it's been a while since i've blogged and i have to admit it's because my heart is heavy. i just cannot get 2 things out of my mind:
1. trayvon martin
2. amandla stenberg and the hunger games
the injustice and racism of it all makes me sad and angry. it bothers me. i want to scream at the top of my lungs about how fucked up our society truly is and how disturbed i feel about the whole thing. it makes me sick. and it should make you feel sick as well.
a young black teenager is shot and no one is held responsible or charged.
a movie (based on a book) is released and people are "surprised/angry/upset" that a character is not white, even though the book clearly states that she has dark brown skin.
seriously?
i wish someone would tell me that i am living in the twilight zone right now because i'm not understanding how it is 2012 and this is really our reality. what bothers me more is the fact that these are both young people we are talking about. young people. what kind of damage is this doing to other young people in this country? what are the messages that are being spread? how is any of this acceptable?!
i fear for the children of my friends, plus all of our future children (if/when we all have children). will we ever live in a time where the color of our skin does not impact the generalizations people make about us? will non-white characters be valued as much as their white counterparts? will we ever be equal?
i worry that the answers to all of these questions, thoughts and ideas in my head will forever be "no." but i am (and will always need to be) optimistic - otherwise i will make myself crazy or never have children of my own. i know that i tend to think "kumbaya - we're all equal - let's celebrate our differences and accept each other as humans" but i have to believe that this is possible. i still hope that one day i will not cry over another young person senselessly shot or feel upset about the nasty and negative things people say about a character in a book because of the color of her skin (btw - if you really thought that about rue, then your reading comprehension is off).
i still hope to one day not worry about racial injustice and its repercussions.
i don't even care how idealistic that sounds.
some articles/blogs you should read (because i'm not all that articulate when i'm upset and think there are a lot of other people who are):
Posts
1 comment:
this is great...haunting but great. i keep on thinking about that time we were driving by the bodega and those cops rolled up on those kids. all of those boys (BOYS) just dropped everything + put their hands up. i can't get that out of my mind. and i keep on thinking, "do we need to teach B that?"...i mean, what do we say to B. our little B, who spent all of last week running around in his favorite lightning mcqueen HOODIE.
ugh.
~p
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