I have a problem with the phrase white silence is white violence
Because I think about what if whites were silent
What if when they came to this already inhabited country they kept their mouths shut and didn’t
Declare this as their nation
What if they sat back learned the native tongue and built international relations
If white silence is white violence how is it that white words have started more problems than the lack thereof
Was it not white words that started world wars
White words that wrongly sentenced minority men
White words of “keep the black and the whites separate”
White words of “Aryan is beautiful and black is worthless”
Of “I feel threatened”
White words of “hands up”
White words I can’t get enough
You see they always say Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me
But somehow
White words can hurt worse than a heartbreak
White words can carry the weight sometimes as heavy as a bullet
I am hunted by these words
These never-ending bullets emptied into my soul
Penetrating my body
They won’t stop
It’s a semi-automatic gun and once I start to finally bring myself back up the clip gets reloaded
If I’m lucky enough I’ll get a chance to breathe
Just for a second
Then those white words will continue to suffocate me as if a knee is in my neck
Muffling my voice and my words,
They only do this because they know my words carry weight far heavier than any bullet ever will
They know my words have the power to move mountains and part seas just the same as my biblical Egyptian ancestors
White words scare me because of the hatred in them
White silence doesn’t mean white violence- it could mean not knowing what to say
It could mean they are soaking up information to not be led astray
It could mean they are not trying to be offensive instead just apprehensive
It could mean they are not trying to advocate just for the trend it could mean they don’t want to post to avoid making people cringe
Because I don’t know how many more BLM posts I can take from my white friends because most of the time it doesn’t feel right
Sharing a post on your profile does not make you anti-racist
Changing your picture to Black Lives Matter doesn’t mean you believe in equality for all races
It just means your wifi and data are turned on and your fingers still work
White silence isn’t white violence it could just mean not knowing what to say after is there not peace in the quiet
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Want more information on the Black Lives Matter movement? Check out the BLM official website.
