On the year anniversary of yam tit’s retaking of our government, I think it is apt to share what I have been thinking about the current environment in which we find ourselves, all of us, collectively.
I have been saying this to my close circle for over a month, thinking it might sound like I was minimizing the real plight of black people in this country, so not sharing publicly.
*Systemic racism is real and the Black Lives Matter movement happened for reasons I wholeheartedly believe in. Black men are incarcerated at a higher rate and black women die during childbirth at a higher rate, than the average American. It is systemic.
We are all now living in the America that black mothers warn / instruct their son’s about, so that they have a chance of coming home alive. Privilege had kept a lot of us from this plight for a long time. With the murder of Renee Good, that facade has been dropped for all. (Well, only those who want to fight for the greater good, you can be a little bitch and be on the wrong side of history, this thought isn’t for you.)
I will now conduct myself as if I were a black man, when interacting with federal agents. (I’ll be transparent- I still have my privilege everywhere else.) There is no driving away and there is no resisting in the slightest bit, that shit will get you murdered without an investigation. They are looking for a reason to kill us. And unlike your typical black man, I am looking to be a FUKING MENACE if I come across federal agents terrorizing my neighbors.
I desperately want this to be the dark before the dawn, I want this dumpster fire to manifest into a better America for ALL, and specifically for the bottom 80%.
I wasn’t a pro abolish ICE person before their gestapo transformation. Now, I don’t see how the agency survives. It needs to be abolished for the soul of this country.
Policing the people like this has never been America’s vibe. (Ok, yeah it totally has – policing in this country started with people bringing escaped slaves back. It’s time we actually tried to address the systemic mess of it all.) I want to be the America I believed in when I was a child. Everyone getting a fair shake, actual equality.
I’m not naive, it will take time, but it is totally doable and we could be working towards that.
It’s not pie- there really is enough to go around.
As a 40 something year old white woman, I can’t shed my privilege, even if it was all stripped today, I grew up with it and that is something too. I do not want this post to sound like I don’t understand that it is a completely different life in this country when you are black. I want that to not be the the case, and even writing those words, it felt silly, which was unsettling and unexpected. We have a long way to go, but that doesn’t mean we don’t keep going.
No one will be free till we are all free.
** I see a lot of southern people say that it is making people / kids feel guilty, to talk about systemic racism, the only guilt to be carried is for your actions today. If you choose to do nothing to make the situation better, then you are just as bad as the past. But in no way shape or form do I carry the guilt of the sins of my ancestors. It is my job to keep striving for better in the here and now, and for generations to come.
I am convinced that there is no greater truth than if we lift the lowest among us we will all rise.
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