Maybe Now Isn’t the Time, Guys

If you’re tempted to point out that you’re one of the good ones right now … please don’t.

If you are upset that people of color are upset that their lives and beliefs are under assault by a resurgent, resilient, citronella-candle-filled white supremacist movement, empowered by a White House that can’t call a racist a racist because #NotAllWhitePeople … please be quiet.

If you’re wondering why people of color don’t want to hold your hand through this process, teach you, understand you, cater to your feelings, when it is people of color being beaten and misunderstood and whose feelings are treated indifferently … stop wondering why because I’m going to tell you why:

It’s not about you.

Or your feelings.

A woman died Saturday during a new-Nazi, neo-Confederate, Ku Klux Klan-filled racist protest. In 2017. Dozens of others were injured. Two others also died in a police helicopter crash, working the racist protest. These racists have assembled to threaten us, to silence us, to hurt us and anyone else who defends our right to be human.

If the biggest conclusion you drew from black people online being upset at violent, deadly racism was that they didn’t point out that some white people aren’t bad, that most white people are good, that you didn’t own slaves, that some of your best friends are black, that you just want to understand, so why won’t these black people explain our history of oppression at the hands of white people to you, you are not helping. You are part of the problem.

If you hear black people and other people of color voicing their pain about racism, racists, systemic racism, racist protests and other injustices and interpret that as “But, but, but … what about me? I’m good!”

Are you really good? You just made a person’s murder by terrorism about you. You just made a man getting beaten by actual racists about you. You just made Trump’s refusal to say “White supremacists” about you. You hear someone shouting, “OMG, these white racists and the assholes who voted them into power are terrible,” and you wonder if they meant you. You think we should prioritize your delicate feelings over our loss, our pain and the actual death of a person.

You are so vain, you think this movement is about you.

Seriously. What is wrong with you right now?

Check your privilege.