We see you.

*All thoughts written here are mine alone. I do not represent any institution or group in the following post. Photo taken from saraacarter.com

So today, thousands of 2A “defenders” who are worried about someone taking away their guns, stormed Virginia’s capitol. Strapped with tactical gear, military grade guns and many covering their faces with masks or other deterrents to their identification, that we can only assume was intentional, they marched around Richmond chanting things like “We will not comply”.

Yes, they have a right to demonstrate. Yes, they are protected by the 1^st Amendment in free speech, other than threats made. Yes, they can get dressed up in their tactical gear and cover their faces and protect their identities. Hell, they can openly admit to being white supremacists and still get called “good people” from the highest office in the land.

What they no longer get to do any longer? Preach from behind their keyboards about how black and brown people “just need to comply”. Because we see you. We’ve known it all along. You (and I, admittedly) sit in that white privilege preaching about how police officers have every right to pull someone over without cause. You get indignant at the suggestion that a police officer would injure or kill someone without cause. “If they would just do what they are told, no one would get hurt.”

BULLSHIT.

Tell that to Philando Castile’s family. Tell his mother, who had to see his murder live on social media, that if he had “just complied”, that he would standing here today.

Take a look of the media’s coverage of the demonstration today. I did not see ONE black or brown person. I don’t say this lightly. Not one. You know why? Because any person of color knows that when they step out of their door in tactical gear, carrying a long range scope and a military grade gun, they’re going to die. No questions asked. That’s #facts.

So imagine, right now, in all your privilege, my white friends, what may have been different if that had been 22,000 black men marching through the streets of the capitol armed to the teeth and shouting “We will not comply”.

Totally would have gone the same, right?

On MLK day of all days. Because we simply can’t help but rub salt in the wounds of those we oppress, right? Planning this demonstration today was no accident. And black & brown people know it. Hell, I know it.

What I don’t understand is why you pretend you don’t.

I mean, if you’re going to benefit from the systems that allow you to cheer on thousands of strangers marching and demonstrating with enough ammunition to take out an entire city, then own it. You are all about individual rights, right? It’s the 2^nd Amendment, right? Don’t tread on me, right? The constitution and all that jazz.

Unless you’re not white. That’s different.

Because to sit in your comfortable home in the far reaches of suburbia and pretend that this shitshow doesn’t bring back memories of 1960s Klan outings, white men marching through the streets carrying weapons & shouting threats to the black community, is unacceptable. I have friends who LIVED that. They’re my parents’ age. Not even retired yet.

Black Americans are 10x more likely than white Americans to die by gun homicide. (CDC Fatal Injuries report, 2013-2017). Black Americans are 3x more likely to be killed by police than white Americans. (https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/)

Don’t post your whitewashed quotes about “I have a dream” and “Hate is too big a burden to bear” while you silently wait for the media storm to pass and you can bury your head in the sand. YOU. YOU are who he was referring to when MLK said,

“I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice […]”

You have black friends. Your kids play with brown kids. You vote each election. You teach your class about black history month. You don’t condone racism or have hate in your heart.

I’ve heard it all. Maybe you actually believe it, too.

None of us do though.

Sit with the discomfort of talking out of both sides of your mouth the next time you post your “All lives matter” or “Blue lives matter” memes. Examine your bias. Take stock of your lukewarm support of those who look different than you do, and save us all the time of having to explain why another black or brown person was killed because “they didn’t comply”. We’re too busy to spell it out for you. We have work to do.