Here in NOLA, where we marched, white folks tried to control what the chants were. Nope. We don't get to do that. We can add our voices, but we don't get to decide what the leaders of this event say.
I've heard that, in Denver, the white protesters changed the chant from Black Lives Matter, to All Lives Matter. Really? If this is true (and it's being passed around enough that I'm not sure of the original source and cannot find it myself ~ but I cannot discount it, either, because, hello, special white people...) REALLY?
Yes, all lives do matter. But my life ~ my white, upper-middle class life ~ isn't at risk here. I will not be shot just for walking down the street. I won't even be stopped for driving in the "wrong" neighborhood, let alone end up dead for walking down my own street.
This is not about me. White people, this is not about us. Stop making it so. It is okay when someone else is important. It is okay for people who don't look like us to have the stage. Get over your damn selves already. You. Are. Not. Helping. It is not our turn. Stop.
Just...stop.
Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.
A note about this video:
- no, it isn't the greatest version, however, it includes the whole poem, which is why I chose it and why it belongs on this particular post
- the images in it are hard. real death from a real war, even though that war was a long time ago
- that war ~ and why these men died ~ wasn't as long ago as we'd like to pretend
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