Actually it’s not when we are speaking about racism against Black people in America. Challenging what Black people are telling white people about their own experiences is what white people have done historically in this country to minimize the hatred, brutality, and iron-fisted supremacy they have perpetrated against my people. You do not live in America nor are you Black so you simply aren’t equipped to speak on the Black experience in America. You just aren’t and there’s no way around it no matter how long your responses become. I think this is the angst with white people because our experience with racism is not something they can articulate since they aren’t Black, and giving up that control of dominating every interaction is probably quite frustrating.
I did not say the things you said I did, with the exception of the last quote you copied. You paraphrased my words based on your own interpretation. Of course Black people know there are other atrocities around the world. We are connected to others who are oppressed. But until I hear a white person say to a Jewish person “But what about all the other people suffering in the world? Why are you still taking about the Holocaust? You’re playing the race card!” then I will call these “whataboutisms” white people keep bombarding Black people with simply because the loss of Black lives means nothing to them exactly what they are: yet another way to minimize and zero out Black trauma. What you are saying is nothing new.
And as for you comment about Black people supposedly saying what happened to us is more traumatic than any other oppression, POPPYCOCK. No Black person wants to be an athlete in the Oppression Olympics. We have empathy and compassion for others and would never minimize pain as white people constantly do to us. We are TIRED of fighting for our own lives and then fighting white people who continue and disregard the disgraced way we and our ancestors have been dehumanized in this country.
If a woman is beaten by her husband, she doesn’t want to hear, “I know you’re hurt, but so many other women around the world are abused too. What about them?” If a child is bullied, the parents don’t want the school to say, “I know your child was bullied, but so many kids are bullied around the world. Why is your kid special?” If an elderly person is attacked, and it’s your parent, you don’t want the police to say, “The elderly are targets everywhere. What about those people who were beaten just as bad as your mother?” And then follow that with a list of all the elderly people who were abused to further diminish your mother’s assault.
No one wants to hear “whataboutisms” when they are speaking on their own pain. And white people keep showing their hand every time they have a problem with a Black person speaking their own opinion. We don’t need your approval or permission or direction on how to speak on what directly affects us. And the fact that you choose to focus on EVERYTHING ELSE EXCEPT RACISM IN AMERICA speaks volumes. You don’t even live here so it gives a window to how others around the world may feel about Black trauma and again, sadly, it’s not surprising.
No one is saying you can’t have an opinion, but if you are a decent human being, why is it so important to challenge the suffering and dehumanization of Black people and no one else? This is a common theme that Black people are not confused about. It is only our trauma that is ever questioned, as if our history was some fabrication and didn’t actually happen, or that what we are still enduring is just a figment of our imagination. I use Jewish people often as an example because you will NEVER hear Americans speak ill of the horrific experience of the Holocaust. That would be grounds for public humiliation among other things. But people here, and apparently all over the world, have ZERO problem with weighing Black trauma against the trauma of others in the world and deciding that what is STILL happening to us doesn’t matter.
And we do not fear anyone here. Black people are not out for revenge. We don’t think like white people. White people operate out of hate and violence, this country was built on that foundation, so they fear Black people will try to “get even.” If that’s what we wanted we could have done that decades ago. Despite everything white people did and are STILL doing to us, we just want AN ANTI-RACIST SOCIETY. EQUALITY. JUSTICE. PEACE. THE ABILITY TO BUILD GENERATIONAL WEALTH. TO BE REGARDED AS INDIVIDUALS AND NOT AS A MONOLITHIC GROUP. And to just be left alone, without the insidious shadow of racism covering our heads and our children’s heads, our parents’ heads, and our grandparents’ heads. No one is interested in getting back at white folk. Their fate has already been sealed and not by us.
