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Okay so one that that really irks me is like- the fact that non American black people will go out of their way to put themselves on a higher pedestal than us American black people? like I have this friend, let's call her Allison for the story's sake. Alison is Caribbean black, mixed with Indian and she lives in a place where there are a lot of white surpremacists and she had to learn how to fit in and keep the peace for her own survival. There's nothing wrong with doing something that would keep you safe in a situation like that, that's not what this post is about. This post is about the fact that even after branching out and going to college and finding safer spaces she continued to go back to those spaces with those sorts of people for partying and social reasons. Which I found strange and told her as such, not even in a rude way we definitely cracked a few jokes and kept it going with our lives. At some point however she brought up to me that thinking back on a conversation she had with another friend of her's who is also non American black, she shouldn't have to stand up for American black people because they aren't her people. She said that she feels a degree of separation from us and therefore she didn't care if she hung out with white surpremacists because it didn't have any impact on her. This caught me off guard because A, when these people see her they don't think "oh she's black but she's not American black" they think "she's black" not only that as a friend of her's who is African American , I am directly affected by these groups of people. And this made me stop to think, a lot of people of color are divided by prior biases and things of that sort, it's something I see in my own community as well as others but I have never for a moment thought "yes this group actively hates this entire race of people-but im not that race so whatever I'll hang with them." I've always been the sort of person who want's the greater good for EVERYONE regardless of where they come from or ow they're different from me. It made me realize how I would stand up for her and her people if the time came but would she stand up for mine? or shrug it off as a battle she has no place in. I dunno, It's a strange thing to think about especially if all of our issues are interconnected.
Food for thought
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Cherri Freeze
I guess in that same vein we as POC are often pit against each other, we feel contractual obligations to each other instead of unconditional solidarity. For example, I was discussing how tragic the situation in Gaza is atm and I was letting my family know that there was a boycott against Starbucks that I'd be participating in. My aunt starts to talk about how the people in Gaza are anti-black and how she's glad this is happening to them and that she'd continue to drink her Starbucks until s problem hit a black nation she should care about. In which I reminded her that the faults of the few are not of the many, many countries could say the same rhetoric about America, anti-blackness is all over the world but none the less we're all human and no one's son, daughter, mother, father, grandparent should be subjected to what those people are being subjected to. I pointed out that bombing children , families, churches and hospitals are never acceptable acts. She was stuck in her belief even while acknowledging that it was flawed. acknlowedging that these problems are a deep rooted interconnected issue that affects all of us. I've also had people try and talk me out of boycotting?? like legit getting upset with me for having human empathy and demanding that I get over it. How do you get over something like that?