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So this is a woman on my socail media who is pretty intense with this anti racism stuff.
Its completely changed her, for the worst. I've always felt she was an actual racist.....and this just confirms it. This is how a lot of people who have bought this divisive, hateful propaganda talk.
This is how they talk....about other human beings. It's long, btw. But so much of this bothers me. Its patronizing and dehumanizing and she basically admits that she is racist and shes completely insistent that all white people are. Shes been reading books and taking these "classes" and just getting worse. Shes being brainwashed, indoctrinated and toxic. Just hostile, radical.
Shes become impossible to talk with, as well. I keep it pretty light with her and I simply stop the convo if it gets intense.
Anyway, here it is.
"Antiracism work is not a list of to do items that I get to check off to feel good about myself or to be seen by others. It's also not a thing that I just launch my mind into and use Black people as some kind of a mental escape from problems, and then just ghost when it's convenient. It's not a journey to assuage any guilt that I might feel or for my own self improvement. It's also not a hobby that I can just do in my free time or something to slip in and out of like a bra when I become uncomfortable.
Black people are also not things that we can just throw money at or run to the rescue for like we are some kind of a savior that they need because we think they're so helpless. They're not helpless and their pain and trauma is not something for us to consume and watch like it's a show for our curiosity.
It's about real heart work, getting really honest with my Creator, with myself, and with other white people about the thoughts I have about Black people. We know we have them, just we don't talk about it because it's ugly and we want to be seen as good. Well, we need to talk about it. It's antiBlackness and it's there. It's there because our ancestors created systems to put it there. They will remain oppressed until we do the inner work necessary to eradicate racism.
My antiracism teacher, Catrice Jackson, has taught me that we need to call a thing a thing and root it out because until we do, we will just sit in apathy. She says a failure to act is a failure to care and after almost a year of learning form her, I really get that now. Something so basic. Something so basic that I needed it to be drilled into my head because if I was honest with myself, I only cared about white people. Prior to having my eyes opened, I would've told you until I was blue in the face that I cared about all people, but as James Baldwin says, "I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do." and I never did anything for Black people.
And because I never did, I was complicit in a world that beats them down day after day. I may not be a confederate flag waving or Maga hat wearing person, but I was still no different than them because I did absolutely nothing. I didn't even know that they were Black for decades. And even now, even if I'm doing antiracist work, it's imperative that I stop centering myself and be okay with the fact that when Black people see me, they see a Maga hat on my head, a confederate flag in my right hand, and a noose in my left. They have no idea who I am. All they know is that white people have brutalized them and people who look like them for centuries with no end. Coming to terms with that and admitting that was key to stop performing for everyone and just do the work necessary to dismantle it.
There is so much more to be said, but I've already said a lot. My goal in posting this today is in hopes that you all on my friends list, friends, family, etc. will see it and having some more understanding about why I've changed so much over the past couple of years. It's my hope that you will see that all of the posts and all of the calls to action is because I want you to care too. I want you to see what's happening to their people and give a damn longer than 5 seconds. I want you to be affected deep in your heart by what affects them. I want you to hear their stories, their voices, their cries, and to feel a sense of obligation and responsibility to do something about what the collective white person is doing to them. And just as important, I want you to see that Black people are more than a murder in the streets or slavery.
They deserve basic things like the dignity to go to the Doctor and be given adequate pain relief because they're in pain rather than be seen as someone who can handle high levels of pain, to be able to sit down for an interview and not be looked over because an equally/less qualified white person is chosen due to antiBlackness conditioning, to have access to the same kind of education that white people are in our school systems, to succeed in business because people of all walks of life patron their store fronts, to be able to be casted in a film role that isn't stereotypical because they have a Black body or that isn't a white person's side kick or the help, to be believed when they have a story to tell and not be seen as just a hustler wanting our money, to walk down the street without white women locking their doors or calling the police because they 'look suspicious', to move to a community they want to move to (for the same reasons white people choose to move) without white people fearing their property values will go down or moving out because they feel threatened, to be able to drive down a road without being pulled over and questioned by the police just because they don't have a light skin color, to be represented in all makeup lines and not have the colors named exotically, to have their own language/dialect without being labeled as "ghetto", or to speak and not have other white people be so shocked that they are "so articulate". The list goes on and on and on.....
I want you to start questioning what you watch and what you consume and how it is being presented to you so you can start changing the dynamic on your social media, in your homes, in the raising of your children, in your thoughts, in your hearts. Every day, all day long. I want you to be uncomfortable until it becomes a part of who you are and then to remain uncomfortable until racism is completely eradicated because if someone you love were being brutalized the way Black people are, you'd be uncomfortable day and night, you'd know what to do to fight for them, and you'd do it BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY! So stop snoozing and stop rolling your eyes when you see posts request money. Nobody expects you to give to everything. They are a means to spur you to action, to encourage you to start your own antiracism journey. When you take the time to look at all of the calls to action out there, you'll start to see that Black people are the most affected by that--Black women specifically. Look at what happens when a Black woman and a white woman walk into a shelter to ask for help. Look at what happens when a Black woman vs a white woman needs access to women's health care. Look at what happens when Black women give birth compared to white women. Open your eyes up and look. When they thrive, humanity thrives." ~ woman I wont name.
Its completely changed her, for the worst. I've always felt she was an actual racist.....and this just confirms it. This is how a lot of people who have bought this divisive, hateful propaganda talk.
This is how they talk....about other human beings. It's long, btw. But so much of this bothers me. Its patronizing and dehumanizing and she basically admits that she is racist and shes completely insistent that all white people are. Shes been reading books and taking these "classes" and just getting worse. Shes being brainwashed, indoctrinated and toxic. Just hostile, radical.
Shes become impossible to talk with, as well. I keep it pretty light with her and I simply stop the convo if it gets intense.
Anyway, here it is.
"Antiracism work is not a list of to do items that I get to check off to feel good about myself or to be seen by others. It's also not a thing that I just launch my mind into and use Black people as some kind of a mental escape from problems, and then just ghost when it's convenient. It's not a journey to assuage any guilt that I might feel or for my own self improvement. It's also not a hobby that I can just do in my free time or something to slip in and out of like a bra when I become uncomfortable.
Black people are also not things that we can just throw money at or run to the rescue for like we are some kind of a savior that they need because we think they're so helpless. They're not helpless and their pain and trauma is not something for us to consume and watch like it's a show for our curiosity.
It's about real heart work, getting really honest with my Creator, with myself, and with other white people about the thoughts I have about Black people. We know we have them, just we don't talk about it because it's ugly and we want to be seen as good. Well, we need to talk about it. It's antiBlackness and it's there. It's there because our ancestors created systems to put it there. They will remain oppressed until we do the inner work necessary to eradicate racism.
My antiracism teacher, Catrice Jackson, has taught me that we need to call a thing a thing and root it out because until we do, we will just sit in apathy. She says a failure to act is a failure to care and after almost a year of learning form her, I really get that now. Something so basic. Something so basic that I needed it to be drilled into my head because if I was honest with myself, I only cared about white people. Prior to having my eyes opened, I would've told you until I was blue in the face that I cared about all people, but as James Baldwin says, "I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do." and I never did anything for Black people.
And because I never did, I was complicit in a world that beats them down day after day. I may not be a confederate flag waving or Maga hat wearing person, but I was still no different than them because I did absolutely nothing. I didn't even know that they were Black for decades. And even now, even if I'm doing antiracist work, it's imperative that I stop centering myself and be okay with the fact that when Black people see me, they see a Maga hat on my head, a confederate flag in my right hand, and a noose in my left. They have no idea who I am. All they know is that white people have brutalized them and people who look like them for centuries with no end. Coming to terms with that and admitting that was key to stop performing for everyone and just do the work necessary to dismantle it.
There is so much more to be said, but I've already said a lot. My goal in posting this today is in hopes that you all on my friends list, friends, family, etc. will see it and having some more understanding about why I've changed so much over the past couple of years. It's my hope that you will see that all of the posts and all of the calls to action is because I want you to care too. I want you to see what's happening to their people and give a damn longer than 5 seconds. I want you to be affected deep in your heart by what affects them. I want you to hear their stories, their voices, their cries, and to feel a sense of obligation and responsibility to do something about what the collective white person is doing to them. And just as important, I want you to see that Black people are more than a murder in the streets or slavery.
They deserve basic things like the dignity to go to the Doctor and be given adequate pain relief because they're in pain rather than be seen as someone who can handle high levels of pain, to be able to sit down for an interview and not be looked over because an equally/less qualified white person is chosen due to antiBlackness conditioning, to have access to the same kind of education that white people are in our school systems, to succeed in business because people of all walks of life patron their store fronts, to be able to be casted in a film role that isn't stereotypical because they have a Black body or that isn't a white person's side kick or the help, to be believed when they have a story to tell and not be seen as just a hustler wanting our money, to walk down the street without white women locking their doors or calling the police because they 'look suspicious', to move to a community they want to move to (for the same reasons white people choose to move) without white people fearing their property values will go down or moving out because they feel threatened, to be able to drive down a road without being pulled over and questioned by the police just because they don't have a light skin color, to be represented in all makeup lines and not have the colors named exotically, to have their own language/dialect without being labeled as "ghetto", or to speak and not have other white people be so shocked that they are "so articulate". The list goes on and on and on.....
I want you to start questioning what you watch and what you consume and how it is being presented to you so you can start changing the dynamic on your social media, in your homes, in the raising of your children, in your thoughts, in your hearts. Every day, all day long. I want you to be uncomfortable until it becomes a part of who you are and then to remain uncomfortable until racism is completely eradicated because if someone you love were being brutalized the way Black people are, you'd be uncomfortable day and night, you'd know what to do to fight for them, and you'd do it BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY! So stop snoozing and stop rolling your eyes when you see posts request money. Nobody expects you to give to everything. They are a means to spur you to action, to encourage you to start your own antiracism journey. When you take the time to look at all of the calls to action out there, you'll start to see that Black people are the most affected by that--Black women specifically. Look at what happens when a Black woman and a white woman walk into a shelter to ask for help. Look at what happens when a Black woman vs a white woman needs access to women's health care. Look at what happens when Black women give birth compared to white women. Open your eyes up and look. When they thrive, humanity thrives." ~ woman I wont name.
