Yes, I am trying to be controversial.
Three times in the last two days a friend has posted a non-sequitur on Facebook that seemed benign enough, but underneath the platitude was an attitude that didn’t make sense to me. Be aware of your words people. If you are stating something about gun control and white men and you are a white woman or man, you are simply parroting the news media.
If you don’t recognize that the real gun violence happens every. single. day. and. night. in Chicago and other inner-city depression zones. We as white people have no way to comprehend what their lives are like. We can say, “Black Lives Matter,” but we know nothing of what we speak. So stating something about “white people” while being a white person, is not ironic, it’s myopic.
Let’s look at one.
What’s wrong with this question?
- It does not add to any conversation
- It is about “white men” from a white woman (what does she know about it)
- It is merely aping the main stream media thread about recent violence in the news
- It misses that gun violence is not all about mass shootings (Gun violence happens every single day, and it happens in a way that a middle-class white woman or man has no clue what we are talking about.)
- It’s a question, but who is it addressed to? White men? Her white friends? Her friends of color? The world?
- What’s the point of this question?
- Seriously? SRSLY? What does this do, escalate the issue? Or does it seem dumb?
Gun violence is a huge issue. The real dividing line is money and not race. White people have no business lamenting their plight about “white men” and guns. Ever.
Yes, I responded in the comments of this posters feed and asked what she was trying to say? I asked, “If you changed the color used in the sentence would it change the meaning?” I purposefully antagonized a friend who wrote an ignorant statement, because I was curious about what she was trying to say. Did she have a point? Or was she just pouring another dose of “white people who don’t get it” on the fire of the gun violence vs. gun control issue in America?
Be careful what you say. Your words are powerful. And if you are asked to back them up, because you have made a seemingly political or racially motivated statement. Don’t be surprised if someone, one of your friends, asks you to back up and explain what you are trying to say with your post, meme, share, image.
I’m curious about this woman. She’s done this sort of BLAH-ME-TOO post several times in the last few days. I ask her a followup question each time, and she thinks I’m being critical or an asshole. Perhaps I am. I don’t mean to be. But the type of post above makes me angry. It’s saying something to be inflammatory. And it’s saying nothing.
John McElhenney – let’s connect online
@jmacofearth & Google+ & Facebook & LinkedIn
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