I’ve been thinking about the dynamics of communities a lot lately, mostly because it’s my job. And so today when I saw @Russian_Starr commentary on Mitch’s article about @RashidaTlaib - it reminded me of one of the greatest struggles marginalized communities face: erasure. 1/
What @freep allowed Mitch to do was erase an entire community by writing a narrative that carries the odor of a person who does not know the people who made Detroit, the communities that are responsible for its survival, the people who have continuously fought to never give up 2/
His column read the way someone who commutes to Detroit for a tigers game would view the city and its people: whiter than it is, richer than it is, “new” 3/
But these are the narratives that harm the groups from which the “rebirth” was built. These are the narratives that pretend like bootstraps are a pathway to success when someone still need to give you boots in the first place. These are the narratives that selectively witness. 4/
Because what @MitchAlbom wrote about @RashidaTlaib is reflective of a refusal to witness the work that she’s done to be trusted by the people that elected her. 5/
He refuses to witness the work she has done to earn the trust and respect of Michiganders of color who have felt erased and oppressed by this state and its emergency financial managers for far too long. 6/
He refuses to witness that what she said is what has been ignored by people like him in these communities for far too long. Ignoring the racialized ways development in Detroit intentionally displaces the POC that stayed. Ignoring the safety of the schools children are sent to. 7/
Ignoring the stress a wildly inadequate public transportation system places on people with disabilities and people lacking the financial means to buy individual transportation. 8/
What he really said in that column is he’s tired of hearing from the oppressed because their language offends his ears more than the conditions that take their lives. 9/
What he should’ve said is “I don’t care about your suffering and the stress that a violently racist and xenophobic president places on your life daily. I don’t care about the fears you have about the safety of your children b/c of empowered white supremacists.” 10/
He could not possibly care, because if he did, he would not waste time writing words about how her language stresses him out - he’d be writing about how the conditions of this country keep him from sleeping at night. But he won’t, b/c he can’t. 11/
Until children are not being killed by the US government, don’t tell me shit about how the language we use to discuss the abhorrent conditions of this nation sound. I lose sleep thinking about injustice - you lose sleep over the term m-fucker. 12/
