Thread by @SingsongRaptor

#DisabledBlackTalk honest to gods I swear white ppl shouldn't share graphic photos/vids of violence against Black ppl. Y'all lack the range, the nuance, the understanding of when/why/how to use them. Y'all still lack the respect for our bodies, our lives, our humanity

Ppl that do trigger warnings for everything else be glossing over Black trauma and brutality and literally don't even realize it, don't even see it sometimes. #DisabledBlackTalk

Y'all don't do this to white victims
Y'all don't do this to animals.
The stripping of our dignity and humanity, of respect, reducing us to talking points, to exhibits, to signs, to *things*, to props, to entertainment, to scary events is deeply ingrained
#DisabledBlackTalk

Y'all ain't letting us tell our story, letting us choose how we share, what we share, when we share, why we share. You're not listening to the families and communities of the ppl turned hashtags, the ppl turned Pulitzer Prize photos
#DisabledBlackTalk

It doesn't even occur to y'all to check and see if the families and communities want you sharing that content. Some of them might, most of them don't. They want their loved one remembered, discussed and portrayed as a person, not displayed like a dissection lab #DisabledBlackTalk

Y'all don't question or analyze why these graphic images and videos are so readily and quickly spread by the media. It's a death voyeurism, turning us into a fright attraction, a horror movie. Something you don't really have to internalize and care about #DisabledBlackTalk

Cuz horror movies aren't real and can't hurt you. Facebook and Twitter censors graphic imagery of white suffering, and animal crielty. When the victims of brutality are white or white passing or are animals you get a button to click to uncover it. Not Black ppl #DisabledBlackTalk

Facebook has been an absolute nightmare for my mental health bcuz of non Black ppl, and white ppl specifically, cavalierly sharing traumatic content, thoughtlessly, ignorantly (and I mean that in a true sense, in that it escaped their notice) #DisabledBlackTalk

That's why I'm talking about it in the tag, cuz I'm disabled and Black and I need to talk about much ppl really do not consider the mental health and humanity of Black ppl even when they genuinely care. #DisabledBlackTalk

We ain't even gon get into how cops consistently try to blame us for our deaths at their hands bcuz of the high prevalence of disability and chronic illness in Black communities. As if their brutality was an unfortunate coincidence to our deaths #DisabledBlackTalk

Part of the reason I'm so incredibly pissed about this widespread thoughtless, ignorant sharing of Black death by white ppl is bc of how many of them think they're doing us a favor #DisabledBlackTalk

They go on about how they *need* to see it and *need* to share it. To understand and make other's see the fear, hopelessness, disgust, and tiredness we feel. actual words said to me by an extremely white woman, like bitch you literally could never #DisabledBlackTalk

This is centering whiteness by the way. If you're more concerned with shaming/guilting/horrifying other white ppl than uplifting, protecting, amplifying Black ppl then you're still centering whiteness. You're not focused on liberation you're on a crusade #DisabledBlackTalk

If you're hurting or potentially hurting Black people just to score points and yell at ppl you're doing it wrong. If you're talking over Black ppl you're doing it wrong. #DisabledBlackTalk

If your Black friend comes to you and patiently explains that spreading traumatizing content about her ppl in the way you're doing is more harmful than helpful and you tell her that you're going to keep doing it that is not ok. #DisabledBlackTalk

Saying your desire to use her ppl's suffering as a bludgeon is more important than the mental health or respect and humanity of the dead and their families and community is some hella white savior bullshit and it's arrogant as hell #DisabledBlackTalk

Telling her and others to stay off social media bcuz you can't be bothered to get over your ego and belief that you know best for someone else's liberation is just... if white folks got nothing else they have the audacity #DisabledBlackTalk

And all this thinking you understand what I feel? That our feelings of exhaustion and fear and disgust are the same, that you seeing a Black person murdered is the same as me seeing it? #DisabledBlackTalk

The absolute arrogance of thinking you could. The incredible audacity of conflating your disgust, fear, tiredness, hopelessness to mine. You ain't tired like I am. You ain't disgusted like me. It's not possible and offensive to think it is. #DisabledBlackTalk

This what Black folks mean when they talk about white allies doing too much and harming us. #DisabledBlackTalk

This person flatly ignored my feelings, carefully articulated just for her but phrased to be general so she ain't feel attacked. She don't even realize that she's already inured to the violent images. You all are, that's why it flies over your head so often #DisabledBlackTalk

That nobody stops you or talks to you (that ain't Black) is a testament to it. When ppl post brutality against kids (that ain't Black), women (that ain't Black), and animals there's an immediate call to trigger warn or cover so ppl can protect themselves. #DisabledBlackTalk

But nobody thinks about protecting Black ppl, even when they care, they forget our collective, generational trauma. They forget to ask, to look out for, to warn. It never even crosses their minds. #DisabledBlackTalk

Or they think they can dismiss it, bcuz what they want or think is good is more important. They demand we just vacate the area instead of understanding that THIS IS OUR SPACE and OUR people.#DisabledBlackTalk

This is our lives being cut open like an anatomy of cruelty and oppression class. Dissected with detached calculation, giddy discomfort, immature laughter, sick glee. And the glee can come from trying to be an ally too #DisabledBlackTalk

Glee at having the power to shame and traumatize others. Like PE/TA and their hideous campaigns, it's raising "awareness" thru sickening usage of another living being's suffering and death. #DisabledBlackTalk

It's one thing when the family of the deceased decides to share and encourages doing so, but as I said earlier, I know ain't nobody check with the family of George Floyd. He won't be remembered as a person first. #DisabledBlackTalk

The media spreads this shit the way they do for that reason. White folks really need to examine why they *need* to share it or see it themselves, why they don't even notice how differently Black suffering and death is depicted and shared #DisabledBlackTalk

Also, what exactly do you really hope to accomplish? Cuz you're also gonna stir up a lot of hate and disengagement. Some ppl will resent you for the way you're using our horrid deaths to bait them into caring and then decide not to care. #DisabledBlackTalk

So worried about looking woke and them Good Ally© points that you're doing harm and too wrapped in your ego and white saviorism to listen, to think you can tell a Black person that their mental anguish is an ok price for your "activism" #DisabledBlackTalk

Don't even realize you just told a Black person that they gotta suffer bcuz you're doing "awareness", that they should cut off their disabled support network just to avoid being repeatedly triggered by your arrogant bullshit. #DisabledBlackTalk

Why do you need to see a man suffocate and die in agony to believe that Black people are oppressed. Why do you need to see/hear the anguish and distress of the witnesses in the video and the callous, sadistic, attitudes of the cops. #DisabledBlackTalk

Why do you need to spread it so badly that you don't care if Black ppl are asking you to stop, are saying it's harmful. Like at least consider adding a trigger warning so Black ppl can avoid it! #DisabledBlackTalk

I know the community is divided on the issue of sharing graphic imagery of police brutality, but that's for us to hash out and make decisions on, which is why I'm at the point of I don't think white folks should be allowed to share it. #DisabledBlackTalk

And considering the really problematic antiblackness in other communities of color I can't say I'm really for them sharing it either. Another reason more and more Black ppl are speaking out about saying Black when you mean Black, not POC. #DisabledBlackTalk

Cuz POC regularly throw us under the bus, demand our labor, appropriate our cultures and uphold white supremacy. And their struggles are not our struggles and they deserve to be heard separate from us just like we need our unique struggles heard #DisabledBlackTalk

This why "not all white ppl" shit annoys the fuck outta me. Cuz yes, it is all of y'all. Even when you don't mean to be, even when you don't want to be, it's still all y'all, even when you're doing your best and trying to help, even when you're in the streets #DisabledBlackTalk

I literally couldn't sleep bcuz white friends who are doing their best are still overlooking the importance of trigger warnings and Black suffering. They still not seeing to look out for Black ppl's mental well-being. #DisabledBlackTalk

Only one is deliberately ignoring Black ppl's mental well-being and refusing to consider what is and isn't her lane and responsibility, but racism doesn't need to be deliberate. White supremacy, white saviorism, white ignorance, don't need to be deliberate. #DisabledBlackTalk

This is what we mean when we say follow Black ppl's lead and stay in your lane. Nobody asked her to share that shit and "raise awareness" like that, and she's so stuck on her ideas of what being an ally looks like that she thinks she can understand my trauma while trampling on it

You can't understand someone's trauma if you're too wrapped up in vindictive usage of it to make other ppl stop being abusive or support the ending of abuse. You weren't asked to do that and it's not on you to decide how someone else should fight or heal #DisabledBlackTalk

And even then, it's an intellectual understanding, not a visceral one! There's no comparable trauma a white person could ever feel to the subjugation Black ppl have suffered for centuries. #DisabledBlackTalk

I cannot tell you how incredibly angry I am that she had the audacity to say she's trying to make other white ppl feel what I feel and see what I see and that she feels and sees what I do. And to say that forcing them to view disturbing material is key to that and more important

Than protecting and looking out for the well-being of the Black people that follow her. But then, it's possible I'm the only Black person on her friend's list or the only one who will engage.

Listen, if a Black person takes the time to talk to you/correct you then know they're trying to help you do better and actually tryna stay your friend. Never hearing from your Black friends one way or the other is a bad thing. It means they don't trust you.

Don't trust you to listen, or stand up for them in the comments of your posts. I already knew not all my non Black friends would be safe or trustworthy and some would put their ego and white supremacy over actually doing good listening and good work, but whew #DisabledBlackTalk

Last one I swear, it says a lot that I feel the need to still hedge and give ppl a way to know I'm not scolding them specifically or not accusing them of being deliberate before anyone even sees it. I'm too tired to hear floods of apologies and pushback for bruised egos.