Young Mo Mo

highmami

I love this sooo much.

This will forever be the best thing ever.

“Every year a photo of me yelling at a cop circulates and is used in a way that doesn’t reflect what was happening when the photo was taken. At the same time, it reflects exactly what it is which is white privilege and white anger that doesn’t have a place in peaceful protests. It demonstrates that because I am a white woman, I can yell in his face without being harmed while people of color are being killed for broken tail lights and selling CDs. Looking at this now, it makes me sad because I imagine how many people it angers who see it and think of people they know who have done nothing and yet received far worse than I did for this. What was a peaceful demonstration turned violent quickly as I watched the police point to a random black man in the crowd and say he was causing trouble. Once one cop says “get him” all hell breaks loose. I saw the cop nearly pull a mans arm out of his socket, protesters holding on to him by one arm and police by another. I was 17 and really freaked out and really naive. I watched a man almost get pulled apart because the cops wanted a reason to say protesters caused mayhem and I reacted. I shouldn’t have done that because it only gives cops reasons to say protestors aren’t peaceful and if someone were to be hurt because of the white anger I demonstrated towards that cop l, it wouldn’t end up being me and that’s exactly what the resistance doesn’t need. I can’t take it back, I was very young and angry and my privilege had blinded me from seeing this for many years so when I did it felt like severe injustice. That’s embarrassing and gross in its self because it shows just how protected I’ve been in my life and how I let my anger cloud a movement of resistance that I am only an ally to. I apologize to those who this image upsets and I hope it’s ok that I wanted to share a few words about it.“ [X]