,
5 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
So I was talking with one of my favorite people, @_celia_bedelia_ and we went off on a tangent about what it means to be from Michigan. For those who aren’t from the mitt, that means we were talking about being two white girls from a casually racist blue collar state.
I’ve wrestled a lot with this. I have a desire to separate Michigan from other states who claim “economic anxiety.” We were the birthplace of the US unionized assembly line. For a time, Detroit was at least an ok place for black folks. (Shouldnt that be enough?? Sheesh amirite)
I mean, we were Motown. Surely this means we cared about black folks right? No? Wait exploitation for profit isn’t the same as caring? And people of all races got fucked over by the automakers. Shouldn’t that matter? (That’s a lie, it wasn’t all races and Motown moved to LA)
We talked about how as younger women we had come to grips with this. Realizing what we had been taught was a right bit of bullshit. Realizing we didn’t deserve credit at all for liking music by black people because well, it was very good and also wtf why would we get credit?
I went into a public Michigan university believing racism was over. And here’s the message: it wasn’t. It isn’t. Well intentioned people jump the gun and say problematic shit. Pay attention. This is embarrassing to write. Don’t be like me. Get it early and fix it always.
