Beyond tired: Part 4

Filed under: Black life social media

Don’t tell me you’re disgusted at racism against Black footballers.

Don’t tell me you’re shocked it’s happening.

Don’t tell me it’s 2021.

We fucking know. We’re still living through a pandemic. We watched the protests last year. Our parents went through worse, as did their parents, ad infinitum. It’s part of human history and written as footnotes in textbooks where owners of enslaved people take centre stage as put-out entrepreneurs once it was “abolished”.

We don’t need your indignation because it does nothing but centre you. We need you to use your privilege. Normally, I’d write this on Twitter but I’m sick to death of saying these things and people proverbially seal clapping. What good are likes, RTs and replies of agreement right now? Josh Rivers, founder of Busy Being Black, made a good suggestion on Instagram tonight: if you’re using social media to say you’re shocked, you have the power to block and report racist abuse you see, contacting people in power and telling them it’s happening and you want it to stop. Do something. Anything. What the hell kind of reading were you allegedly doing last year that you can’t do anything but tap some buttons on your phone and just go about your day as if it doesn’t concern you?

So don’t DM me and don’t send me any kind of messages (and I really need you to listen this time). Because I’m beyond tired and I don’t care about your guilt or commiserations. Be an active accomplice, not an apathetic ally.

1 Year Later
Beached