ON ANGER

ON ANGER

It serves those with power and privilege to tell those who are angry to "cool their jets" or (as I was told) to use "appropriate anger." It serves white supremacy and white privilege (even when it's in black- or brownface) to say that black people are dividing this country because some of us are traumatized by the Zimmerman verdict. It serves dominating cultures to say that those on the margins created the problem and are the ones with the "us vs. them" mentality and the country would be better if "you black people" would "just get over it." It serves colonialism for people to "choose" the "right kind of black" (I wish I made these things up) to speak in this time. Now I know it's hard for people to hear raging, screaming black folk, but when you characterize EVERY black person who is speaking as "raging and screaming" then it's going to be hard to hear it.

Let me say this about "appropriate anger:" In a situation in which I had the misfortune of being, black people had been speaking to a concern for several YEARS (not days or weeks, YEARS). It took one white man to stand with them for their concerns to be looked at seriously. And when authorities came back to me I was told, "now this is appropriate anger." Not the anger of those who were directly affected, but the anger of the speaking white male. PLEASE don't tell me black folk are the problem of the color line. That chalk is white.

Thank you to non-black friends who are risking their white card to make this case. I know it means outing yourself and risking having to clean up that "friend's list." But right here, in the face of black mama trauma, is where your being an ally counts.

© Valerie Bridgeman
July 16, 2013

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