Wednesday, January 4, 2017

To My White and Japanese Friends (Who are not Aliens):



Over the past days / weeks / months / hell, years (smh) quite a number of my white (and some of my Japanese) friends, upon reading my pieces or posts regarding ‪#‎BlackLivesMatter‬, or black feelings in general, say something to the extent of: "I sympathize with you but I can't truly empathize because I'm not black" or "I don't feel it's my place to be outraged or to express outrage over what's happening because I'm not black, therefore I'm racially incapable of fully grasping the situation emotionally." If these generalities are not you, then this is not meant for you. For those of you who these statements do represent to some extent the thoughts that go through your head, I wanna help you out because PERHAPS you are an ally, and BLM needs all the non-black allies it can get. Try this: imagine a close friend of yours, one of your black friends, a guy or girl you know to be of the finest quality person...imagine waking to find a Youtube video in your feed of him / her being stopped at a traffic light, getting into a dispute with a white police officer, in a heated exchange, saying something to the officer you might perceive as escalating the situation like, "Who the fuck do you think you are, talking to me like that??? Show me the same goddamn respect you'd show me if I were white! It's my motherfucking taxes that pay your salary, too!!"travolta

And then suddenly having his or her brain splattered all over the car's interior (See John Travolta vs That Black Guy in Pulp Fiction -- or dig through the archives of black snuff films on Youtube -- there's sure to be one that'll help you with the visualization if you need visual aides)

  marvin1

Now imagine the district attorney, friend to the cops, refuses to indict. And your president refuses to instruct the justice department to get involved (though it's clear from the lines he drops in speech after speech that he gets it!). Now imagine that cop has been reprimanded in years past for brutality, or has been admonished for his unseemly (for a law enforcement officer working in a black community) ties to certain fringe white supremacist groups. And after a six month paid leave he's transferred to another area and resumes his career. Just in time for the one year anniversary of the "accidental" slaying of your friend.

How would you feel? Do you feel like there's been an injustice done? Do you feel like your friend would be alive now if not for his / her skin color? Do you think, knowing that no one is to be punished for this "accident", that their life was lost in a manner that indicated that it didn't really matter much? How would you feel if you checked the feed and every other story contains a video of your friend's demise? How would you feel if the biggest story on the network news that night is the ABSOLUTE OUTRAGE people feel over the killing of a lion by a fucking dentist? People are going absolutely apeshit because this guy took a picture with the lion and had the audacity to post it online for the world to see!

  lion

 How would you feel if the comments attached to the video of your friend's death say things like "N----r had it coming to him! Shoulda known better than to talk to cops that way! Betcha the next n----r'll show some respect for the badge!" Or if your liberal white friends say things like, "ALL Lives Matter!" "Blue Lives Matter More! They're heroes, and they've got a right to go home to their families every night!"

 How would you feel when you see your friend's mother, distraught, overwhelmed with grief, say to you something like, "thank you for your kindness, for being a friend to my baby. He/She really treasured your friendship, spoke of you often..." How would you feel if a couple of days / weeks later, there's a rerun of this incident / accident. Not your friend this time. Just some random black person. BUT, almost the same circumstances (traffic stop, angry compliance, same excuse - he/she reached for a gun, had a knife, wouldn't follow my orders, I was scared for my life!) same cellphone / street cam videos, same fiery protests, same indifference from your friends, same bullshit, and essentially the SAME outcome. Only thing different is your friends are done with the Lion story and have moved on Trump (the so-called new Hitler) or other current events of consequence...

  trum hitler

Now this part I don't expect you to be able to imagine, but try. Imagine it happens again, and again, and again...imagine it has been happening since your friend was a child. Since his/her parents were children. Since his/her grandparents were children. Just that then it wasn't on video. Wasn't even televised, never made the news even. And it wasn't just cops doing the "accidenting" It was the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker, with white hoods over their heads. For almost the same reason...some n----g got uppity and lipped off, or had an uppity look in his eye...

How do you feel? Feel like you could cry? Feel like you could scream? Feel hopeless? Feel angry? Feel tired? Feel emotionally exhausted? Feel like fighting? Feel like you could destroy something...EASILY? Feel panicky? Fear for your family's safety? Fear for your own safety? Feel like you could kill somebody that actually matters, (cuz obviously your friend and people who favor your friend do not)? Feel like if this is as good as life gets, why would I wanna stay here?

Feel like LOVE is gonna come and save the day? Feel like Jesus is gonna come back and save you from this hellish earthly existence if you follow his word? Do you? Of course you do! Cuz you're human. You'd have to be a fucking alien not to feel this!

 So PLEASE stop telling me you can't identify completely. You can. Just takes an effort.

 So what you gonna do now?

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