#always referred to her as my step daughter or OUR daughter when talking to ppl
Text
a modest reinterpretation of “andi’s choice” in c-minor (inspired by a post by @ambimack)
in which bowie ghostwrites a song, andi tries to go ghost on walker, and [insert third awful ghost pun here]:
so bowie is actually ringing up customers for once at the music store that I figured rarely got business because helloo it’s always damn near empty but I guess today there was a surge of customers seeking out guitar picks and vinyls to show how Cultured and Unique they were for listening to the beatles or whomever. anyway jonah is on his guitar, doing as jonahs are wont to do, and bowie drops the bomb on him with “so yeah remember that music coach I told you about? she hates you. she quite frankly and literally wants you dead. she told me this herself. why didn’t you show up???” and jonah’s like “andi don’t fw me anymore :(” which isn’t rly an answer bc lbr here homeboy was ALREADY running late. you mean to tell me him staring at that painting took 4 whole minutes? nah.
so anyway bowie’s like “hm let’s change that” bc manipulating your daughter’s emotions behind her back is cool I guess. bowie, totally not projecting in any way whatsoever, suggests that jonah write andi a song. jonah’s not about it tho. “I can’t talk about my feelings!” he says, which is true considering he only just started exhibiting negative emotions for the first time ever last week. bowie goes, “sure u can! what rhymes with back?” and jonah almost says “crack!” bc thats clearly what bowie’s been on for the past 2 episodes but lemme not.
anyway jump to andi @ the spoon and her boo thang who’s not rly her boo thang yet bc terri hates us is facetiming her again. “so andi, my wife whom I would die for, what’s up?” and andi replies “my best friend is moving away :(” so walker, the understanding king he is, goes “aw pick your head up queen, your crown’s falling :’)” and tells her to go be with her friends and something about a bubble machine idk but w/e we still stan.
buffy comes in w/ all the junk the ghc left at her house including a knockoff tamagotchi which seems kinda before andi’s time?? like she was supposedly 7 when she got it which would have been around 2010? but once again w/e we still stan. and buffy reads the recommendation letter cyrus’ mom wrote for him which seemed a tad incomplete. “I can’t believe my mom forgot to add three references, what a waste...” he sighs.
but walker comes in and andi’s like “tf didn’t u just tell me to drink bubble soap and be w/ my friends? what r u doing here?” and walker, the modern day da vinci, says “im here to draw ur friends as a going away present for your fellow queen, buffy” and buffy looks shooketh like hey if andi don’t want him go get him sis!
so walker draws a louvre level artist rendering of the ghc and instead of appreciating the fact that walker could probably make an exact recreation of the mona lisa, andi’s like “*rolls eyes emoji* *sucks teeth emoji* now i got TWO of these little boys after me what the fuck -_-” but that doesn’t matter bc buffy and cyrus are LIVING for it.
“im gay so clearly im the better sassy best friend, step tf back bitch”
“the sassy best friend stereotype was made for my black ass cyrus so if you think for even a second I won’t claim my rightful spot you are sadly mistaken”
“let me have this one thing buffy I can’t even say the word gay out loud on this damn show can I at least have this?? can I?”
buffy takes a sip of her virgin margarita and goes...
anyway back at the music shop, jonah has just finished practicing the song bowie ghostwrote for him. jonah’s like “great this is perfect for me to sing outside andi’s window” and bowie quite litcherally flips a table and goes “you rly thought u were gonna pull that corny shit??? what year is it?? 1985 called they want their courtship technique back lol what a loser” and jonah’s like hm perhaps he really is on crack but doesn’t say it out loud bc that would hurt bowie’s feelings :/. bowie says that he already booked jonah to perform at the open mic being held THAT NIGHT lmao and jonah just about has another panic attack bc what??
“what??” he asks bowie who is too busy thinking about him performing “you girl” to bex when they were younger to even remember who jonah even is. jonah’s quite honestly shitting himself and wondering what tf he’s going to do. “being around you” is cute and all but it doesn’t go nearly as hard as andi deserves, especially if he now has to compete with artsy fartsy walker who could probably redo the sistine chapel all by himself if he rly wanted to. “hm..........how can one convey how truly deep in their feelings they are for the one they love?” jonah asks the universe, bc hey it seems to always work for bowie.
the universe responds by sending a speeding car full of college kids blasting aubrey graham’s newest hit single right into the storefront window.
“that’s it!”
jonah’s handing out flyers at the spoon and cyrus literally melts into a puddle and I’m pretty sure this is the first nod to his crush on jonah since he came out to andi wow. andi’s like “since when do u do anything aside from throwing a plastic disc?” and jonah’s like “last week 🤗"
they go to the open mic and some girlie is throwing it DOWN w/ her accordion but bowie being the uncultured swine he is, pulls her off the stage. “anywayyyy here’s our final performance and the only reason we held this show tonight, give a big round of applause to jonah beck!”
jonah walks out with his guitar and an amazon copyrighted product shaped like a portable speaker. bowie’s like 🤨 bc this was supposed to be an acoustic performance tf does he need a backing track for? jonah sits down on his lil stool and clears his throat. “alexa play ‘in my feelings, jonah beck cover’”. the device plays a track consisting of jonah’s angelic backing vocals, and our boy begins to strum his guitar. he opens his mouth to croon...
“trap...trap bowie bowie”
bowie’s chiseled jaw drops to dirty ass music shop floor. “this is...not what I planned.”
“this stuff’s got me in my feelings...gotta be real w/ it...”
the entire audience has a collective heart attack.
“an-di, do u luv me? r u riding? say you’ll never ever leave from beside me, cause I want ya and I need ya, and I’m down for u always...”
buffy and cyrus catch whiplash from turning so fast to face andi. “the song’s about YOU bitch!”
andi shakes her lil head. “puh-lease, no it’s not”
cyrus, doing his best not to cry, says “he literally just said ur name but go off”
andi’s in denial bc eww j*n*h b*ck? singing a song? for her? disgusting. but jonah keeps singing his little heart out and the lyrics are more and more damning as they go on.
“trap, trap bowie bowie...I buy you rice on a string cause you not that showy”
“art 101 cause u just like zoey”
“fuck he is singing about me...”
“fudge that netflix and chill what’s ur net-net-net worth?” jonah sings, hitting an impossible high note. queen of vocals.
“you’re the only one I luv~~~” he serenades, serving us mariah carey level whisper notes. ariana is cancelled! our boy finishes the song, basking in the thought of how many careers he singlehandedly ended by performing at this small hole-in-the-wall music shop in bumfuck, utah. drake your days are numbered sis.
everyone immediately deserts the shop en masse like did y’all see how fast they all left last episode?? damn. buffy and cyrus stay behind while andi is frozen sitting in her chair bc what the hell does one say to that.
bowie goes up to jonah and is like “so um...that was...different.” and jonah responds “ikr! see, ‘being around you’ felt too old school, too...2002. idk why that year specifically, but idk it just sounds like it was written in 2002 for a completely different person, maybe even bex, but what do I know? im just your friendly neighborhood jonah beck.” bowie is shook. “anyway, do u think andi liked it?” bowie looks up to see his dorder who he’s more or less forgot about in favor of m*randa and demon child for the past couple of days walking in slow motion to the stage. how she was doing that was beyond him. “well, she looks like she’s about to cry so that’s either a very good thing or a very bad thing. ur on ur own now bud.” and he skidaddles to where bex is waiting. oh yeah bex was in this episode too I forgot.
andi approaches jonah and he’s like “...so...song....you like?” and andi’s internally screaming bc everyone for the past several weeks has been pushing this relationship on her including jonah himself and now he just sung this song in front of all these ppl and now she pretty much HAS to kiss him so anyway ya she does.
when she pulls away jonah blinks. “oh...dosche”
THE END.
will andi finally break up with jonah for good? will jonah avoid copyright infringement for covering a drake song on disney channel? will bowie seek help for his crack addiction? find out next time on dragonball z!
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06.25.2020
It’s been a month today since George Floyd was murdered beneath the unrelenting knee of a dead-eyed policeman who I will not name. His fellow officers did nothing to stop him. Our city, the nation, and then—the world—exploded with rage and into activism. Everyone came together inside the nefarious embrace of a pandemic, masked and united, to protest yet another atrocity hurled into the Black community.
A powerful wave rose after that horrible event and I won’t break down all the details because we all know what happened next, and continued for many weeks, or at least, our versions of it. What I know is that Black voices and bodies came surging to the surface of the streets, in videos, podcasts and social platforms, in articles and interviews. I live in the country, relying on news, mostly via the internet, and I have learned so fucking much in the last month from the Black voices I’ve been listening to. I am a sixty-three year old white woman and I have always considered myself an ally but I remain a functioning if resisting-the-label racist and I have more to learn every day. I am getting there. I am staying as humble as I can.
Just last night, my youngest daughter called me out for a few things I said in a certain way that she took issue with. I got defensive, because I think of myself as an advocate, but she was right. Thank you, Kitty. Don’t stop! I want to continue learning to understand every minute detail from behind the blinders of my white privilege and my age, having grown up with so much white brainwash.
This is what we need to be doing, white ppl—friends, allies. We need to remain extremely humble, even if we believe we’ve been lifelong advocates for racial equity. We have not done enough or known enough and we have to do it right now and learn and listen and seek out Black voices and continue doing it until change is not only visible but viable and put into working action. Write your representatives weekly, daily if you wanna. They need to know what their constituents demand or else they will lose their jobs.
= = = = =
One hidden historical event that many of my white friends agreed they had never heard about, is the massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Eighteen hours of destruction rained down on a thriving Black neighborhood (May 31-June 1,1921)—eerily aligned with the murder of a Black man in Minneapolis ninety-nine years later almost to the date which spawned a worldwide revolution. In Tulsa, 300 people were killed, hundreds were hurt and thousands of buildings were destroyed. It is considered to be one of the worst incidences of racially motivated violence in the history of America. Do you wanna know what preceded this massacre? You should click on my link above, but just in case you can’t take the time, I’m gonna tell you, in brief—even though you might wanna tuck in and learn a longer version of it. Jus’sayin.
A shoeshiner, Dick Rowland, had to ride an elevator to the top floor of the Drexel building because Black people were denied access to more readily available restrooms on ground level. No one really knows what happened when he stepped into the elevator operated by 17-year-old white woman, Sarah Page, but the historical museum of Tulsa imagines he may have stepped on her foot and she screamed. I’m thinking, she probably freaked because he got onto the elevator at all! He was seen running from the elevator, I’m sure, fearing for his life because she was young, white and had screamed. He was subsequently accused of raping her.
C’mon. Let’s get real. What can happen during the course of a short elevator ride and srrsly, what Black man would EVER have taken the chance of raping a white woman, especially in 1921, when the outcome would have surely cost him his life.
Here’s the thing. The Greenwood area in 1921, was a thriving business community and was sometimes referred to as the Black Wall Street of Tulsa, serving its 10,000 Black residents. I immediately jump to the FACT that white ppl don’t wanna support Black ppl if they are doing more than surviving, when they are becoming successful and gaining access to our way of life.
The riot broke out after an article on the incident was published in the Tulsa Tribune afternoon newspaper, which also said on its editorial page that a lynching was imminent. Crowds, of both Black and white people, gathered outside the courthouse. Twice, a group of armed African American men, mostly veterans of World War I, arrived on the scene fearing a lynching and offered their assistance to the police to protect Rowland. As they were leaving the second time, a white man tried to disarm one of the Black veterans and a shot was fired, triggering the riot, with whites pouring into the all-black Greenwood district. USA Today
It took 80 years for Tulsa to acknowledge the massacre as a racial atrocity.
(pause—take that in—80 fkn years)
I had seen the Watchmen series (Hulu/HBO) months ago and thought the opening episode that set the stage for the series was fictionalized. It’s shocking and embarrassing as hell, believing myself an advocate, to not know about that horrific event. Of course, it wasn’t in the history books when I was in school and I’m gonna guess it STILL ISN’T. I really hope I’m wrong. I’ll investigate that over the weekend. Having discovered, over the last month, that the Tulsa massacre was historically documented, I revisited Watchmen and it was a totally different experience understanding the context intended. I highly recommend. I say again, I highly recommend.
Also, if you haven’t seen 13th I hope you’ll add that to your watch list.
+ + + + +
Meanwhile—addressing the White House cronies:
Reading this article in Medium was so difficult but I could not deny its truth. I posted a comment in protest, however, saying that there are so many of us in this country who are NOT subscribed to the darkness and confusion issuing from our nation’s capitol.
TEASER from linked article: I don’t use the term as an insult — the American idiot. I mean it in a precise way, as I try to remind people. For the Greeks, “idiot” carried a precise and special meaning. The person who was only interested in private life, private gain, private advantage. Who had no conception of a public good, common wealth, shared interest. To the Greeks, the pioneers of democracy, the creators of the demos, such a person was the most contemptible of all. Because even the Greeks seemed to understand: you can’t make a functioning democracy out of…idiots.
Consumer tip: T-shirts! Support Black clothing lines! I love T-shirts. I’ve linked only one option and there are many more. Scroll down the main page for a list of Black-owned grocery stores, book stores, coffee shops and brunch spots—and feel free to Google the same in your location. Let me know what you find.
I’ll leave you with this. My nephew is production manager for a tap dance crew out of NYC. Enjoy! Here’s Dorrance Dance.
Please leave notes here, subscribe to my page and talk to me. We need to be communicating right now, more than ever. Keep love alive.
1 note
·
View note
Text
06.25.2020 White Privilege: Part One
It’s been a month today since George Floyd was murdered beneath the unrelenting knee of a dead-eyed policeman who I will not name. His fellow officers did nothing to stop him. Our city, the nation, and then—the world—exploded with rage and into activism. Everyone came together inside the nefarious embrace of a pandemic, masked and united, to protest yet another atrocity hurled into the Black community.
A powerful wave rose after that horrible event and I won’t break down all the details because we all know what happened next, and continued for many weeks, or at least, our versions of it. What I know is that Black voices and bodies came surging to the surface of the streets, in videos, podcasts and social platforms, in articles and interviews. I live in the country, relying on news, mostly via the internet, and I have learned so fucking much in the last month from the Black voices I’ve been listening to. I am a sixty-three year old white woman and I have always considered myself an ally but I remain a functioning if resisting-the-label racist and I have more to learn every day. I am getting there. I am staying as humble as I can.
Just last night, my youngest daughter called me out for a few things I said in a certain way that she took issue with. I got defensive, because I think of myself as an advocate, but she was right. Thank you, Kitty. Don’t stop! I want to continue learning to understand every minute detail from behind the blinders of my white privilege and my age, having grown up with so much white brainwash.
This is what we need to be doing, white ppl—friends, allies. We need to remain extremely humble, even if we believe we’ve been lifelong advocates for racial equity. We have not done enough or known enough and we have to do it right now and learn and listen and seek out Black voices and continue doing it until change is not only visible but viable and put into working action. Write your representatives weekly, daily if you wanna. They need to know what their constituents demand or else they will lose their jobs.
= = = = =
One hidden historical event that many of my white friends agreed they had never heard about, is the massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Eighteen hours of destruction rained down on a thriving black neighborhood (May 31-June 1,1921)—eerily aligned with the murder of a Black man in Minneapolis ninety-nine years later almost to the date which spawned a worldwide revolution. In Tulsa, 300 people were killed, hundreds were hurt and thousands of buildings were destroyed. It is considered to be one of the worst incidences of racially motivated violence in the history of America. Do you wanna know what preceded this massacre? You should click on my link above, but just in case you can’t take the time, I’m gonna tell you, in brief—even though you might wanna tuck in and learn a longer version of it. Jus’sayin.
A shoeshiner, Dick Rowland, had to ride an elevator to the top floor of the Drexel building because Black people were denied access to more readily available restrooms on ground level. No one really knows what happened when he stepped into the elevator operated by 17-year-old white woman, Sarah Page, but the historical museum of Tulsa imagines he may have stepped on her foot and she screamed. I’m thinking, she probably freaked because he got onto the elevator at all! He was seen running from the elevator, I’m sure, fearing for his life because she was young, white and had screamed. He was subsequently accused of raping her.
C’mon. Let’s get real. What can happen during the course of a short elevator ride and srrsly, what Black man would EVER have taken the chance of raping a white woman, especially in 1921, when the outcome would have surely cost him his life.
Here’s the thing. The Greenwood area in 1921, was a thriving business community and was sometimes referred to as the Black Wall Street of Tulsa, serving its 10,000 Black residents. I immediately jump to the FACT that white ppl don’t wanna support Black ppl if they are doing more than surviving, when they are becoming successful and gaining access to our way of life.
The riot broke out after an article on the incident was published in the Tulsa Tribune afternoon newspaper, which also said on its editorial page that a lynching was imminent. Crowds, of both Black and white people, gathered outside the courthouse. Twice, a group of armed African American men, mostly veterans of World War I, arrived on the scene fearing a lynching and offered their assistance to the police to protect Rowland. As they were leaving the second time, a white man tried to disarm one of the Black veterans and a shot was fired, triggering the riot, with whites pouring into the all-black Greenwood district. USA Today
It took 80 years for Tulsa to acknowledge the massacre as a racial atrocity.
(pause—take that in—80 fkn years)
I had seen the Watchmen series (Hulu/HBO) months ago and thought the opening episode that set the stage for the series was fictionalized. It’s shocking and embarrassing as hell, believing myself an advocate, to not know about that horrific event. Of course, it wasn’t in the history books when I was in school and I’m gonna guess it STILL ISN’T. I really hope I’m wrong. I’ll investigate that over the weekend. Having discovered, over the last month, that the Tulsa massacre was historically documented, I revisited Watchmen and it was a totally different experience understanding the context intended. I highly recommend. I say again, I highly recommend.
Also, if you haven’t seen 13th I hope you’ll add that to your watch list.
+ + + + +
Meanwhile—addressing the White House cronies:
Reading this article in Medium was so difficult but I could not deny its truth. I posted a comment in protest, however, saying that there are so many of us in this country who are NOT subscribed to the darkness and confusion issuing from our nation’s capitol.
TEASER from linked article: I don’t use the term as an insult — the American idiot. I mean it in a precise way, as I try to remind people. For the Greeks, “idiot” carried a precise and special meaning. The person who was only interested in private life, private gain, private advantage. Who had no conception of a public good, common wealth, shared interest. To the Greeks, the pioneers of democracy, the creators of the demos, such a person was the most contemptible of all. Because even the Greeks seemed to understand: you can’t make a functioning democracy out of…idiots.
Consumer tip: T-shirts! Support Black clothing lines! I love T-shirts. I’ve linked only one option and there are many more. Scroll down the main page for a list of Black-owned grocery stores, book stores, coffee shops and brunch spots—and feel free to Google the same in your location. Let me know what you find.
I’ll leave you with this. My nephew is production manager for a tap dance crew out of NYC. Enjoy! Here’s Dorrance Dance.
Please leave notes here, subscribe to my page and talk to me. We need to be communicating right now, more than ever. Keep love alive.
1 note
·
View note
Text
06.25.2020 White Privilege: Part one
It’s been a month today since George Floyd was murdered beneath the unrelenting knee of a dead-eyed policeman who I will not name. His fellow officers did nothing to stop him. Our city, the nation, and then—the world—exploded with rage and into activism. Everyone came together inside the nefarious embrace of a pandemic, masked and united, to protest yet another atrocity hurled into the Black community.
A powerful wave rose after that horrible event and I won’t break down all the details because we all know what happened next, and continued for many weeks, or at least, our versions of it. What I know is that Black voices and bodies came surging to the surface of the streets, in videos, podcasts and social platforms, in articles and interviews. I live in the country, relying on news, mostly via the internet, and I have learned so fucking much in the last month from the Black voices I’ve been listening to. I am a sixty-three year old white woman and I have always considered myself an ally but I remain a functioning if resisting-the-label racist and I have more to learn every day. I am getting there. I am staying as humble as I can.
Just last night, my youngest daughter called me out for a few things I said in a certain way that she took issue with. I got defensive, because I think of myself as an advocate, but she was right. Thank you, Kitty. Don’t stop! I want to continue learning to understand every minute detail from behind the blinders of my white privilege and my age, having grown up with so much white brainwash.
This is what we need to be doing, white ppl—friends, allies. We need to remain extremely humble, even if we believe we’ve been lifelong advocates for racial equity. We have not done enough or known enough and we have to do it right now and learn and listen and seek out Black voices and continue doing it until change is not only visible but viable and put into working action. Write your representatives weekly, daily if you wanna. They need to know what their constituents demand or else they will lose their jobs.
= = = = =
One hidden historical event that many of my white friends agreed they had never heard about, is the massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Eighteen hours of destruction rained down on a thriving black neighborhood (May 31-June 1,1921)—eerily aligned with the murder of a Black man in Minneapolis ninety-nine years later almost to the date which spawned a worldwide revolution. In Tulsa, 300 people were killed, hundreds were hurt and thousands of buildings were destroyed. It is considered to be one of the worst incidences of racially motivated violence in the history of America. Do you wanna know what preceded this massacre? You should click on my link above, but just in case you can’t take the time, I’m gonna tell you, in brief—even though you might wanna tuck in and learn a longer version of it. Jus’sayin.
A shoeshiner, Dick Rowland, had to ride an elevator to the top floor of the Drexel building because Black people were denied access to more readily available restrooms on ground level. No one really knows what happened when he stepped into the elevator operated by 17-year-old white woman, Sarah Page, but the historical museum of Tulsa imagines he may have stepped on her foot and she screamed. I’m thinking, she probably freaked because he got onto the elevator at all! He was seen running from the elevator, I’m sure, fearing for his life because she was young, white and had screamed. He was subsequently accused of raping her.
C’mon. Let’s get real. What can happen during the course of a short elevator ride and srrsly, what Black man would EVER have taken the chance of raping a white woman, especially in 1921, when the outcome would have surely cost him his life.
Here’s the thing. The Greenwood area in 1921, was a thriving business community and was sometimes referred to as the Black Wall Street of Tulsa, serving its 10,000 Black residents. I immediately jump to the FACT that white ppl don’t wanna support Black ppl if they are doing more than surviving, when they are becoming successful and gaining access to our way of life.
The riot broke out after an article on the incident was published in the Tulsa Tribune afternoon newspaper, which also said on its editorial page that a lynching was imminent. Crowds, of both Black and white people, gathered outside the courthouse. Twice, a group of armed African American men, mostly veterans of World War I, arrived on the scene fearing a lynching and offered their assistance to the police to protect Rowland. As they were leaving the second time, a white man tried to disarm one of the Black veterans and a shot was fired, triggering the riot, with whites pouring into the all-black Greenwood district. USA Today
It took 80 years for Tulsa to acknowledge the massacre as a racial atrocity.
(pause—take that in—80 fkn years)
I had seen the Watchmen series (Hulu/HBO) months ago and thought the opening episode that set the stage for the series was fictionalized. It’s shocking and embarrassing as hell, believing myself an advocate, to not know about that horrific event. Of course, it wasn’t in the history books when I was in school and I’m gonna guess it STILL ISN’T. I really hope I’m wrong. I’ll investigate that over the weekend. Having discovered, over the last month, that the Tulsa massacre was historically documented, I revisited Watchmen and it was a totally different experience understanding the context intended. I highly recommend. I say again, I highly recommend.
Also, if you haven’t seen 13th I hope you’ll add that to your watch list.
+ + + + +
Meanwhile—addressing the White House cronies:
Reading this article in Medium was so difficult but I could not deny its truth. I posted a comment in protest, however, saying that there are so many of us in this country who are NOT subscribed to the darkness and confusion issuing from our nation’s capitol.
TEASER from linked article: I don’t use the term as an insult — the American idiot. I mean it in a precise way, as I try to remind people. For the Greeks, “idiot” carried a precise and special meaning. The person who was only interested in private life, private gain, private advantage. Who had no conception of a public good, common wealth, shared interest. To the Greeks, the pioneers of democracy, the creators of the demos, such a person was the most contemptible of all. Because even the Greeks seemed to understand: you can’t make a functioning democracy out of…idiots.
Consumer tip: T-shirts! Support Black clothing lines! I love T-shirts. I’ve linked only one option and there are many more. Scroll down the main page for a list of Black-owned grocery stores, book stores, coffee shops and brunch spots—and feel free to Google the same in your location. Let me know what you find.
I’ll leave you with this. My nephew is production manager for a tap dance crew out of NYC. Enjoy! Here’s Dorrance Dance.
Please leave notes here, subscribe to my page and talk to me. We need to be communicating right now, more than ever. Keep love alive.
1 note
·
View note
Text
06.25.2020 White Privilege: Part one
It’s been a month today since George Floyd was murdered beneath the unrelenting knee of a dead-eyed policeman who I will not name. His fellow officers did nothing to stop him. Our city, the nation, and then—the world—exploded with rage and into activism. Everyone came together inside the nefarious embrace of a pandemic, masked and united, to protest yet another atrocity hurled into the Black community.
A powerful wave rose after that horrible event and I won’t break down all the details because we all know what happened next, and continued for many weeks, or at least, our versions of it. What I know is that Black voices and bodies came surging to the surface of the streets, in videos, podcasts and social platforms, in articles and interviews. I live in the country, relying on news, mostly via the internet, and I have learned so fucking much in the last month from the Black voices I’ve been listening to. I am a sixty-three year old white woman and I have always considered myself an ally but I remain a functioning if resisting-the-label racist and I have more to learn every day. I am getting there. I am staying as humble as I can.
Just last night, my youngest daughter called me out for a few things I said in a certain way that she took issue with. I got defensive, because I think of myself as an advocate, but she was right. Thank you, Kitty. Don’t stop! I want to continue learning to understand every minute detail from behind the blinders of my white privilege and my age, having grown up with so much white brainwash.
This is what we need to be doing, white ppl—friends, allies. We need to remain extremely humble, even if we believe we’ve been lifelong advocates for racial equity. We have not done enough or known enough and we have to do it right now and learn and listen and seek out Black voices and continue doing it until change is not only visible but viable and put into working action. Write your representatives weekly, daily if you wanna. They need to know what their constituents demand or else they will lose their jobs.
= = = = =
One hidden historical event that many of my white friends agreed they had never heard about, is the massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Eighteen hours of destruction rained down on a thriving black neighborhood (May 31-June 1,1921)—eerily aligned with the murder of a Black man in Minneapolis ninety-nine years later almost to the date which spawned a worldwide revolution. In Tulsa, 300 people were killed, hundreds were hurt and thousands of buildings were destroyed. It is considered to be one of the worst incidences of racially motivated violence in the history of America. Do you wanna know what preceded this massacre? You should click on my link above, but just in case you can’t take the time, I’m gonna tell you, in brief—even though you might wanna tuck in and learn a longer version of it. Jus’sayin.
A shoeshiner, Dick Rowland, had to ride an elevator to the top floor of the Drexel building because Black people were denied access to more readily available restrooms on ground level. No one really knows what happened when he stepped into the elevator operated by 17-year-old white woman, Sarah Page, but the historical museum of Tulsa imagines he may have stepped on her foot and she screamed. I’m thinking, she probably freaked because he got onto the elevator at all! He was seen running from the elevator, I’m sure, fearing for his life because she was young, white and had screamed. He was subsequently accused of raping her.
C’mon. Let’s get real. What can happen during the course of a short elevator ride and srrsly, what Black man would EVER have taken the chance of raping a white woman, especially in 1921, when the outcome would have surely cost him his life.
Here’s the thing. The Greenwood area in 1921, was a thriving business community and was sometimes referred to as the Black Wall Street of Tulsa, serving its 10,000 Black residents. I immediately jump to the FACT that white ppl don’t wanna support Black ppl if they are doing more than surviving, when they are becoming successful and gaining access to our way of life.
The riot broke out after an article on the incident was published in the Tulsa Tribune afternoon newspaper, which also said on its editorial page that a lynching was imminent. Crowds, of both Black and white people, gathered outside the courthouse. Twice, a group of armed African American men, mostly veterans of World War I, arrived on the scene fearing a lynching and offered their assistance to the police to protect Rowland. As they were leaving the second time, a white man tried to disarm one of the Black veterans and a shot was fired, triggering the riot, with whites pouring into the all-black Greenwood district. USA Today
It took 80 years for Tulsa to acknowledge the massacre as a racial atrocity.
(pause—take that in—80 fkn years)
I had seen the Watchmen series (Hulu/HBO) months ago and thought the opening episode that set the stage for the series was fictionalized. It’s shocking and embarrassing as hell, believing myself an advocate, to not know about that horrific event. Of course, it wasn’t in the history books when I was in school and I’m gonna guess it STILL ISN’T. I really hope I’m wrong. I’ll investigate that over the weekend. Having discovered, over the last month, that the Tulsa massacre was historically documented, I revisited Watchmen and it was a totally different experience understanding the context intended. I highly recommend. I say again, I highly recommend.
Also, if you haven’t seen 13th I hope you’ll add that to your watch list.
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Meanwhile—addressing the White House cronies:
Reading this article in Medium was so difficult but I could not deny its truth. I posted a comment in protest, however, saying that there are so many of us in this country who are NOT subscribed to the darkness and confusion issuing from our nation’s capitol.
TEASER from linked article: I don’t use the term as an insult — the American idiot. I mean it in a precise way, as I try to remind people. For the Greeks, “idiot” carried a precise and special meaning. The person who was only interested in private life, private gain, private advantage. Who had no conception of a public good, common wealth, shared interest. To the Greeks, the pioneers of democracy, the creators of the demos, such a person was the most contemptible of all. Because even the Greeks seemed to understand: you can’t make a functioning democracy out of…idiots.
Consumer tip: T-shirts! Support Black clothing lines! I love T-shirts. I’ve linked only one option and there are many more. Scroll down the main page for a list of Black-owned grocery stores, book stores, coffee shops and brunch spots—and feel free to Google the same in your location. Let me know what you find.
I’ll leave you with this. My nephew is production manager for a tap dance crew out of NYC. Enjoy! Here’s Dorrance Dance.
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