Protest

Life is difficult right now.

That’s the understatement of the century, but it’s true. Media is flooded with terrifying and occasionally traumatizing images, statements, and videos. You might not feel safe right now or feel as if your loved ones aren’t safe. It’s draining on everyone, regardless of your demographics.

I’m here to remind you that your mental health matters. I encourage you to take a stand and fight for the black community, but protests and social media aren’t the only way to do that. In fact, I’d argue that they’re dangerous and not as effective as we want them to be.

If you need to take a step back, that’s okay. If you feel unsafe to leave home and want to stay inside, that’s okay. Advocating and supporting others in this time does not look the same for everyone.

However, we all have a responsibility to step up for #blacklivesmatter . So what can we do? Here’s a list:
• We can educate ourselves on black history, white privilege, and how to help in this time.
• We can reach out to our black loved ones and those who are in dangerous environments right now. Tell them you support them and they will be endlessly grateful.
• We can (if fiscally possible) donate to funds to help those in need.
• We can sign petitions to enact change.

If you feel anxious and stressed, know you are valid. Know that it is more than okay to step back and show your support in a way that you feel comfortable doing so.

Take care of yourself.

#Anxiety #Stress #SocialMedia #Protest #Support #Selfcare #order #Anxiety #MentalHealth

White supremacists are real.

My 3 sisters and I were held captive by a family of them. There was a mother, a father, and three sons, all in law enforcement.

The story I was told is that these supremacists had foster children at one time, but did something to get themselves banned from the system. They were no longer allowed to foster any foster children.

But it was the 1970s, and what they did was simply wait a period of time, and then go back to the social services department, and request children, pretending they had never fostered them before. The government had lost their records, a common occurrence back then. So they gave them 4 little girls: me and my three sisters.

What followed was six years of torture, child abuse and rape, lawsuits, reporters, judges, and the complete and utter destruction of my childhood, not to mention those of my 3 younger sisters. I was 8. They were. 7 , 5 and 4.

Being the oldest I was the one who was focused on the most. I was the one they locked in a room, forced to sit on a chair for hours and hours, from which I could not get up, forced to kneel upon sandpaper and beg forgiveness for my sin of not repeating exactly what they told me to, in the precisely correct manner.

The virulent hatred that they tried to teach me did not stick. When the mother spoke of black people, foam would fly out of her mouth and her face would turn bright red. I was never able to get away from her until the sheriff and his men came armed with guns.

When we were liberated from these Monsters, I was 14. My mother fought for six years, all the way up to the Supreme Court level. She won, but the white supremacists dragged her from court appeal to court appeal, until they lost their last appeal, 6 years later. Until the final habeas corpus was issued and armed men were at the door to enforce it.

They failed utterly to make me into a white supremacist. What they succeeded in doing in those years was to cement my horror and disgust at Bigotry and all that it entails. It woke me. It woke me hard at the age of 8. I can never unsee what I saw.

I will never stop opposing the beast that is Racism.

Racism = Mental Rot
#Racism #bigotry #endwhitesilence #Protest #protests #georgefloyd #blacklivesmatter