I’m thinking about the times I’ve trusted friends enough to confide in them about racism. Then I thought of how many of those experiences were met with things like ,”maybe it wasn’t what you thought” “racism is a straw man argument” “they didn’t mean it like that. I know them.”

Those people I immediately Mark “unsafe” and I disengage. With every invalidation i made note and moved on. Now to see some of those same people that dismissed me be so vocal about racism is jarring. All while sounding like an expert by parroting what I said that you dismissed

This isn’t a game or a random cause. Racism kills your mental health. It peels at the very person you are. If you say you care? Prove it. Words are just that. I need to see action. It took this long for people to genuinely acknowlede what’s been happening in front of their faces

Things that people have confided in them. To have those same people now calling to say “I never knew it was so bad.” Yes you did. I told you. You ignored it. You ignored me. I showed you my pain and you didn’t deem it valid enough because it doesn’t affect you personally.

Imagine that behavior from a friend. You share something painful with them only to have them, not comfort or validate, but treat your feelings like a science experiment? To Have them turn from friend to interrogator because your pain is so far fetched to them they question it.

It’s exhausting. It literally took you seeing a murder to see me. That hurts. A lot.