On Independence, White Apathy Masquerading as Empathy, Black Bodies and Policing

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TW: anti-Blackness, murder, police violence.

To white “professionals”:

Jayland Walker.

Say his name.

Quit acting like the murder of Black bodies at the hands of the police isn’t a regular part of U.S. American life. You know better than that by now.

Quit questioning why this keeps happening. You already know the answers to these questions.

Quit offering condolences or making performative social media posts. There ain’t enough black squares and “we need to do better” posts in the world that will ever supplant white people taking legitimate action to unwrap the lack of accountability and white supremacist ideology the U.S. was built on.

Quit watching and sharing the video of Jayland being shot by Akron, Ohio police more than 60 times. It’s not the “liberal” flex you think it is. No one needs to watch that pain. You sharing the video of that pain is a symbol of your lack of care for Black people’s trauma.

Quit thinking the Black people in your workplace or community only need a few days to heal and will be OK because they have the 4th of July off and/or a 3-day weekend. Most of us haven’t healed from the last murder by police in our cities or in this country, let alone everything else that has transpired lately in this country. And most of us hate the 4th of July. We’re using it as a day to stay the hell away from y’all and get into a headspace where we can exist for a few days at work around y’all to get back to another weekend so we heal some more.

Quit doing all of the above and start asking yourself why you do all of the above. And unpack that sh— on your time. Don’t put the labor of your messy white supremacist sh— on Black folx as your white fragility/violence sounding boards.

Enjoy your ribs and your small explosives that harm veterans and pets.

Independence.

On White Domestic Terrorism and More of the Usual

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A white supremacist took Black lives this weekend in Buffalo, New York, in a predominantly Black area in a food desert. This murder spree was live-streamed by a white man in tactical gear that he shouldn’t be able to buy with an assault rifle he shouldn’t have been able to purchase. This white man had been talking about wanting to do something like this for months, going as far as posting a manifesto online about his hatred for Black people and the harm he wanted to inflict. He shared that his murder spree was influenced by terrorist attacks at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, North Carolina, and the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

More white people killing Black people just because they feel their hatred for people of color, for marginalized folx, trumps human life.

Just another Saturday.

More of the usual.

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On Judge Ketanji, Supporting Black Women, and Figuring Out When to Fall Back

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I'm not watching the confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. I'm not watching because I like my peace of mind, and I think we all knew this would be some racist, white supremacist, misogynistic, anti-Black nonsense. From what I'm seeing of the snippets and clips I've stumbled across over the last few days? I was right.

These mediocre white folx, white folx who have accomplished nothing in their lives outside of bringing their hate into national politics, are deadset on attacking Ketanji's intelligence. They're throwing all sorts of CRT fear-mongering and random vaguely abortion-related questions. The anti-Black rhetoric, the abrasiveness, the pushiness coming out of these white politicians' mouths as she maintains herself and doesn't crumble under their hatred is a window into what Black women face just trying to exist in this world every day. And this is why I can't watch these events in real-time.

Existing shouldn't always have to be this damn hard, y'all.

Being a Black woman shouldn't always have to be this hard.

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Monday's Opening Thought: March 21, 2022

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This week's opening thought: The U.S. House of Representatives passed the CROWN Act on Friday. The CROWN Act is a bill that provides federal protection against hair discrimination with a primary focus of combating racial discrimination against Black citizens for hairstyles like braids, cornrows, and locs in federally assisted programs, housing programs, public accommodations, and employment.

The bill was passed along mostly Democratic Party lines 235-189.

Mostly Democratic. Mostly. House Republicans were practically unanimous in their nay vote. House Democrats, part of the party that swears it cares about Black lives while doing performative things like wearing kente cloth and saying horrible things like thanking George Floyd for "sacrificing himself for justice," were not all on board with getting this passed.

Another version of the CROWN Act was previously introduced in Congress and subsequently passed in the U.S. House but has failed to be passed in the U.S. Senate. This one may likely face the same hurdles.

While hair discrimination affects the majority of Black and Brown folx in the United States, Black women and femmes are the most affected when it comes to employment, social service access, and federal assistance.

What does this all mean?

Even when this country doesn't say it out loud, it says "Black women don't matter" loud and clear.

You don't even have to listen that hard to hear it.

On Black History Month, Paying Black Folx, and "Exposure"

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Hello, white U.S. Americans who organize events and programming for your company or organization. It's that time of year when the air is crisp, winter is well underway, and white "professionals" reach out to Black speakers, consultants, and facilitators to speak at their corporate events as panelists and teachers to "celebrate" Black History Month. You reach out to us to share our stories, pain, and lived and learned experiences with your white organizations during the shortest month of the year, continuing the cycles of melanated pain porn for white consumption that your organizations have trafficked in for decades.

And you're still asking us to do this for little to no compensation.

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