Estimated reading time: 9 minute(s)
Does anyone else get these comments when promoting black empowerment or any pro-black movement?:
“Why isn’t there an Asian History Month? Latino History Month? Native American History Month??”
“You’re just making it all about black people.”
“Why hasn’t there been any coverage on ______? Oh right, because they’re not black.”
Yikes! The above said is 9 times out of 10 said by non-black people of color (POC) who choose to derail everything black people do to make our struggles known, whether it’s creating a powerful hashtag on Twitter, or protesting in the streets after one of our children gets killed.
By Nzinga Muhammad
They argue that they can’t get their struggles known because they aren’t black, as though our blackness is a pass to make our struggles known first. FYI: #BlackLivesMatter is not the reason you don’t get recognition for your problems YOUR community faces. You have an opportunity to make known whatever your community is dealing with. As a member of that group, you would know best.
Why is: “you’re just making it all about black people!!” even an argument anymore? For your information, my main concern is with my own, since as a black person, I have the most experience with black people’s struggles. My first love is with my own. I can’t stand up for you, or love you, if I first don’t defend and love myself.
And it’s not like you don’t have hashtags to bring awareness, or a month to celebrate just your race/ethnicity, like us black people.
Asian & Pacific Islander History Month? That’s in May. Latino History Month or “Hispanic Heritage Month” is in September/October. Native American History Month? November.
This not saying you should just be happy with only a month to celebrate your unique cultures. It is saying though, that you should not put down black people for what we have, when you have the exact same thing as us, in this case.
There are existing hashtags on social media to make known the beauty, struggles, and stories of other POC:
#NotYourAsianSidekick (Asian-American Women); #NotYourMascot – (Indigenous Native People); and #ReclaimTheBindi (South Asian Women); just to name a few out of the many. I didn’t name them all, but there are plenty of hashtags on various social media outlets made specifically for other POC, not just black people. By the way: You can create more! You have the ability to bring out any problems your people face on a day to day basis under oppressive systems, with a little ending line to sum up your thought-provoking posts.
You have what black people have, in terms of methods of providing awareness. You want to make more hashtags? Go ahead. You want to call for a protest downtown in your city? Do that. You want to make a big deal out of your history month? Go all out. You want to call for a boycott due to injustices of your community specifically? By all means, please do so. Make the world hear your voice.
What you’re not about to do is derail everything pro black. What you’re not about to do, is blame black people for the lack of attention your cause might have gotten. We will gladly stand in solidarity with you, but do not blame us for a slow growth in awareness. Surprisingly enough, it’s not just white people who don’t like us black folk. It’s some of our non-black POC family too.
Careful… your anti-blackness is showing.
(Follow Nzinga Muhammad on Twitter @QueenNzinga13)
