What I’m Told

I’ve been told some wild stuff as of late.

When I say wild, I mean the blatantly racist I hate you type stuff. It’s like social media has given a platform for people to speak without thinking. I’m sure I’ve been a victim of word vomit. However, I try to make sure I keep love intact. Even in writing that, I have to check myself because I haven’t always been super cuddly and nice in my exchanges. So, for that, I ask that you please forgive me.

This post originally started out as a poem. In fact, I believe God would bless me to turn it into a poem if need be. I, however, felt it necessary to take this post in a different direction.

Some of you really don’t believe me when I say racism is alive and well. Some will acknowledge racism on their terms. I know race is a convoluted subject, but it’s a discussion that needs to occur. Especially with the changes of the world. That being said, I just want to leave some gems of what people tell me about me based on my skin color.

This tweet was in reference to the Dallas Police shootings. From my standpoint, wrong is wrong and I stated as such. Or, so I thought.

Here are some responses I received. Bear in mind, this tweet unexpectedly blew up. So, I received a lot of responses.

I was called a coon, a negropean (that one made me laugh), a house negro, and an Uncle Tom several more times. All of this was done by my supposed brothers and sisters. All of that because I condemned killing police officers. We are all fighting the same fight, but if strategy differs, then tempers flair. Now, I would like to say more people agreed with these sentiments, a good portion of which are black, than were against me.

Here something regarding the Olympics. We were talking about Yulia Efimova and Lilly King. My profile picture at the time was a trigger. Nonetheless, I loved the picture and what it represented. While the discussion originally about PEDs in swimming , it quickly changed.

Here’s the profile pic.

Simple. I love the message. You can be pro-cop and pro-black people. It is a win-win situation, right? No. Not in 2016 America. Here are a couple of responses.

 

I must say, the psychologist in me completely rejoiced at the responses. This was an impromptu study on perception. These people read “Black Lives Matter” and were immediately offended.

This is a response to a discussion on Freddie Gray.

 

I think that response speaks for itself.

My last one before I end things here. This is a response regarding the Department of Justice report on the Baltimore Police Department. This is where the conversation becomes convoluted. Some of you reading may agree with what he says. I encourage you to rethink. After that, I encourage you to laugh at the fact that this random twitter guy gave me his phone number to talk about this subject. This was a day after the conversation ended.

So, the entirety of African-American culture is empty? There is so much I could say to refute this guy, but there’s no need for that. The fact that he sent me his number means something I said struck a nerve with him.

That’s it, folks. These are just some things I’ve been told throughout the course of life. Of course, this is a small section of conversation. Life entails too many good things to focus on the bad. However, we should not deny problems exist. Instead, we should work together to make the world a better place.

This is what I’m telling you.