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Whether Kanye West or Bevelyn Beatty, it both saddens and enrages me when Black people perform for or succumb to white supremacist capitalist patriarchy--such that they put their internalized ant-Blackness on display in the most gaudy and vulgar of ways.
What& #39;s interesting to me is the commonalities between West& #39;s and Beatty& #39;s engagements:
1. White Jesus takes center stage and is the impetus for their attacks on Black people.
2. While they both attack the idea of Black people mattering in general, they have a peculiar and focused hatred for Black women. For West, a particular target is Harriet Tubman. For Beatty, a particular target is Breonna Taylor...
(Here in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn, in the paintings of dozens of names where Breonna& #39;s is the second in the list, the first name she painted over was, intentionally, Breonna& #39;s.)
3. White conservatives/evangelicals/bigots are eating this shit up as they can enjoy the infighting and see the potential "But my one Black friend says" materialize right before their eyes.
4. I think they also should be held accountable for the harm they& #39;re causing (I& #39;m thinking specifically of Black children being exposed to this without the critical lens to contextualize it) and the anti-Blackness they& #39;re helping to fortify. What does restoration look like here?
PLEASE NOTE: If you are not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, if you aren& #39;t a person who is neuroatypical, if West or Beatty are not patients of yours, please don& #39;t discuss West& #39;s or Beatty& #39;s mental wellness. It& #39;s ableist to associate bad behavior with mental illness.
You can certainly discuss how anti-Blackness may, itself, have an impact on the psychological well-being of Black people, but please don& #39;t diagnose beyond that unless you have the credentials to do so.
Also, if you know of any pro-Black mental health resources (because the American medical complex is built on anti-Blackness), please feel free to list them in the responses to this post.
https://heavy.com/news/2020/07/bevelyn-beatty/">https://heavy.com/news/2020...
For me, what instances like this reinforce is that I can& #39;t count you as an accomplice simply because you& #39;re Black/woman/queer/disabled/poor or otherwise occupy a marginalized identity.
What matters just as much, if not more, is your ideology. If I had to choose between Clarence Thomas, the most anti-Black Supreme Court justice since Dred Scott decision, or the white folks on the street putting their lives on the line for Black Lives Matter, the choice is easy.
