I made a joke that got a lot of retweets on Twitter the other day about how I am “White Again”, in regards to an LSU article about the use of the word conservative being a dog whistle for white supremacy. YAY! Another day when right leaning political beliefs are somehow meaning you want a white dominated society, even with me being Black. Nothing new in the slightest.
It garnered so many likes because it was funny to make a joke of such ridiculousness. Why does the idea of conserving the American Republic make liberals think of white people? How rude! It is because name calling has worked for liberals up to this point in our public discourse.
Take the recent Tweet of a random guy running for U.S. Congress. He basically said that the women at Fox News tend to look all white with blonde hair and blue eyes, you know the typical race baiting dig at the right leaning news station. Let’s ignore that he himself is a bald white guy and that Harris Faulkner is a prime time news anchor and Black woman of the station. He actually tried to go at it with well known Fox News commentator and Sirus XM channel 125 host Stacey Washington, who says basically he ignored her, in response to him.
She is known more as Stacey on the Right- emphasis on her right political leanings. As I am sure Stacey gets tired, I am tired of the name calling because people assume so much that is not true. And we know how the saying goes about people who assume.
This got me to thinking of today’s viral video of a Black man beating an Asian guy on the subway. At first glance, it looks as if the assailant is just beating the random man for “no reason” as the original poster said in his comment. And it garnered a bunch a likes on the premise that Blacks can be violent and beat Asians, a narrative the media wants out in the current atmosphere as of late. However, my take on it had nothing to do with the violence. My comment had to do with the off screen bit that a lady there said towards the end of the clip. She said the prep was called the N-word. Yup, that word. And that was the bit that changed the whole clip for me
It didn’t change for me because of the violence. It is never okay to beat someone up over words and I wasn’t endorsing that. But the words were the motive for the fight and the fight wasn’t for “no reason”. Yeah, I don’t think words should trigger us to this point of violence no matter what the historical context for them. Yet, others in our society feel differently. And here is where I am going with today’s post.
As we fight the nasty narratives of the media, whether it be assuming Black conservatives don’t exist or calling anyone white a racist, we have to remain independent thinkers AND feelers. The media wants to gaslight us to control our emotions and therefore our behavior. I am reminded in all of this of a saying from a Madea play “Madea’s Family Reunion” that has been my motto for along time. I used it when a misogynistic lieutenant in my Army unit use to harass me out of my name to get me to snap on him, for when my brothers use to call me a cow for being fat or whenever I was called a name on twitter:
“It is not what people call you, but it is what you answer to”.
Madea was talking to a child on why she didn’t want to ride the bus to school. The point is that we cannot control what people call us, that’s why racial slurs even exist. The “sticks and stones” saying was evented out of the same sentiment. We are to spend more time controlling ourselves than trying to police others, because if we hit them, it might feel good but we hurt our own hands too. And you might even look like the very thing the name caller accused you of.
It isn’t immature to get upset because adults have feelings also. It is the ability to control our feelings that make us truly wise. No one has to call me or you what we wish to be called. It is freedom of speech after all.
Fortunately, it is more important what you answer to and controlling how we respond to such negativity. Strategically, controlling ourselves is the BEST way to show others our boundaries and our limits. Just do not give into name calling. Don’t even engage, don’t even respond, don’t even say anything to correct them. As long as it is just words, words can never hurt me.
