Monday's Opening Thought: January 18, 2021

This week’s opening thought: Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States. It’s a holiday that was signed into law in 1983 by a President who led a “War on Drugs” that disproportionately harmed, killed, and imprisoned Black bodies. It wasn’t observed as a federal holiday for the first time until 1986. It wasn’t officially observed and celebrated in all fifty states simultaneously until the year 2000, with Utah becoming the last state to recognize MLK Day by name.

Until 1999, MLK Day was known as “Civil Rights Day” in New Hampshire until the State Legislature voted to change the name. But guess what? It’s still not quite named MLK Day - it’s “Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Rights Day.” Arizona uses a similar name for the day.

Alabama and Mississippi still observe MLK Day as “Martin Luther King’s and Robert E. Lee’s Birthday,” because observing a national holiday on Robert E. Lee’s birthday was somehow sacrilegious. Virginia took it a step further, combining MLK Day with a celebration of the lives of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson until the year 2000.

Wyoming calls it “Martin Luther King Jr./Wyoming Equality Day.” Liz Byrd, who was a trailblazer in her own right as the first Black person elected to the Wyoming Legislature, tried to push for the state to recognize the day as a paid holiday. The compromise? The naming of the holiday as MLK Day. You see, her colleagues would not agree with passing the bill to make MLK Day paid unless they got to keep their chosen name for the day.

I could keep going but, well, there’s no need to.

White America has made a celebration and observation of the birth and life of a civil rights leader who died fighting for equity and against white supremacy into a push-and-pull scenario for countless decades because acknowledging a Black person and their work against systemic oppression on a national level in an honest manner is a bridge too far.

So my apologies white folx and uninformed people of culture with adjacency to white privilege. You’ll have to miss me this year and every year with the misquotes and distortions of Dr. King’s words and vision that y’all are so quick to post on the third Monday in January of each year. It’s obvious y’all do this without researching your quotables for accuracy or with a willingness to open your eyes and minds to developing an understanding of how this country views men like Dr. King. Y’all can do better than you do. You just don’t.

It’s well past time to acknowledge that the way this country viewed a Black man who had a 75% national disapproval rating prior to his assassination only to turn around and act like he was “one of the good ones” long after his passing is the true story of how many of y’all feel about Blackness and Black activism in this country:

Better dead and fondly remembered in whitewashed history now than supported in dismantling white supremacy while breathing.

This isn’t just a day off to me. It’s a mirror. Y’all just don’t wanna look into it.

Monday's Opening Thought: January 11, 2021

This week’s opening thought: This is not a time for “unity” and “forgiveness.” We’re beyond this being a “time for healing.” Maybe I’m goin’ out on a limb here but I think those boats set sail into the Bermuda Triangle with no option for return right around the time a large mostly white smattering of domestic terrorists tried to overthrow the United States government last week. I don’t want to “forgive” y’all, white America. I don’t wanna “unite” and act like nothing happened after a couple of months of “healing.”

I want y’all to finally, FINALLY, face the repercussions for your actions, as individuals and as a collective.

I want white America to pay the price for overwhelmingly electing a hateful egotistical white conman as this country’s President in 2015. I want white America to pay for overwhelmingly trying to re-elect that conman to a second term. I want white America to watch as those who were driven by their generational trauma and belief in their white superiority to try to overthrow the government go to jail for a long time and have their lives dismantled by their actions.

For once in this country’s history I want white America to actually be held accountable for the pain they’ve caused and the lives they’ve threatened and taken, not just last week but in general.

How about y’all start individually and collectively being active participants in upholding and practicing accountability for awhile white people? How about y’all start addressing your faux patriotism and upholding of white supremacy? How about y’all start doing some of all of that before asking for forgiveness again for the continuous cycle of pain y’all put this country and its Black, Brown, Indigenous, and non-white citizenry through.

You can’t heal a bone you keep breaking, white people. And you shouldn’t be forgiven for breaking it again and again and not resetting it to allow it to heal - not this time.

Monday's Opening Thought: December 28, 2020

An opening thought as we wind down 2020: Are you ending 2020 still trying to have rational conversations with hateful people spewing easily-debunked rhetoric or paper-thin justifications for why they are racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, transphobic, and/or ableist? Still trying to get Trump supporters to see things differently? Are you hoping they’ll hear your words and you’ll break through and appeal to their humanity? If your answers to any of those questions is “yes” then answer this question for me:

Why in the Hell are you still having these conversations?!

I mean c’mon, y’all. You’re wasting your time and energy. This year has been draining enough. Why would you want to end your year with this sh—? They’re not gonna hear you, y’know. They haven’t heard you all year. They believe they are right and just in their views and beliefs and that you are the one who’s wrong and misguided. If you walk away from 2020 with three lessons you’ve learned let one of those three be that going forward you should only engage with those who are actually open to discourse, open to changing and evolving. Anyone else ain’t worth it. Leave them behind and move yo’ ass down that yellow brick road toward your own self care.

If these people are family and friends? Well, sounds like you’re long overdue for some new chosen family members and some new friends.

And if these people are co-workers, high-ranking executives in your workplace, or even your boss? And your human resources department and other leaders in your organization refuse to address the issues? Send me your resume and we’ll work together to try and find you another job.

Leave these toxic conversations and toxic people in the toxic year that was 2020.

Happy New Years.

Monday's Opening Thought: December 21, 2020

This week’s opening thought: There’s nothing wrong with saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” There’s also nothing wrong with wishing someone a happy Hanukkah or Kwanzaa if they celebrate Hanukkah or Kwanzaa. Normalize this practice in your home and in your workplace. December ain’t just a one holiday month and we need to quit acting like it is. Just because you celebrate Christmas doesn’t mean your celebration is the only one that deserves decorations and vocal recognition.

Monday's Opening Thought: December 14, 2020

Monday’s opening thought:

“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. People know themselves much better than you do. That's why it's important to stop expecting them to be something other than who they are.”

- Maya Angelou

That’s it. That’s the opening thought.

Stop expecting your racist uncle, transphobic sister, and ableist co-worker to show you something other than who they are. What they’re showing you is ultimately who they are, and you have to stop expecting that these people will change unless you see a sustained consistent effort from them to change that convinces you otherwise. And even then you should temper your expectations. Be willing to give some people a chance but don’t get hoodwinked.