going mad and didn’t manage to publish until 2018. Little could I have imagined…oh, yeah, I did actually imagine. Oh, well. It’s too bad I’m so slow at finishing and publishing.

I need to get a little more focused. My latest book, which I started in 2017 or 2018 (honestly don’t remember) has a virus pandemic in it as a major plot device. And aliens. And every conspiracy theory worthy of David Icke or Alex Jones (to be fair, Jones has never gone the direction of aliens, but vaccines et al, sure). I have twenty pages left to edit, and then off it will go to a potential small publisher.

Speaking of rioting in New Mexico, there was one in Roswell yesterday. It wasn’t a riot, to be fair. As far as I know from the live video footage, the protestors remained on the sidewalk outside the courthouse and stayed there with their signs and bullhorn. I even caught a glimpse of a few black people in the crowd, which is a big deal given the local demographics. Also, Roswell is one of the most openly racist places I’ve lived. Apart from older Hispanic folks, I had never really heard much in the way of vocally racist sentiments until I moved here.

Roswell is really weird. That’s why it’s the setting for the book I’m finishing up in the next couple of days.