#the comments: the most sexist racist homophobic transphobic takes you’ll read in your life

[iiryebreadii]

if you ever want to read the most idiotic takes known to man all you need to do is look in a youtube shorts comment section

[osvg]

BLACK LIVES MATTER

Something that has always bothered me about the way non-black people deal with black grief, black struggles or discrimination of black people is that they never take in the enormous amount of emotional pain. I don’t buy the whole “I can’t relate” or “I have no idea how that feels”. We are human, our greatest gift is to look at someone or listen to someone expressing pain and being able to relate or empathize with that person. So why is it that non-black people are only focused on the policies surrounding black pain. I want you to see me. That means seeing my pain, my need for policy change, my need for empathy, for humanity. I want you to see all of me. i want you to see my creativity, my joy, my pain, my trauma, my anger. It is all there, why don’t you see it? 

Being a black queer woman is being extremely familiar with grief. I have buried more friends than I can count on all of my fingers. I have attended over a dozen funerals in the past five years alone. Some from police brutality, some from vicious acts of violence from racists, homophobes, transphobes and misogynoirs and some from suicide or overdoses due to years of trauma and harassments from their families, friends, strangers and our broader society. 

To be a black queer woman means to be afraid of everyone. My suspicion of other people runs deeper than most women’s. I am not only afraid of sexist comments, sexual harassment and rape. I am also afraid of racism, hate motivated violence, police brutality and recently lynching. I am afraid for everyone of my family members and black friends. I am afraid every time I’m in a group of black people in a mostly white area. I am afraid of every one and everything because everyone and every institution is a potential violent incident either because they’re sexist, racist or homophobic - or all three at once. 

To be a black queer woman is to see people who look like you being murdered on a morning scroll through social media. It is trauma every few weeks before you’ve even had your morning coffee. It is knowing you could be next at any second, and would anyone even care? 

To be a black queer woman is to ask yourself “what would happen if I got shot by police?” and knowing, truly knowing, that nothing would happen. The most you’d ever be is a meme for young teens and possibly a hashtag. That is all you’ll ever be, regardless of how unjust, how brutal, how obviously racist the murder was. You would be a meme and that is all, because at the end of the day to be a black queer woman in this country is to be a constant source of amusement to non-black people. And if, God forbid, you aren’t amusing, then you will be demeaned or ignored ‘til the very end. 

To be a black queer woman is to know your life is as valuable as a maggot in this country and it truly does not matter how valuable you are to your family if they are also black. You will become a hashtag and eventually a meme that people forget about. 

If you read this whole thing, truly read and didn’t just skim through it, ask yourself how you feel right now. Take a second and assess how you feel. Now remember that black people feel like this worldwide every day and have to go work a 9-5 and suppress all of this. Simply because white people have decided that they are worth more.