The freedom and dignity of all black people is conditional on good behavior which must be better than the behavior of white people. If too many of us have emotions (emotions like anger, emotions that are fully human) and if too many of us act on those emotions then these simple requests, to have our lives respected can and will be dismissed. So, please be humble peaceful and cowed. Be good or be dismissed. If any one of you is not good enough all of you will be dismissed for the actions of noncompliant one. Do not upset the powerful white people. You will be dismissed.
Do you know where this kind of thinking leads for a black person like me? It leaves me hating other black people more for "holding us back" than I hate the people who are oppressing all of us in the first place. I wonder "why can't we be better?" rather than daring to ask why some of us never get a chance. It's a brilliant piece of gas-lighting but I refuse to buy in to it anymore.
I will not invalidate the righteous anger of other black people by fretting over how embarrassing it might be. I will not enable other people who want to make all progress conditional on respectability politics, the end of 'black on black crime[1]' perfectly non-violent protests, or perfect photogenic victims without criminal records[2].
There are far too many otherwise "liberal" people who say they oppose racism and police violence yet at the first hint of the raw anger of the oppressed they run for the hills. I have seen it in so many different ways they say: "It pushes people from your position." or "See, now they've become violent and I have no sympathy." The support is conditional. If we won't protest the "right way" we don't deserve to be heard.
Well how about this? How about let's start with all of you who think of support for human dignity as something that can be conditional... start listening?
Here is what I want to share: Since, I've started rejecting these limiting ideas about conditional freedom and dignity I've felt so much better! I've found that I can love black people so much more and that means a lot to me it makes me feel very good. I really feel for the first time that black lives, even my life matters[3].
It is more than just knowing that racism is bad. It is crossing that line to support human dignity and freedom unconditionally. To welcome black lives, black people into the unconditional respect that ought to be a given for all members of the human race but is at present denied in so many ways.[4]
Footnotes
[1] It's been falling for years. NOT THAT IT MATTERS.
[2] Even when there is a "perfect victim" they somehow become not so perfect... or it's "just an accident" -- this isn't just about punishing cops who shoot, maim and strangle black people. Even if all the cops who killed someone all went to jail today there would still be a problem. Those people are still dead. It's about not getting killed first place.
[3] It's not #AllLivesMatter. It's #BlackLivesMatter. Please, please, please stop changing the subject just this once, please. This seemed relevant:
The girls created the poster because they wanted to get involved in some way with the nationwide protests over the killings. They had abandoned their original idea, to walk out of classes to join the protests last week, after school officials told them there could be “unintended consequences”
Clothier, the student who designed it, said she was called to the principal’s office on Monday. MacKenzie told her that she failed to get prior approval for the poster, and that she needed to change the title “#blacklivesmatter” to “all lives matter” or take the poster down...http://www.pressherald.com/...
Do you see how it sounds?
[4] If you think this is simple, obvious, or natural. And you've "already got it covered"... honestly? I'm a little skeptical since it was not simple or natural for me and I'm black AND liberal. It's a radical idea. If you see how radical it is... and how difficult-- then yeah... I think maybe you get it.