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Can we for real make #collectyourcousins a thing? Black folks are constantly collecting their cousins bc 1 black person acting a fool can have far reaching consequences for all of us. White folks don’t seem to feel as implicated by the failures or foolishness of other white folks
I propose #collectyourcousins as a call to allies to come respond to racist (sexist, cissexist, ableist, homophobic) comments by similarly identified people. White women collecting white women. Straight men collecting straight men. Cis folks collecting cis folks.
The appeal of #collectyourcousins in two-fold for me. 1: Privileged folks often respond defensively especially to marginalized folks calling them on such privilege or ignorance. They have a harder time being dismissive of folks with shared identities.
2. We tired. Black folk tired. Trans folk tired. Women tired. Disabled folk tired. Sometimes it’s nice to be able to say “Can someone else please deal with this nonsense for me?”
So I’m gonna start using #collectyourcousins when I don’t have the energy, patience or time to respond to someone acting outta pocket. I will happily respond to calls for me to collect my cis & nondisabled cousins for my trans, non-binary & disabled comrades.
Let’s all practice showing up for one another & educating those close/similar to us. At minimum, maybe more folks will re-consider coming at vocal marginalized people so often on this platform. It’s not enough to know better, we gotta help others know better too.
