Briana L. Urena-Ravelo
September 9 at 8:47pm
Racism is not static, racism is not encased in amber. It is a living, dreadful monstrous thing, one that grows and changes. This is because racism is comprised of the people who perpetuate and create it, it is human just like they are.
Trump’s flag was waved alongside the flag of the 13 colonies by the Forest Hills Central High School students section at a game they had against Ottawa Hills at Houseman Field this evening, at a field filled with kids of color from an GRPS school, with FHCHS faculty present and doing nothing. They waved these flags because they’re Conservatives, patriots, or they’re being “trolls”, but because white supremacy is clever and learns how to adapt to the times. Because white supremacy is people, even if they don’t know or think they are, or aren’t willing to publicly admit it.
White supremacy also still has a PR campaign to run. But frankly, you can’t bring a Confederate or Nazi flag to spook a bunch of Black and Brown kids and their families at a game without having everyone come down on you. But the 13 star flag, now THAT sends a similar message, but in much more subtle way, just like Dylann Roof and his pictures with the Rhodesian flag. You can say you’re just a patriot and can express yourself however you want in a free country! Win and win!
In both instances, white supremacy is masked by innocent call for a nation or peoples to go back to a time of former greatness and glory, of the innocent and fledging formative years of European colonies in “new lands”.
But let’s talk about what was happening during both the 13 colonies’ flag’s time and the Rhodesian flag’s times, shall we? Genocide. Europeans *legally owned* African slaves and they were violently, forcibly stealing the land of Indigenous peoples, whether Asian, African or the ancestors of current First Nation/Indigenous North and South Americans. Those flags were designed to represent European colonies committing those violences, establishing a racial hierarchy with them at the top. Hearkening to these old time values and tradition, how can that at all be subtle?
And then we have Trump’s banner. It waved alongside the flag of the 13 colonies. You think about that history and all that Trump and his supporters believe and say and what they have incited and it all clicks. It shows you very vividly what it is people think of when they say “Make America Great Again”.
I wonder how many more times things like this are gonna happen before ya’ll get a clue and start to take this VERY seriously, as seriously as people of color already have. I wonder when they will understand and care about how dangerous, damaging and hurtful this is.
Before you try say I’m just paranoid, a sissy, a do-nothing Black liberal looking to be offended or whatever other dismissive, paternalistic sexist racist shit you’re going to use to dismiss me so you can sleep better at night, realize I have the education, sense and experience of 26 years of living in West Michigan as a Dominican girl and centuries of abolition and civil rights advocacy in my ancestry and on my side to gift my perception and assessment of this country’s racism as correct. I see this for what it is out of pure instinct. And it disgusts me. That it doesn’t alarm or disgust you is what’s wrong.
Even if these flags were just about the visuals and not a call to action or the intentional allegiance to a toxic ideology, it serves to intimidate, and that is yet an issue. The psychological well-being and health of Black and Brown families and children in your community should come first to any poor excuses about “political beliefs” or what *anyone* may say the flags/Trump/Make America Great Again *really* means. We know what it means. And it is far from wholesome, just, decent, good or humane.
And before any Good White Liberals who Dr. MLK Jr. already called out some decades ago decide to take up space, or share this, pat themselves on the back and call it done, realize you have responsibility in this too. These are your cousins, your fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, etc. I am sick of you playing innocent. You frankly aren’t doing enough to challenge this garbage and our kids pay the consequences. Stop soft-pedaling and making endless excused for this. Stop calling shows of blatant aggression and intimidation “white privilege”. Stop telling yourself giving credence, space and voice to racially inciting and bigoted language is “balanced” and “fair”. Take an active, aggressive stand that goes beyond self-righteously clucking at “Trump Supporters” or else you’re part of the problem. Anything other than a loud “Not in my town” is complicit.
https://www.facebook.com/SomethingBorrowedSomethingBLU/posts/10154363317260638
retrieved from yahoo cache
Really? "Spook"? Someone is flaunting their devisive leftist privilege.