iane...in mid-thought

My Dad was a black superhero…. TWICE. He left his mark on Hollywood and could’ve made millions more if he was willing to play a runaway slave, pretend to be the less intelligent token black friend, a thief, a thug, or even wear a dress and padding to become an old stereotypical black woman. However, he taught me images are powerful. What we put on tv..what we read…all of the images we show to the youth…are powerful beyond measure. He feels accomplished because he played a brown super hero and made little brown kids feel like someone finally represented them. Settling may make you more money but never settling means so much more. Black fucking excellence. Robert Townsend. #blackout

Sincerely,

Alert Jeremy Lin, just because you play basketball and “have lots of black friends” doesn’t make you black. Eric Garner was killed for being a black person in this white supremacist country structured around antiblackness and a genocidal assault on black life. That will never be your experience. You and other non black POC need to stop this bullshit of erasing us black folks from our own movements in the midst of our pain in a vapid attempt to “show solidarity.” All you are doing when you erase us and make it seem like your non-black body is also subject to antiblack violence is (surprise) perpetuating antiblackness. You are perpetuating the very violence that killed Eric Garner and gets one of us killed every day. Erasure is always violence and never solidarity.

1. The whole team was wearing this shirt. They did it as a TEAM. Jeremy wasn't trying to "erase" anyone from any movement. He was showing genuine support, DESPITE the many ugly and racist comments he receives on a daily basis from POC.

2. Most of Jeremy Lin's charities greatly benefit plenty of inner city African American children, and he doesn't even talk about it. The kids do. Jeremy alone does more for black kids year round than many basket ball teams do as a whole. It was something he chose to do after witnessing what some of his own friends experienced during their youth.

3. One does not need share the same physical attributes or experience in order to show empathy and understanding of another's grief. Which is simply what he did. Jeremy was in no way stating he himself or his ppl couldn't breathe *either*, nor was he attempting to draw attention away from the movement and onto himself. It was simply a show of solidarity. Something we as POC cannot afford to dismiss or turn away when it's a genuine gesture. This post is embarrassing and disappointing, and this behavior undoubtedly turns many others away from showing support, out of fear of being offensive and unfairly judged in similar fashion.

Since you took the time to slam and dismiss a genuine gesture from a person you know nothing about, I hope you have an equally dismissive and scathing blog post about popular black rappers/musicians, actors, politicians and other public figures who DID NOT come anywhere NEAR public support of this movement, for lack of caring or concern for public opinion. This here was 100% uncalled for.

Crystal Noriega

For Volt Cafe