For the sake of my own power, I’m going to say something I have never revealed in 20 years.

(Thread)

I try my best to live my values. Integrity. Truth. Not hate of people, but love for justice.

I’ve been learning how to convert the energy of oppression into righteous fuel for a long time.

Ever since @LelandVittert spit at me in high school. I’ve been silent for 2 decades. https://twitter.com/seanlangille/status/1266599374135664642

I’ve told this *story* before but always hid his name. Even when he reported from the streets of Baltimore where I protested.

I share it today not for karma, but because, as we rise up, I want it understood:

We don’t ever have to relinquish our power to those who oppress us.

Seeing him chased off by protestors in DC last night, I won’t lie to y’all-my first thoughts were pettyyyyyyy.

But then I remembered that even behind the shield of journalism and the protection of whiteness, his racism is not bigger than my power.

Never will be. https://twitter.com/janerecker/status/1266594735126388744

I say all the time that protest is telling the truth out loud & in public.

I say his name in public, finally, after 20 years, to fully reclaim my power from a moment that silenced a young Brittany.

But know: this story isn’t about him. It’s about me & my most important lessons.

So when I tell you all about converting the energy instead of letting it overtake you, I’m speaking from personal experience.

When I tell you I’ve learned to gird myself with the armor of justice and beautiful Blackness instead of their toxicity, I am practiced at this.

When he spit at me, the institution threw me away. My high school only forced an apology out of him. No suspension or expulsion.

And I expected it. He was the son of a wealthy school trustee. Me? A scholarship kid & daughter of a Black widow.

I knew the game was rigged at 15.

What I won’t allow oppression to do is rig my very life against me. America will not succeed in making my blessing my burden.

God made me Black. Gave me parents who raised me to give a damn. Gave me loved ones who do, too. My degree is not in white supremacy, but Black triumph.

My ‘why’ has never been & never will be about white people, what was done to me or my people.

My ‘why’ will forever remain the love I have for my people and my absolute soul-consuming obsession with justice. Justice is divine ordinance.

It’s “what love looks like in public.”

I decided at 15 not to obsess over the destruction I stand against.

I obsess about what I stand for. About the wildest dreams of my ancestors. About radical imagination. About a freedom so thick it can’t be destroyed. About a Blackness so beautiful it can not be erased.

He tried to bury me.

He did not know I was a seed.

They will try to bury you.

Be a seed.

I love y’all.

Seize your love and power. It is your most precious resource. It works.

Let’s get free.

Here is the story of that day (with an edit in photos for clarity...I wrote this series SUPER fast w few edits!).

If you read my @AmyPoehlerSmartGirls series about self-love all those years ago...now you know who Privileged Pete is. https://amysmartgirls.com/falling-in-love-chapter-2-silence-831fcd890101

* @smrtgrls

Mood: F R E E .

I told the threaded story below, back when I wrote about all the apologies Black women are owed but rarely demand, from @serenawilliams to me.

I didn’t name the man who spit at me then. Today, I do.

@lelandvittert, you owe me an apology.

https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a23102883/you-owe-me-an-apology/ https://twitter.com/MsPackyetti/status/1266788013213966336

While y’all are here, do me a favor?

Don’t let the names of #BreonnaTaylor and #TonyMcDade get lost in the sauce. They deserve accountability just like #GeorgeFloyd & #AhmaudArbery

http://Fightforbreonna.org 
Petition for Tony: https://www.change.org/p/black-lives-matter-activists-justice-for-tony-mcdade