Thread by @IamRobertBailey, Thoughts I have time for today... a thread I don’t even [...]

Thoughts I have time for today... a thread

I don’t even know what to say. Not exactly my thing to share my private life or inner monologue on social media in all honesty. Some might find it odd being that I grew up in front of the camera, but I’m a very private person. However this collective rage and sorrow that you may

(hopefully) be noticing on your feeds right now compels me to not be silent.

While this sense of grief in my community is very visible at the moment, as a Black man I can promise you it’s neverending for us. Even when the zeitgeist inevitably moves on to #ForgetAlready, we’ll

still hold all of it. We live it daily. And though it may belie my chipper disposition, I’ve been bone-weary as long as I’ve been conscious. And this week, maybe all the Black trauma on my timeline is catching up to me, but I’m exhausted. So many of my Brothers and Sisters

murdered so as to not be able to keep up as each is made into a new hashtag. Countless more that had the misfortune of being murdered off camera. And even when there’s video evidence, an utter lack of trust in a system that has time and time again failed to provide justice.

I’m tired. Tired of people that get up the energy to criticize any and every way we protest police brutality and racism but have none of that same energy for the reasons we’re protesting in the first place. Think I’ve got a special level of tired for the people that claim to love

and care about me, yet when it comes time to hit the ballot get tunnel-vision on all their “economic anxieties” and continuously empower politicians who get the wind beneath their wings enforcing policy and stoking a social climate that specificaly endangers me and my family.

And then wanna act like there’s not a direct correlation and they’re free of all responsibility. All while they’re still getting screwed over economically as well. So yeah, please miss me with all that cognitive dissonance at the next post-quarantine cookout. Cause I’m past being

heartbroken they’re not even really willing to have the conversation. Avoiding it like some “threatening” Black guy in a hoodie on the same side of the road as them.

Anyways...

I’m beyond furious my niece was shot with a pellet gun by police last night while protesting for Black Lives back where I’m from in Minnesota. At how some might wonder whether she was looting before they would be concerned if she was alright.

I’m terrified of how easily it could’ve been much worse. Or how at any moment I could get a call about my nephews or cousins that they were gunned down jogging because they weren’t perceived as the same sort of “presentable” Black guy I seem to be.

Hell I’m terrified it wouldn’t even matter. Could be just sleeping at home after all.

I’m both afraid of and afraid for the heart of this Country.

Always

So let me say this..If you’re first response to reading this was to be defensive; breathe, take a moment and maybe contemplate why that might be. Try out some empathy with Black people and listen in their moments of mourning instead of trying to smother them with All Lives Matter

or even trigger them with Blue when that’s not even the conversation. And then try the empathy out again even when one of us hasn’t been killed. When we’re just talking general injustice, inequality, economic disparity. Access or lack thereof

(healthcare, education, clean environment/water, etc). When we kneel. Just try to listen and have empathy for your fellow human beings.

And to my Black people. I know this week in particular has been a lot and there’s been a lot of triggering stuff on the timeline and family lost from this virus. All I can say is hold your head up and be kind to yourself. Practice self-care.

We’re gonna find the joy through all of this, cause that’s just what we do.

To everyone. Please, please stay safe. Sending love so pay it forward

And VOTE

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