Sometimes the Answer is Violence

There is a reason why non-violence is pushed so heavily by oppressors.

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I am angry. I don’t want to be angry, but the hypocrisy of whiteness is being shoved down my throat at every turn. The most violent ass society ever has its performers doing what they do, perform. In this instance, it’s performative peacekeeping as they openly engage in violent anti-Black rhetoric to seek punishment for a Black man who stepped out of the “harmless” box they’d placed him in, and it is infuriating to watch.

I’m going to keep it real — I’m not invested in protecting Will Smith. Not only is he grown, but he’s infinitely better protected than I am from this kind of abuse. He’s rich. He can write his own ticket. He can withdraw from Hollywood and be just fine while I am living paycheck to paycheck to keep my home. We are not the same. But the pattern of behavior driving Slapgate is so familiar and horrible that it’s fueling the rage I have been actively keeping at bay while navigating this fuckshit landscape that whiteness created and maintains.

There are so many mechanisms at play. The biggest, and least discussed is the normalized violence towards Black marginalized genders (MaGes). In a society where we watch people build entire identities, brands, and mini-empires on the violence towards Black people…