I was scrolling through Instagram the other day and ran across a post from someone I follow. The post was in reference to the viral video of the bullied kid, Keaton Jones, where he shared accounts of how 3 classmates tormented him. The post that I watched was troubling to me. It was a 58 second video of how we should NOT support and/or sympathize with this 11 year old kid. He even went on to call the young boy a "white supremacist in training". What was even more disgusting to me is the comments following were in total agreement. People actually believed that the kid being bullied for his physically abnormalities was justified (or at the very least, trivial) because of his skin color. The post went on to promote a very aggressive separatist attitude. The author of the post spoke of how it makes no sense to share compassion or empathy for "white people who have never shown" those things for us collectively. He specifically stated that we as black people call out "All Lives Matter" as an anti-movement to "Black Lives Matter", but at the same time do some "All Lives Matter" type stuff. What frustrates me the most is that it feeds into the narrative of people who view the BLM movement as an anti-American/anti-impartial platform largely because of situations like this that are attributed to the movement by association.
Personally, I can't believe that doing and saying what is right should be contingent on factors like race, sex, or any other category/label we have created in this world to divide us. We should not be so concerned about only giving to those that give to us or look like us. There is no growth or progress in that thinking. I thought justice and equality was what we all desire. At the end of the day, people who are wronged everywhere and in any way deserve better...and we cannot protest "deserving better" and then not show that we can and will give better and fight for better for everyone.
Any change for the better requires work for all involved. We have to be a participant of the solution and stop thinking that the solution should be given to us because we are owed it. Many people can say there are many things in life that they deserve to have; at least several of those things they actually were blessed to receive them; none of them came free.
Thank you so much for writing this blog entry. I've come across a few IG post myself and I've been sickened by what I've read. I do not understand how we can expect others to have compassion and respect for us, if when we are given the chance to show it ourselves, we become bullies because we feel it's not beneficial to us as a people. This is a child. Above anything else, he is a child. We have an opportunity to show this child, that there are people out here of all races that can come together and help people in times of need. That it doesn't matter what you look like or what your skin color is..Love is love. Instead, the bullying has been made worse and it's not going to help the situation at all or change the negative views he may or may not have towards people of color because of his family. I no longer know what is true or not true about this story. It's kind of taken a life of its own but what I do know is that it makes me sad to think that bullying is no longer something kids do to other kids but grown people do to kids and find it acceptable and/or co-sign on.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your thoughts on the topic, especially when you wrote about deserving better and yet not giving better for everyone. One would think that if you already knew how it felt to be mistreated or not given what you thought was due to you, then you wouldn't want to subject someone else to that same treatment. Basically, treat others how you would want to be treated; I believe it's a "golden" rule in different religions for a reason. Another great post! Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI love everything bout this post. When the black lives matter moment started it kind of just made life harder in general. It made it about color even when they tried to coat it and say all lives matter. Look at the stories that have been hitting the news with all the protest thinking they are fighting for us when its only making things harder. It shouldn’t matter the skin color,but in this day and age it still does. Racism is learnt, that’s why I don’t teach my kids about race. The main problem with social media is most this stuff is posted for likes it has more for what gets posted for popularity than anything else.
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