WRITE THE WORLD REVIEW ARCHIVE

There are people who believe racism is a matter of perspective.
That there are goods and evils to all of God's children but that, we as the minority, are the ones who constantly place upon ourselves the shackles of a victim.
They say these things because they have never worn, nor will they ever wear, these shackles.
How privileged a thought to think oppression is a choice.
To preach turning the other cheek when you lay unharmed.
How privileged indeed.

***

My Great-Grandmother's Grandmother was a slave. A piece of property to be bought and sold.
My Great-Grandmother was threatened by the Klu Klux Klan for protesting. A white cross left burning in her yard.
My Grandmother was spat on when she integrated her high school. Dogs sicked on her every afternoon.
My Mother, the only black girl in her class, was told that she couldn't get tested for the gifted program because there was nothing special about her. She switched schools, got tested, and graduated high school a year early.
I've been called out of my name, had service refused to me, been the only person like me in a room full of hateful eyes.
And now I watch people try and say that what I've experienced, what we've all experienced, isn't real.

That if anything we're the ones making everything about race.
Because America isn't racist.

They gun us down during routine traffic stops and raid our houses while we're sleeping.
They walk away unpunished for the Black blood on their hands.
But America isn't racist.

They wail and moan over knocked-over fire hydrants and broken windows, the destruction caused by those riding the wave of anger and hurt.
And yet they shed no tears for the children slain by cops.
But America isn't racist.

They deny the true nature of their history and try to censor ours in the name of equality.
They use erasure to hide the fact that their sins have not dissipated, only evolved.
But America isn't racist.

Of course, it isn't.

I am tired.
I am so so so tired of protesting and screaming and praying and fighting for my right to live happily.
To live knowing my history, my story, will be told.
To live without the fear that my brother may be shot down during his bike ride.
To LIVE.
TO BE.

I AM AN AMERICAN.
I AM A HUMAN.
TREAT ME AS SUCH.
DO NOT UNDERMINE MY PAIN.
DO NOT ACT AS THOUGH MY SUFFERING IS SELF-CAUSED.
ALL I WANT IS TO MATTER.
ALL I WANT IS TO BE EQUAL.
TRULY EQUAL.
IF THEY CONTINUE TO DENY ME THIS RIGHT.
TO DENY THIS IS A PROBLEM.
THEN IT WILL NEVER GO AWAY.

and that's the point, isn't it?

Because if America isn't racist.
If racism isn't real.
It always can be.