Okay, fine, I understand the danger in lumping people into categories. Like All Republicans or All Liberals or All Muslims or All Hispanics. Using the word ALL is a dangerous thing. However, everyone, ALL of us, absolutely need to acknowledge what is happening in our country and choose whether or not they condone it. There is no gray line here, there is no middle of the road. You’re either with the oppressed and you desire to help fix the situation or you are as bad as the oppressor for tolerating the evil and the hate. There is no excuse, there are no reasons, this is completely unjustifiable.
And do NOT try to tell me that there are two sides. No. I don’t want to have to give you that face I make when my eyes get all wide and my jaw juts out in disdain.
Let’s be clear.
One of these things is not like the other.
White Supremacy is not, in any way, the same as the Black Lives Matter movement.
Don’t say it. Don’t even think it.
Don’t try to convince me, don’t make an argument.
You’re wrong.
Listen to me. Black Live Do Matter. And when I say that I am not also saying that other lives matter less or more. I’m not.
Black lives matter is a statement, it means exactly what it says it means.
It DOES NOT MEAN that black people think their lives are more important than anyone else.
White Supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of all other races. That is also a plain and simple statement.
I’m not inferring thing here, it is a FACT.
If you’re hurt by this there is nothing I can do to change your hurt, but please know that there is no such thing as reverse racism.
You see, the people who are the most privileged seem to be the same people who talk about reverse racism and who have a problem with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Do you know why?
Because they are privileged and it doesn’t concern them, they haven’t experienced the problem and so it isn’t real.
White privilege exists my friends. And if you think I’m wrong than I’m pretty confident you are benefiting from said privileges. An example, I know my boys can wear whatever they want without instantly being labeled a thug, low life etc. I’ve said this before, I have no worries about sending my boys down to get the mail from the mailbox wearing a hoodie. It wouldn’t cross my mind to tell them to consider changing before they left the house that way. Just typing that seems ludicrous, right? It sounds ridiculous and yet it is true. Especially when hate filled people can put a white hood on their head with only eye holes, light a torch and walk down the street screaming about Jews, and somehow that is okay…
Furthermore, I’ve been in a classroom where I was the minority only once while in college. But I’ve been in a classroom dozens of times where I was in the majority and I have seen, dozens of times, professors specifically call on a black student for their opinion because they are black. I can’t even imagine how it must feel to be questioned as if I were the sole representative for my entire race. And don’t even get me started on the people who are mad about affirmative action with employers! No one questions why a white person gets a really great job, it’s assumed that they were the best qualified candidate. #Whiteprivilege
So in writing this and re-writing and erasing and deleting and drafting and starting over… I am asking myself why it is so difficult to write this post.
It is difficult because I am angry. And when I am angry I have a hard time forming words that will then make sense.
Charlottesville is a city in Virginia. Virginia is a state in the United States. It is the year 2017. Why in the name of God and all that is good in this universe did a group of mostly white males think it would be okay to light torches and walk through the night proclaiming that they are a superior race? And this isn’t the first time, the photo here is from another rally last month!
What kind of backwards, cluster of a racist mess must exist in their brains and in their hearts, for them to feel it was in any way okay to do what they did?
And they say it is because of a statue!?
You know the confederates were committing treason against the United States when they tried to separate from the North because they were defending slavery. Historic monument or not why would you want to maintain a legacy of inequality? Doesn’t seem very patriotic to me. These statues memorialize a time when our courts held that black people were only three-fifths human. And there is still so much inequality in our country, so the removal of monuments that represent the ideology of white supremacy is a step in the right direction.
And due to the evilness in Virginia, due to their pure hatred, three people died this past weekend.
Heather Heyer, a Charlottesville resident was 32 years old, she was peacefully protesting against the neo-nazis, she is dead now because one of the men who was part of the neo-nazi group decided to plow his car into the people protesting his evil.
Two state troopers, Pilot Lt. H. Jay Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates, also died Saturday, when their helicopter crashed as they were heading towards the scene.
In total, at least 34 people were wounded and Governor Terry McAuliffe of Virginia declared a state of emergency.
It is something I cannot begin to understand, nor do I want to understand it. How can hating people and believing you are better than someone else ever be the answer?
So why, in this lovely year of 2017, are there hundreds of organized, official, documented HATE GROUPS in this country that I was one proud to call my home?
While there are so many suffering, struggling, treated unfairly and unjustly, while there is such evil, discrimination, hatred and racism in the United States, I cannot say that I am proud. And honestly, in many ways, I never should have been proud. While the United States has made great strides in improving equality there is still very far to go.
The fact that I had to write something similar to this not long ago is also very distressing to me.
Our President and his administration are part of the problem. They care only about money, power and status. They do not care about people, or the environment. To the current administration the only thing that seems to matter is how much money is lining their pockets. The fact that hate crimes are through the roof and that many of the perpetrators are thanking Trump, just sickens me.
His idiotic, uneducated, whining tweets sicken me.
“Made additional remarks on Charlottesville and realize once again that the #Fake News Media will never be satisfied…truly bad people!”
“Truly bad people!” The press, not the Nazis. I just can’t even.
All of this being said. As a human race, we’re not perfect. None of us, and we all should always be working on being better people. We should have open minds and open hearts. We should strive not to tolerate each other, but to respect and accept each other.
Our differences and the worlds injustices go beyond color. We are divided by race, by gender, by sexual identity, we are divided by religion, by politics and by class. We are a united nation that is so utterly divided it is heart breaking. And the worst part about it is all the millions of people who think I’m wrong.
Don’t let racism and hate and evilness happen around you. Don’t stand there in silence and say that you are not those things. When you see people being oppressed and you choose not to do something then you are, too, their oppressor.
WAKE UP!
Wake up and stand up and speak out!
And then keep doing it. Admitting you see the problem does not fix the problem. There is much to be done.
One day I hope we can all celebrate our differences, and on that day, truly stand united.
Now, there is a positive note in all of this, and that is the thousands of people who put together peaceful rallies to show solidarity.
