Conservative Conundrums: Candace Owens & Ali Alexander

There was a distinct rise in the number of men of color who voted for Trump last election, and it is an upsetting reality that they felt Trump was representative of their wants and needs. I’ve talked about this with friends and family, read articles, and still cannot fully grasp how any person of color can vote so wholly against their interest and for a white supremacist or someone who’s admirable of white supremacist ideals. Maybe the term “not fully grasp” isn’t entirely accurate. I’m more astonished by the reasoning behind voting for him and, plainly, curious.

Conservatives that are outside of the typical straight white Christian male trope have been on the rise in the last several years. From personalities like Milo Yiannopolis to Diamond & Silk, it has been nothing short of a hellish mystery how these people were drawn to such a dark side of politics. It’s a mysetery that isn’t so mysterious if the main goal is money and/or attention, but it is an abysmal characterization that one could so completely discard morals for money. Then I think about corporations and how humanity is disregarded everyday in exchange for billions of dollars and a bit of my anger with them gets redirected to a society that often rewards profit over safety and scoffs at altruism. I start spiraling thinking of the many facets of greed that have gotten us to where we are today, but I digress.

Riot on the Capitol: Two Americas

Creator: Bill Clark | Credit: CQ Roll Call

It’s happening again. We are witnessing yet another glaring discrepancy in law enforcement and mainstream media’s treatment of protestors based on race. Black people protesting peacefully for equality and justice versus white people angrily whining about not winning a fair election and BREAKING into the capitol. While this example is the most extreme yet, it is still a testament to the two realities black and white Americans operate in. We saw the same thing earlier last year when white people angrily rallied about having to wear masks, armed and stomping around on their respective city hall’s steps. Police stood lackadaisically while white people screamed in their faces. Those white protestors were called dissenters and angry folks. Then we witnessed Black Lives Matter protestors peacefully walking the streets viciously met with pepper spray, rubber bullets, and batons. These black protestors were deemed rioters and destructive instigators. It’s sickening.

#SayHerName: Breonna Taylor

Anger? Yes. Frustration? Absolutely. Surprise? Yes and no. The ruling we have all been waiting months for, especially Breonna Taylor’s family, yielded a sentence that was not only insulting but a declaration of the gross negligence of our justice system. Wanton Endangerment charged to one police officer for shooting into other houses and no mention at all of the death of a young woman. Our pleas didn’t matter, our screams didn’t matter, the evidence didn’t matter, the facts didn’t matter. What continues to matter is an unbalanced, unfair judicial system that rewards and encourages black death and ignores black rights. Breonna Taylor’s story has been told by so many different voices and with so much hope for her justice and today that drive for hope came to a screeching halt.

Still Processing...

Narrowsburg, NY - you lookin good grrrrl…until I see a Trump sign -_-

I feel like a computer with that hour-glass that’s constantly flipping or that forever-spinning color wheel with no indication that the processing will stop. I feel like every day there is something else that I have to consume and make sense of before letting it settle into my memory bank of disappointment and exhaustion.

Compartmentalizing & Spiraling

It’s a term I’ve heard more recently in the last few years to refer to ways people neatly package up their intense feelings or emotions away from the world in order to focus on tasks at hand and function somewhat “normally.” I heard it even more recently, today, in a discussion where it was brought up how we, as black women, have to compartmentalize during these incredibly stressful times in order to keep functioning. At first I felt proud of what that meant. It meant I was able to channel my emotions in a way that wouldn’t interfere with work and let them out when I had time and space to do so, be it on the weekends or taking time off. Then I thought about it deeper and it made me furious to think that is something to be proud of and even more so to be acceptable in society. Humans should NOT be compartmentalizing shit to keep working.