Some of you are genuinely surprised & dismayed by the incoming election results & while I'm not, I'm touched by the tenderness present in that.
You genuinely believe that people can show up at the polls & vote in ways that reflect care & freedom for others should be priorities.
Your hope is beautiful. Your hearts are in the right place & it's OK to feel grief over what early projections reflect: some people do not hold the same values that you do.
They do not believe in freedom for all. They do not weep over the pain & loss so many feel.
It is time for you to learn how to hold onto hope while working to disentangle yourself from US American myths.
This country's foundation is rotten. Genocide, exploitation, disenfranchisement, & enslavement were & still are priorities for people - they've just changed forms.
Many people - including those you love & live alongside - are invested in white supremacy, xenophobia, cisheterosexism, & so many other systems/forces that stand in opposition to liberation for us all.
While this is a thing to grieve, it is also something that can motivate.
Let the anger, betrayal, sadness, fury, lament, & other complex emotions you feel push you to release the false notion of people being better than who they choose to be. Then you might find capacity to more effectively consider how your energy and power need to be exercised.
May your embrace of hard truth clarify your commitments. May you be inspired to more fully and intentionally embody love and justice. May you find ways to embrace wisdom that helps you nurture and sustain hope for a tomorrow that looks different from today.
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My spirit won't rest til I speak on this #BreonnaCon situation some more.
One of the things I noticed is that in every promotional photo, #BreonnaTaylor's name is absent & her face is faded or obscured while the images & names of others are clearly seen.
That is the problem.
Even if we assume the best of intent, the organizers of this series of events prioritized branding & gloss over consideration of what it meant to literally obscure the name and face of a very real Black woman who lived and breathed and died at the hands of the police.
What does it mean when people make sure they are seen while the person being grieved is intentionally faded into the background?
What does it mean to for folks to tout that her family consented to this when we haven't afforded them real privacy to acknowledge their loss?