“Black people can’t be asked to do labor for white people.” You may have seen this type of idea on instagram posts or something. Some people who say this usually mean don’t ask black people to lecture to audiences for free. That seems to me to be a given; in general you should pay people for their work and time.
There is a long history of pragmatic black activism focused on healing people and healing communities. I try not to be overly pessimistic, but sometimes it seems that this legacy of pragmatism has been hijacked and turned into an overly performative pantomime, an Instagram wall of afro picks and raised fists, a Twitter timeline of "wypipo do this" and "Karen did that," and endless blogroll full of five-dollar words cribbed from academic jargon and books that people don't really understand.
Something has happened that has gotten a lot of people believing that it is better to have the people they don't like feeling bad then to get to a point where they feel good.
Really like this post. No one, whether black or white, should ever feel obligated to educate. You can only do what you feel up to doing. However, unless people "whole enough" to feel up to the challenge, whether they are black or white, step forward, that education will never happen.
There is a long history of pragmatic black activism focused on healing people and healing communities. I try not to be overly pessimistic, but sometimes it seems that this legacy of pragmatism has been hijacked and turned into an overly performative pantomime, an Instagram wall of afro picks and raised fists, a Twitter timeline of "wypipo do this" and "Karen did that," and endless blogroll full of five-dollar words cribbed from academic jargon and books that people don't really understand.
Something has happened that has gotten a lot of people believing that it is better to have the people they don't like feeling bad then to get to a point where they feel good.
Really like this post. No one, whether black or white, should ever feel obligated to educate. You can only do what you feel up to doing. However, unless people "whole enough" to feel up to the challenge, whether they are black or white, step forward, that education will never happen.
I appreciate your commitment to helping us see people in their complexity vs. two-dimensional identities. This piece is a lovely example of that.
great insight
Making reference to white people and black people as if they are “a thing, or otherwise is a limitation of your extraordinary intellect.
Nice one. Thnx.