The fear and extreme discomfort with black anger I see tells me that most white people have NEVER been in black-centered spaces. Or around black people who trust them enough to share a full range of human emotion.
Black anger is not any more scary than white anger. But most of us have been taught that black anger is to be feared. That’s dangerous for everyone.
If you have been in a black-centered space as a white person, you probably felt extremely uncomfortable and fled as soon as possible.
What I’m seeing on Twitter and other social media platforms is that black voices are taking over the conversation... and that is very threatening to some folks. Ask yourself why.
We’ve all normalized white anger.
The discrepancy with how we treat anger is one reason why some protests are framed differently than others. White people protesting stay-at-home orders with assault rifles, screaming at police are standing up for their rights. Normalized anger.
Black people protesting injustice and systemic racism are perceived as stoking division and inciting violence, at best. At worst, we are violent thugs who must be shot, gassed and beaten to make sure we don’t lose control and destroy the city.
When an extremely small minority of black protestors loot or riot, it immediately becomes a violent protest in the eyes of many. When white folks riot, it’s “just a few bad apples” or in the case of post-championship riots: kids blowing off steam.
On a personal note, this hurts. A lot.
Getting angry in public is a risk for me. I do not get to bring my full self into this world without great personal risk. That is dehumanizing.
That’s why Trayvon Martin was so upsetting. We don’t get to “stand our ground”. If we fight back against someone threatening our lives, we are killed without consequences. And then told our murderer was protecting himself from a confrontation he started.
White people yelling at law enforcement is WILD to me. Especially in traffic stops. Like, do you know how careful we have to be?
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