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today is my birthday! here’s a thread of a bunch of thoughts.
turning 27 today has a dark weight. Oluwatoyin "Toyin" Salau didn’t make it to 27. Breonna Taylor didn’t make it to 27. Rayshard Brooks did but was killed before he made it to 28.
i was able to not be overwhelmed by the crushing weight of the vulnerability I carried due to the color of my skin. I still noticed it but it wasn’t overwhelming. I grew up in a good communities, and for the most part if you behaved, you were good.
K. West wrote “we wasn’t s’posed to make it past 25, jokes on you we still alive” I always sing that hopefully, as a way to fly in the face of any oppressors, thinking “not me! i’ll make it! i’ve got hope!”
I did make it, but I realize that I didn’t fully realize just what I was up against.
my brother didn’t make it. he wasn’t harmed by anyone, and i thank God for that. he literally went to bed and just didn’t wake up. he was 23. I miss him.
gonna pivot into some other ideas...
i can’t believe we can’t all agree on this: let’s just care for the sanctity human life. maybe killing people shouldn’t be on anyone’s agenda. it should truly be the last of the last resorts and still have an asterisk noting that even then, reconsider.
I feel like the problem here is that the people who are uncomfortable by hearing #BlackLivesMatter 
https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> don’t fully view black peoples as fully human, or at least human in the same way.
I think that having a nuanced “well what about” (EVEN IF WELL INTENDED) response to #BlackLivesMatter https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> is setting up for an argument that black lives might matter but are not equal.
(note: when a person has to even say that their life matters there is a group somewhere arguing that it doesn’t)
“yes black lives matter but they need to do X and stop doing Y!” this is not an unconditional view of a life mattering, it is conditional. it is literally putting a qualifier making the argument that black lives matter “IF...”
look, we just want live.
fear is something black people carry just by existing in a white world. it may be small, it may be ignored at times, and if you’re lucky you can forget about it, but it is a perpetual feeling of “otherness” imposed by the white supremacist foundation of a big chunk of our world
i know that some people are having a hard time getting them to see racism in the world that doesn’t take the form of a “NO NEGROES” sign on a restroom door. it honestly takes practice. keep learning.
I think @TheDudeWhoBakes tweeted something like “racism isn’t the shark in the water, it’s the water itself” and i’m going to be running with that for a while. thank you.
if a black person tells you how white supremacy and racism is affecting them, believe them.
funny how if I were to say “I went to [restaurant] and they spit in my food! I saw it happen! I have video! i’m never going back!” people aren’t going back there. no one questions what you were doing “to deserve it”. and you probably have a case, and someone’s getting fired.
funny how if I were to say “I was walking down the street and a cop struck me! I saw it happen! I have video! i’m worried for my safety!” people are skeptical. they question what you were doing “to deserve it”. and you probably don’t have have a case, and no one is getting fired
I just want to hear someone who isn’t racially, economically, or politically aligned with me hear our concerns and say “Wow. i’m sorry i didn’t see this before. I need to do what I can to change the America you live in”
(note: BLACK LIVES MATTERING ISNT POLITICAL!!!!!!!)
