Last Updated on December 7, 2020 by ThoughtsStained
Hello, lovelies.
This is been a hard few weeks for so many people, but especially for black people, as police brutality continues to target the black community due to the racist foundations the policy force is built upon, supported by a country which is still deeply rooted in the racist ties that began it.
If you follow me on other social media platforms, you’ll see that I’ve been taking the week to be silent. To stop posting so much about what is going on in my own life and instead, sharing, reposting and retweeting content from black creators and activists and individuals, allowing their voices to be heard. Sharing links to books, articles, petitions, donations, videos and images in support of black lives.
I hope you’ve been doing the same.
If you’re like me, you might be confronting your own silence and putting actions behind your claims to not be racist. You’ll be educating yourself by doing your own research, instead of relying on the work of black people to do the emotional labor they certainly don’t owe a single white person. You’ll be looking for books about white supremacy and white fragility and how to break down, understand and dismantle it, buying them when you can or renting them from your local library if you can’t. You’ll be looking for local black creators, business and shops to support, uplift and listen to. You’ll be signing and sharing petitions for justice for the stolen, murdered lives of those like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. You’ll be donating if you can afford to, financially, but also with your time, your attention and your resources. You’ll be protesting, or at least supporting those who do march, if you cannot. You’ll be reaching out to family members, asking them to confront their own racism and accept that their own silence in regards to racial injustice is just as damning as the individual who pulled the trigger.
Read that again.
Your own silence in regards to racial injustice is just as damning as the individual who pulled the trigger.
There is a lot to unpack. There is a lot to unlearn or learn for the first time. There are a lot of people who are hurting, who are scared, who are pissed, who are angry, who are frightened, who are fed up. All of those emotions, and more, are valid. Defeating systematic racism is something we need to work on not today, not tomorrow, but every day, for the rest of our lives, until the systems that allow racism to be put into place and to flourish and continue unanswered are destroyed and replaced with something that prevents that from ever being a possibility again.
I don’t write this to speak over black voices, but to make clear that this platform–the only platform I truly have, as I am nearing 800+ followers on this blog–where I stand. As a writer, I believe that black lives matter. As a book reviewer and book blogger, I believe that black lives matter. As a freelance editor, I believe that black lives matter. As an individual, I believe that black lives matter. As a human, I believe that black lives matter.
And, if you follow this blog, then you damn well better believe that black lives matter, too.
Otherwise, there’s an unfollow button right there, free for you to push.
Cheers.
Excellent post. Who was it said that evil can only thrive when good people remain silent? I agree with that. Mind you, I’m not doing this on my blog – I speak up on my personal FB page, and in some political FB pages. I prefer to leave politics out of my blog.
Thank you! I used to leave politics out of my blog, too (and in many other areas in my life). Personally, I just feel, as someone with even an ounce of a following, I wanted to make my stance clear in this space, too, as I did with my other social media.
Understood. We are all feeling something with everything going around, and sometimes, we need to share those feelings with others.
Black Lives Matter
Now is the time to promote black voices and to state loudly and clearly that Black Lives Matter and that we support the protestors. I’ve been quite in the past but you’re right that silence is complicity. I’m not doing that anymore. I’m promoting myself less (I paused all posts last week and in general am posting less) and promoting black voices more. And I’m trying to openly challenge racism even in spaces where I lurk rather than speak. I’ve been a part of the problem by being silent for too long.
Me too, my friend. But I am SO PROUD OF YOU for recognizing that, admitting it and then taking the steps to address it and actually start being an ally. Please remember to take care of your mental health so your allyship can be the lifelong marathon it should be and not the quick sprint “trending topics” tend to have. <3