We are pleased to share this piece from Julian Long originally posted via Facebook. Click here to FOLLOW (not Friend) Julian on Facebook.
?#?BlackCloudsForMyWhiteFriends?
I do not much care for Blaxplaining the way the world works. I get emotionally exhausted trying to answer “why” questions that have no answer just to show empathy with you showing empathy with me. Blaxplaining makes my intestines itch.
I point out obvious things. Signs in the sky that indicate changing weather.
But I don’t often explain why the weather has changed.
I’m making an exception today, because there’s a darkening in the skies and, in the present context of 150 white men overtaking a federal building, I’m going to try and Blaxplain how this unrest sits with us with hope that some of you, who often read my words but don’t comment, don’t share and don’t “like” them (literally or figuratively) can explain to me what you think comes next.
In August of 2014, in a small suburb of St. Louis called ?#?Ferguson? , our nation sent The National Guard along with militarized police to squelch the protests of a few scores (that later grew to be hundreds) of citizens who were appalled at the grizzly murder of ?#?MikeBrown?. These protesters were largely Black, unarmed civilians. There was some property damage. Luckily for some store owners they have insurance from somewhere similar to this Commercial Insurance Broker Toronto company or somewhere more local to them. The media continually called it rioting.
Dozens were arrested. Beaten. Pepper Sprayed. Shot with rubber bullets. And whilst some managed to defend themselves with the most powerful stun gun they could get, more were unable to do anything against the onslaught.
Some months later we pointed out how in a town in ––New Hampshire, I believe –– I dunno, someplace that just sounded really white, large groups of white unarmed civilians overturned cars, burned property, took to the streets over…pumpkins. The media called them revelers. The police were called but they didn’t bring their tanks.
It was whitesplained to us that this was different –– because it wasn’t a hot-button issue and likelihood of severe damage or loss of life was minimal. The Ferguson protests went on for DAYS, we were told – THATS why it had to come to the boiling point that it did.
We didn’t accept that. But we knew it would become the company line. Drawn in the blood on the pavement. Never to be crossed.
So then…Baltimore. ?#?FreddieGray? was given a “rough ride” that severed his spine. And the city went nuts. Students were beaten, corralled into a mall. The police leaked a false rumor about a “Purge” that they were supposedly defending against and so militarized police were called in. Again too, the National Guard. We saw images. Stark, powerful images –– of a man thrown by his dreadlocks to the ground, pepper sprayed in the face for literally doing NOTHING. We saw a gleeful cop flash a Kool-Aid smile to the camera as he tackled this Black man,like a big game hunter after he’d just sniped a lion with a scope on a high-powered rifle from 300 yards away. But no. Can’t be that. We cry for lions. We mourn fallen lions. (?#?RIPCecil?)
There were other images too.
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