Dahna M. Chandler shared Shannon Sharpes video. · Shannon Sharpe is right on point when he says to white people not to tell us how to think, feel or how to conceptualize what we experience as it regards race in America. They should not be telling us how long we should grieve over whats happening, either. A few months ago, I unfriended someone who had been a long time Facebook friend for that because it made me SO angry that she KEPT insisting she had a right to tell us how to think about whats happening to us in America. (No, doing the right thing by fighting the injustices against us does not give you the right to tell us how to think or feel about them or how long or how to grieve them!) Black people do NOT need to be told how to think of the world we live in by white people, especially those trying to keep their own power and privilege by keeping us oppressed. We also dont like silencing tactics like trying to make us feel guilty, calling us whiners, telling us were inciting racial hatred, telling us we should pursue peace and forgive rather than protest oppression and injustice against us and, in many cases, outright telling us we should be quiet for the comfort of white people. Refusing to listen is unacceptable to us, too. All of that is wrong, disrespectful and inappropriate and such microaggressions only compound the pain we already feel. Yes, we realize white people alive today didnt set up the current racist structure or enslave us but most sure dont mind continuing to benefit under that structure that privileges them and values their lives over ours. In fact, many would love to keep things the way they are and force us to keep silent, dont protest and dont try to change things, even if it means continuing often inhumane treatment toward us, costing more of our lives and keeping us oppressed. Finally, were not dumb children. We dont like being told that what we saw and/or heard should be interpreted differently from what we actually saw and heard. We SAW #EricGarner murdered on that 7 minute video recording! We HEARD him say I cant breathe 11 times. We heard the coroner say that man was murdered by an illegal #chokehold. We saw a modern-day lynching! Yet, we are told thats not what we should believe we saw and because it was a white cop (with a long history of racist violence against African Americans) committing this act against a black man, it should be interpreted as something other than it was because the perpetrator was white and white is always right. We wont be silent until this system is no longer structured to destroy us and its enforcers, who are actively trying to destroy us, are stopped. And, we WILL discomfort the comfortable of any race as long as its necessary for that change to happen. If they want to stop hearing about it, white folks are going to have to be a part of this whether theyre comfortable with it or not. WELL SAID, DAUGHTER!
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 00:26:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015