Sitting here hungry, thinking about the first week of the 2020 protests when I tried to catch a gas canister off the first bounce and it ended up being a flashbang.
I ran around deaf and half blind for a while minute. Shout out to the homies.
We were real traumatized out there. Some of us have yet to recover.
Apr 5, 2022 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
Betsy Johnson has the support of the cops, big timber, the PDX business community and Nike. And when I say "support", I mean she has around $5M in campaign funds and no one else in the governor's race is anywhere near close.
Where is the resistance?
Betsy is a Joe Manchin style Democrat-turned-Independent.
Low scores on labor, environment, gun control, etc. Not a Republican in name, but for reasons unbeknownst.
Apr 4, 2022 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
This response is hilarious.
I made zero judgement on people who watch wrestling. Y'all on here making my point while asking what it is 🤣
America: Where everybody is ready to fake fight over things that don't actually matter instead of focusing on making the very obvious changes that are within reach.
Mar 29, 2022 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
Abolishing police without constructing and using publicly accepted restorative justice practices IN REALITY simply leads to increased public support of policing and vigilantism.
We have to create the alternative we want to see. We have to communicate it. We have to model it.
People keep asking where leftists collectively lost the carrot and its right there.
Why do mostly white anon leftists attack leftists of color? Because leftists of color typically work in actual physical communities where RJ is used in praxis.
So they call us all apologists.
Mar 29, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I think it's weird when people get mad at normal questions in anticipation that the honest answer might damage their worldview.
People get so focused on searching for The Truth that they build and create schools of thought that narrow their perceptions.
This is normally what religion does, but nowadays people just create dogma as we go along.
Thus we always need to clarify terms. Start on the same page.
Mar 28, 2022 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
I don't know but when I was in 1st grade, we went on a field trip and some boy pushed me - the only Black boy in the class - into a duck pond.
After being fished out (I couldn't swim) I was forced to forgive the other boy and left to dry off while the other kids played games. 🤷🏾♂️
Far worse things have happened since, but I hadn't thought about that in a while and it popped out as the moment I stopped fucking with people.
Feb 3, 2021 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
When I was a senior at Grant, I was given extra credit to attend a zero-period class about policing.
I believe it was a YGAT initiative. I sat in that class w/ one eyebrow cocked as they rolled in armed policemen who explained to us that they weren't racist.
We hadn't asked.
Class was full of Black kids. When I went to Grant, there were a good number of Black students (unlike now), but this was the only time in that building I was ever in a class with all Black students (and I played sports).
Finally, someone asked why they beat us up in school.
Dec 27, 2020 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
I shot my first protest video on a Samsung camcorder. My then girlfriend accidently taped over it a year later by accident when she took videos of her pregnant belly.
That baby is in college now.
20 years later, I'm still learning how to protest, just like everyone else.
I'm playing for keeps now though.
Dec 2, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
You progressives keep saying "fuck cancer" but you have to understand that this offends some moderates.
What we really want is better surgical practices and less side-effects from chemo.
(No no no, we're not going to talk about prevention.)
You progressives keep saying "stop pollution" but all conservatives hear is "I can't fill up my Hummer".
What you really want is cap-and-trade, so that destroying the Earth contributes to government's wallet, not just the energy barons'.
That's a way easier sell.
Dec 2, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Very much bothered that when Black people get shot and/or murdered in the Pacific Northwest by police and other angry white men, there is no national reaction.
Keep yelling that our lives matter though. #JustAnotherHashtag
Kevin Peterson was murdered barely a month ago. Before sundown, the police were already spreading lies that they had returned fire. By nightfall, they had riot crews at the ready.
Chuds immediately injected themselves in the narrative, making it about them instead of the cops.
Dec 1, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I got an oddly passive aggressive email from someone behind the Tipping Point doc apologizing (?) that I wasn't in it.
Apparently people have been asking them why I wasn't in it.
Not actually sure how to respond to this.
It's always funny when white people lead the way on Black projects because they always depend on the Black people they already know and agree with yet never seem prepared for the backlash sure to come from the rest of the diaspora.
Nov 24, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Activism has to start at home.
Kill the bigot in your head. Confront your own family about fascist behaviors. Kill the capitalist in your head. Stop celebrating racist holidays. Make good trouble at your job. Be inclusive in your place of worship. Eat sustainably. Share freely.
Some of the most rewarding moments of my summer included talking to Muslim family about the value of trans lives, excoriating my employer for allowing systematic racism & talking to black church elders abt defunding the police.
"We take care of us" applies to our souls as well.
Nov 23, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
To be heard…
A THREAD FOR THE WRITERS
We all have our reasons, I presume....
For me, the concept of being understood has always felt somewhat intangible.
As a young child, I suffered from a terrible stutter.
Only the people who loved me bothered to hear me.
The ability to write well – I thought – would free me from a future of larger misunderstanding.
Nov 19, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I think I was supposed to be scared, but I keep on laughing.
#1!!!
It's funny because I had to stop rapping to make a top 10 list! Ichiro! Number One!!!
Why is it celebrated?
Why is it allowed?
How does it advance white supremacy?
The answer to both the first and second is the third, so let's mostly talk about that one.
But first...
Nov 14, 2020 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
I'm supposed to write something this morning so I don't wanna waste my morning burst...
... but lemme get these lil' tweets off real quick. Just a warm up.
Staying safe and not transmitting COVID - i.e., flattening the curve - does not mean that protest activity needs to end.
It does mean that tactics need to change and networks need to be hardened. Indeed, habits need to be formed and actions need to be focused.
I want to talk about "Black Lives Matter" and the evolution of its meaning within various subgroups, but I have not had my coffee yet.
OK...
I have come to hold the opinion that the term "Black Lives Matter" has become as dangerous as it is useful, mainly because it has been coopted by the very folks - Black & white - who ostracized the organization for both valid and invalid reasons.
Perpetrating frauds.
Oct 17, 2020 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
Well dressed white lady at the BLM Ribs stand was talking to folks about the raid on the homeless camps earlier, so I got in and asked a few questions, specifically why she felt she had the authority to remove the encampment.
She repeated multiple times that "it's about peace", and claimed that the houseless were doing drugs and leaving needles around. She also claimed that they had thrown molotovs the prior night, a point which was contested by people in the crowd.
Oct 16, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
One thing I love doing at work is making people admit that they don't know how to do something, and then forcing them (thru awkward silence and faux aloofness) to ask for help...
... only to tell them that I don't know either and to ask someone else.
Men be mad.
#corporateshit
And I'm the only Black male at my job so you know which "men" I'm talking about.
For maximum effect, first I like to cut the request of "I need somebody to do X" down with "You don't know how to do X?"
This catches the coworker off-guard and creates unnecessary defensiveness.
Oct 15, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Took my dog in to treat an ear infection and she ended up getting surgery and a biopsy.
$1,000+ later... I'll be at the crib doing post-op care for a few days.
I think it's important to keep in mind that many of the people we see out doing the work in this revolution of sorts (protesting, fund raising, housing, organizing) are not "full time activists" and we are out here IN ADDITION to our already busy, difficult and stressful lives.
