Facebook Publication Date: 3/1/2018 12:03

On toxic idealization of Black voices Part 1:

I read from a print mentor of mine once “There are two ways to neutralize/neuter a voice. One is to demonize them. The other is to idolize them”.

I see this so much with white people becoming fangirls, making us into gurus and oracles and such. It looks good, the starry eyes. It sounds good, all that flattery and adulation.

But it rarely, so rarely, turns into action. White people have heard quite enough.

What they need is focused, sustainable action. What they need is is to learn what reliability and steadfastness looks like.

They already have all the jargon down. They have all the imagery down.

But after all the listening, and holding sacred space and whatnot, what has actually changed in their lives? What has changed in *your* life?

I don’t teach theory so much, because white people have, in the past several years, have used it as much for deflection from their funky 3D behavior as for actual work.

I teach, or try my damndest to teach, praxis with teeth.

Which wipipo don’t like. Because it means that that something will change past their vocabulary.

But if the world isn’t a better place when you go to bed than when you woke up, even by one iota, then all your purple prose has been for naught.

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