and what are straight Black men doing to not give other Black folks a reason to hate them? https://twitter.com/makonnentendaji/status/1309371347554844673

the issue i have with this statement is that even when it comes from men with good intentions, it never asks cishet men to do anything. it only berates Black women and other Black folks of marginalized genders for responding to years of abuse with hate.

hating Black men may not get us any closer to freedom, but evidently, neither will loving them. which says to me (and should say to us all) that the thing standing between us and freedom is not our response to the violence, but the violence itself (& the perpetrators).

these type of statements have continuously come from cishet men who are annoyed with “Black men are trash” tweets but who are horrifically violent (rhetorically or otherwise) towards women/LGBTQ+ folks.

i actually agree with the overall conversation. i think “Black men are trash” and tweets like them are reactionary, reductive, and generally useless.

i also think that cishet men—even and especially the leftists with the right language—use that as a gateway to misogynoir.

there’s never any thought with these tweets about the many, many “race first” Black men AND women that will swarm to the replies with their misogynoir and homo/transphobia. and that always makes clear to me the intention behind the tweet.

if the culprit is white supremacy (& anti-Blackness) then cishet Black men should be concerned first, most, and always with moving away from that. until then, it’s crickets for me.

(this said, “Black men are the weakest link,” “Black men are trash,” etc are statements i’ve ever never used or retired. EYE think they’re reactionary)