Gratitude to Anima Vox

Many thanks to Tadeau and Carole Ott Coelho of Anima Vox for using my words from Am I Next in your first Cafezinho performance honoring Black Lives Matter. To view the full mini concert recorded on June 22, 2020, fast forward to 5:00.

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When You Say, "I'm Not Racist"

When you say, "I'm not racist," you deny the complexity of a system built on the racist ideas born of white supremacy. When you say, "I don't see color," you do not understand that making judgements based on color is the problem, not seeing color. When you say, "I was taught to treat everyone the same," you deny the limitations of your being kind when the system denies my dignity. When you say, "But, I'm a Christian," you deny the whitening of Jesus' body and the distortion of his Gospel for economic gain through the genocide of indigenous people, the enslavement of Africans, and other atrocities against people of color. When you say, "My child is Black," you conflate your love for one person with a love for all. When you say, "My family never enslaved people" you deny how the injustices of slavery were transformed to perpetuate your illusion of white supremacy. Wh...

My Anger

Anger drains me -- emotionally and physically. It is an act of violence against myself and I try not to experience it intensely for this reason. The celebration or glorification of the culture of violence angers me especially when it is done by a person who has been given authority. A priest in my archdiocese posting a photo on social media of himself holding an automatic firearm, a weapon of war, while wearing his clerical collar angers me greatly. As a Black woman in a southern state, I am aware of the use of law and order rhetoric as a racist trope as is the priest's expressed intention of "protecting my people and property." We also live in a period when stand your ground laws are used to justify murder. Sadly, I remember the murder of a child, Tamir Rice, who was killed because he was a Black boy playing with a toy gun. There are many people who respect firearms and use them for hunting and sport. They understand and respect the deadly force at their fingertip. Gro...

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