If you're making the choice to stay silent on this issue let me take what remains of my patience and generosity and say this to you:
Your silence can only be received as either support or indifference. If you're a supporter, I have no idea how you started following me-- maybe it was for the jokes. Well I don't do that anymore, now I just talk about race revolution and lifting weights. You'll find the unfriend button if you hover over my photo. So long, and I'll see you during the revolt.
Now if you're gonna claim indifference I'm gonna exhaust my generosity here and give you the benefit of doubt. I'm not going to think of you as a used condom full of diarrhea. I should, and by all rights I'd be justified in thinking of you that way; this isn't an issue you should want to be indifferent on. But I'm not gonna go in on you like that. Instead I'm going to think of you as a coward. That seems mean but I'm trying to reach out here, really I am, because I do get it.
It's scary and hard to take the steps away from apathy. Apathy is safe. Apathy means not feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, or frustrated. Apathy means not feeling hurt, or in despair, or weak or powerless. Apathy means being able to say "I really don't want to deal with that, oooh look, cat videos."
You won't find a single person of color who doesn't desperately want to be able to spend their time not worrying about race and racial violence and instead just watch videos of animals being funny and adorable. But being Black and in America means that not one of us has the option of indifference. I don't get to say "I'm not even looking at anything to do with Charleston, hey who's watching that series Sense8?" That's a luxury no Black person can afford. It's a privilege. A white privilege.
Yes, you have those--white privileges. Yes YOU. I know you may have had a life of difficulty and struggle, I'm not trying to diminish that. But the specter of "I might be killed just because I'm white" doesn't loom over you. You also have inherent biases.
Yes, all white people have inherent biases which propagate supremacy. All of you. If you think you don't have those biases it's because you step on the conveyor belt of your life and go through each day without really examining your thoughts and actions on the matter. And in that most simple of ways, you contribute to white supremacy. I know that's a scary fucking thought. I get it.
I'm a man who's a student of feminism, wherein I learned-- and continue to learn on a daily basis-- all about the inherent biases I have which propagate male supremacy. That's not fun. It sucks and it's scary to think of myself like that and it's terrifying to think of all the ways I've made life harder for other people. I don't want to think of myself that way nor do I want to be responsible for the oppression of other people. And it's because I don't want to think of myself like that, because I don't want to be responsible for that oppression, because I don't want to make life harder for others, I've committed myself to rooting out those toxic portions of myself. It's difficult, yes, exceedingly. But it's important and more to the point, it's necessary. So I don't cower from that task, I embrace it and try to change myself and others.
When you as a white person take on silence, take on indifference, you admit defeat to cowardice. You cower in the face of the important and vital work that needs doing. You fail not only to differentiate yourself from the Dylann Roof's and confederate flag wavers out here, but most importantly you fail to take on the task of dismantling the systems which create Dylann Roof.
And make no mistake, that is YOUR task. It's my task as well but it's definitively your task. If you are White and in America you are in the best position to help end white supremacy and it is your moral duty to do so. White people created White supremacy, White people still benefit from White supremacy, everyday. Yes, that means you.
And again I understand that it's scary. It's scary to see the words "white supremacy" attached to your name probably. It's definitely scary to think about all the people in your family and friends who you know that label applies to. I have no doubt whatsoever that it's terrifying to think about confronting those friends and family members and potentially losing them from your life. Scary, definitely. I charge you with the task of doing it nonetheless.
I do that to help you, all of us really. Because the first and most meaningful act of revolt is to take away people's indifference. So now you no longer get to sit on the sidelines. You now have to make a choice: do you want white supremacists and the benefits of white supremacy in your life, no matter how many more churches are shot up, no matter the cost in lives...or do you want to stand, truly, righteously, on the side of freedom and equality to create a world where a generation of people will truly, never experience this shit outside of reading about it in a book?
This is a test of your character. It takes nothing for you to ignore this; continue to pretend blindness, go click on another cat video and I'll see you during the revolt.
It requires everything you are to step into the fight. Not for kudos or like/fav/shares or gentle fuckings or whatever. Don't do it for the optics of how it makes you look. But if you believe in a world free of supremacy, if you truly believe that days like yesterday and today never have to happen again, if you believe in freedom and equality for all not just as buzz-words or meaningless recitations, then stand up. Throw away your silence and your indifference and be willing to march, scream, fight, loose friends and family, risk jail, jesus christ just fucking FEEL even when it sucks and the struggle makes you feel depressed and exhausted and frustrated and angry.
If you're willing to do that then we're waiting for you, join us.
Because, and this is the part you really have to pay attention to, we need you. We need your help.
Understand that America is a fucking Medusa with snakes reaching out in many forms of systemic racism and the only way to defeat this shit is to cut off the head and show it to itself. White supremacy is not going to dismantle itself and our voices alone aren't going to bring about the necessary change. We know, we've tried that in the past and it didn't work. Your whiteness lends a power and credibility to your voice that we simply aren't afforded. We need the power of your voices to speak to those people who steadfastly refuse to hear us.
People like fucking Nikki Haley who even now refuse to listen to us even on simple solution issues like TAKING DOWN THE FUCKING CONFEDERATE FLAG outside the South Carolina Statehouse. Black voices don't get through to her. Yours will.
It's time to step up. We aren't even at the revolution, these are the beginnings of the revolt. Choose your side, and I hope to see you standing next to me on the front lines whatever and wherever they may end up being, but get off the fucking bench.
