This Week's Opening Thought: June 12, 2023

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This week's opening thought: Today is the 56th anniversary of the 1967 United States Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia, which struck down all anti-miscegenation laws remaining in sixteen U.S. states.

Today is also the seventh anniversary of the mass shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, which led to the murder of 49 people.

A celebration and a somber observation.

Separate events steeped in generational trauma and hate crimes.

That's as U.S. American as apple pie.

Meanwhile

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TW: Murder, racism, gun violence, white supremacy, anti-Blackness.

The white woman in this picture is Susan Lorincz. 4 days ago in Florida, Susan used a high-caliber firearm to murder Ajike Owens, a Black woman and mother of four. Why? Susan got into an argument with Owens' children over a tablet, which somehow escalated to Susan throwing a pair of skates at the children and hitting them. These actions were, of course, accompanied by a litany of racial slurs. One of Ajike's children went into the house and told their mother what happened. Ajike went to Susan's place and knocked on the door to confront her about the situation. How did Susan respond?

Susan shot Ajike through her front door, leaving her lying on the front lawn.

Ajike was pronounced dead at the hospital.

It took Florida's Marion County Sheriff's Department four days to book and charge Susan. You read that right. FOUR. DAYS. And let's be honest with one another: Susan was arrested because the Marion County Sheriff's Department couldn't ignore the public outrage from the Black community and their allies in Florida. But Susan isn't facing a trial for murder or a hate crime. Oh, no. Susan is being charged with manslaughter with a firearm, culpable negligence, battery, and two counts of assault. Yep. That’s it.

SIGH.

We're not going to play the "What if a Black person did what Susan did?" game because that game is tiring, and we all know what the answer would be. And we're not going to play the "What if a Black woman did what Susan did?" game because we all know how Black women are viewed by the toxic white supremacist patriarchal anti-Blackness that permeates the roots of the gnarled tree that is the United States of America. Why aren’t we playing those games, you ask? Well, for starters, it's a tasteless endeavor that diminishes the lives of those lost, making them examples for a lesson that most white people don't want to have taught them for various reasons. And let's be honest: unless you're a white person living under a quarry of rocks for the past century, you should know how this goes by now.

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This Week's Opening Thought: June 5, 2023

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This week's opening thought: no job, organization, or industry will ever be worth sacrificing your soul and dignity.

I know there is some privilege that is embedded in that statement. You don't have to point it out. I see that sh-- in full color and the highest resolution. I know that sometimes you've gotta do what you've gotta do. I know that sometimes a job is a job, and you don't feel like you care enough to be tethered to it. And I also know what it feels like to work somewhere to make ends meet and the abuse and stripping of one's dignity that comes with it, no matter how untethered you try to be. I also have had well-paying jobs that looked great on the surface but killed my sense of self, creativity, curiosity, and joy. One such role a few years ago led to depression and almost led to an emotional breakdown.

Nothing is perfect. Every job, company, or industry is flawed. But I've found that If you can't work for an organization, or in a profession or industry, without compromising practically everything that makes you the unique and beautiful person you are or trading in your joy, creativity, and energy for a consistent pattern of personal and witnessed trauma, no amount of money, "perks," or benefits will make being there easier to swallow.

If you are doing work you want to devote your life to, it shouldn't be literally siphoning your life away.

Nothing is worth that price.

A Sunday Thought for White People

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A Sunday thought for white people: If you've spent the last 3-5 years or more going to “diversity” and anti-racism and white supremacy dismantling trainings while reading a zillion books on these topics, yet you still automatically jump to defensive maneuvers, white fragility and violence when you or another white person you know is called in or out for their conscious or unconscious hateful words or actions then you need to call it a day because you haven't or are unwilling to learn how not to be a perpetual danger to Black folx, melanated folx, and the Global Majority.

You're not learning or integrating anything you're exposed to or reading into your daily life. All you're doing is inadvertently making yourself more dangerous to Black and Brown folx, to melanated folx. Because you’re enmeshed in white supremacist ideology and scared of acknowledging and processing how you do and have harmed melanated folx, all you're getting from all the books and trainings are additional weapons to wield against the Global Majority when you feel “in danger” and a false sense of superiority over other white people. Until you’re willing and able to do the work, you're going to need to digest the fact that you are going through the motions for kudos and clout. And you expect melanated folx, the Global Majority, to provide you those kudos and co-signs. And that kind of performative nonsense is for you, not for me and mine like so many of you like to claim it is.

Do me a favor: don't do me no favors.

Go read a Nicholas Sparks novel or something.

This Week's Opening Thought: May 29, 2023

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This week's opening thought: I regularly receive hateful direct messages and mail. Long ago, I accepted this as part of the nastiness that comes with openly and publicly speaking about and educating people about white supremacy, anti-Blackness, racism, and hate. Honestly? Most hateful messages and emails I receive go straight into the trash can. They don't deserve my time and energy and are not worth sharing with the masses. They aren't learning tools, and some of the things people say to me are so vile that no one should have to read them. But now and then, I get a message that proves to me that if there's one thing that racism, anti-Blackness, and hate are, it's formulaic and uninspired.

I got the email below last Sunday. I read it. And I shook my head, not in anger or sadness but in disbelief that something so weak and generic found its way into my inbox. I mean, look at it.

It reads like someone typed "Racist, anti-Black hate email" into an AI generator!

It's just so weak, y'all.

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