Thread by @nicolestamp

Everyone's Asking Their One Black Friend (tm) To Help Them Understand These 4 Things:

1. Is this a good corporate statement?
2. Did that person REALLY die of police brutality...
3. ...Or was it actually mental illness?
4. But if we defund police, what about X?

Answers below:

1. That corp. statement is passive trash, unless:

(A) a huge donation was made, or
(B) a leader is resigning, to be replaced by a BIPOC, or
(C) there's a CONCRETE plan to re-allocate money, access, & influence to BIPOC.

If none: it's no good.

2. Yes, it was police brutality.

3. It can be both: mental illness AND police brutality, and either way, defund the police.

4. Most police calls are about issues the police are ill-equipped to handle.

A shouting soldier with a gun is the wrong choice to help with self-harm, rape, drug ODs, domestic violence.

Defunding the police means:

- Re-directing funding away from police weapons

- Increasing availability of social services, harm reduction, youth programs, addiction & mental health services, etc.

These programs are proven to work.

Ok, so...

... those are the answers, I did it, racism is solved!

Please stop asking your One Black Friend to help you process these ideas this week, as they are sad and busy.

Please, either send them dinner, or leave them alone! 🙂

Also... think about why:

You didn't realize that person might be sad & busy

You thought it was ok to use them as your sounding board on a topic that they are really sad about

You don't have a CLOSER Black friend you could talk to about this stuff, in a truly reciprocal context

Is it possible you expect them to labour with you b/c you have a subconscious belief they're not fully formed people with rich emotions & busy lives?

Teaching & emotional availability are forms of service.
Is it possible you subconsciously believe their role is to serve you?

If this Tweet thread stings, I would ask you to de-centre your feelings, and think about how Black people feel.

These issues are not new. Racism is hundreds of years old. Even the #BLM hashtag is 6 years old.

When people finally acknowledge somthing they've ignored for years...

... can you imagine that it might feel... bad... to the people whose cries for help on this crucial issue have been ignored for decades?

Coming in and demanding a primer on something you chose not to care about for a long long time is entitled and disrespectful.

Plus:

Black people are grieving.

Just as you wouldn't show up at a funeral and start grilling the widow about whether heart attacks matter...

Maybe now's a time to step back,
Read some new voices,

And do CONCRETE THINGS to help:

You'd bring lasagna, not interrogation, to a grieving person.

Black people are grieving.

The lasagna you need to bring today is this set of simple actions.

Do as many as you are able:

🦵March at protests.

💰Donate money.

✏️Write to politicians.

✊Devotedly convince friends & family to be less racist.

👍RE-STRUCTURE everything. TAKE excess power from people who unfairly benefit from racism...

🎯 and EVENLY SHARE power with people from equity-seeing groups.

Those are the only things to do.

None of them are easy.

But that's what needs to be done.

If any person or organization is NOT doing those 6 things?

Then it's the wrong thing. Straight talk.