A friend posted this meme on his FB page a couple of days ago.
My response:
I don't agree with this sentiment - in this context.
It shares the blame of our discord equally, and that's not true or productive.
Black and white discord is caused by white oppression of Black people - past and present.
They have earned our people's distrust, THEY must earn our trust, and we get to say if and when they have done that.
To share the blame equally - as this meme implies - is a form of "Blaming the Victim," while at the same time deluding the victim - Black people - into believing that if we stop having animosity toward white people, then they'll stop shooting us in the streets, poisoning our water, giving us syphilis, or smashing our children on their heads for breaking a no-cell phone rule.
We actually don't have that power, and pretending or deluding ourselves that all we got to do is be kind, understanding, speak well, blah, blah, blah, actually stops us from amassing the real power we need to stop them from bashing our heads in when the feel like it.
Time out for delusions, carrying white folks at our expense, or cliches - even if those cliches come from people we respect like - Martin Luther King.
My response:
I don't agree with this sentiment - in this context.
It shares the blame of our discord equally, and that's not true or productive.
Black and white discord is caused by white oppression of Black people - past and present.
They have earned our people's distrust, THEY must earn our trust, and we get to say if and when they have done that.
To share the blame equally - as this meme implies - is a form of "Blaming the Victim," while at the same time deluding the victim - Black people - into believing that if we stop having animosity toward white people, then they'll stop shooting us in the streets, poisoning our water, giving us syphilis, or smashing our children on their heads for breaking a no-cell phone rule.
We actually don't have that power, and pretending or deluding ourselves that all we got to do is be kind, understanding, speak well, blah, blah, blah, actually stops us from amassing the real power we need to stop them from bashing our heads in when the feel like it.
Time out for delusions, carrying white folks at our expense, or cliches - even if those cliches come from people we respect like - Martin Luther King.
There are better King quotes for these times:
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