#deltams

I’ll say this and I promise I will be quiet. I teach students of all races and in several cases I can’t even communicate with them beyond drawing pictures or gestures because their language is nothing I have any kind of background with but we figure something out. I have students with horrible home lives and I’ve had to call someone to watch 28 others so I can sit in the hall and count ceiling tiles while this 1 calms down because of what happened at home.

ages 14-19. I’ve taught students who have their own children. I’ve helped break up fights and listen to them cry when they broke up with their boyfriend. I don’t care what color my kids’ skin is and my kids are upset who are getting ready to graduate high school today. Yes celebritiese have influence but I hope I’ve done my job well enough that my kids can find any and all information they need to donate, participate in a protest, if they’ve been jailed b/c of protest

i mean no disrespect because i think that’s great you are able to be that kind of support for the kids that you teach. but....i am not sure what this has to do with black lives matter and what i am trying to say in my post about bradley? 

if you are able mentally, emotionally, and physically, the very least someone can do is share information on how they can support black lives. people calling out others especially white people and ~especially white celebs to DO SOMETHING and to ACT and to NOT BE SILENT while black people are being murdered then they should LISTEN. 

my point is that another person, celebrity or not, is not responsible for telling you what to think. And do you know who else always makes all the information available that Bradley did not post? Google. In today's times, if a person can follow a celebrity on all forms of social media, they can use Google. My ultimate point being, each person is responsible for their own actions.

2. If they have to rely on a celebrity to influence them how to think or feel about something, how authentic are they? And just to tell you my frame of mind, I'm writing this as I'm getting ready to participate as a teacher in a public school in the deep south in the States who has spent a month trying to figure graduation for our Seniors because of the virus restrictions.

3. We hope we've got enough security today and everyone will focus on the kids graduating and not the protest going on across town. I have several kids who are scared and do not want to come to the school. Entertainers are not our moral compass and they shouldn't be. Many of them have hired social media managers who are doing the posts for them. They should not be who we look to for guidance.

you are missing the point. yes, celebrities shouldn’t be our moral compass and we all should think for ourselves and genuinely want to educate and change.

in my own personal experience of educating myself and unlearning so many years of ingrained and internalized ignorant behavior, sometimes it took a post or a comment i saw from a mutual or a friend to realize that things that i may have been doing and saying were the wrong things. and i can’t tell you how many times i have looked up and read links and essays and articles about an issue just because of one post i saw that i never thought to see in the way the OP was describing.

bradley is a white cis man. he has the top most PRIVILEGE in the WORLD. and as someone who has a worldwide platform AGAIN he can reach more people. he KNOWS this because he is already USING IT TO BRING AWARENESS ABOUT OTHER THINGS. why is he not using it to help black lives? and really at the bottom of it all, he should WANT to help?? isn’t he anti-racism? doesn’t he want to bring awareness to anti-blackness? doesn’t he want to help amplify black voices?? doesn’t he want to, at the very least, post information on how people can help? why is this even a debate??

“ Many of them have hired social media managers who are doing the posts for them. “  

I have to ask, why does a celebrity’s response to this situation or any play such a large role in how you respond? You can be disappointed maybe expecting more of a reaction but there isn’t a contract that Bradley or any celebrity signs that demands they behave in a certain way on social media during events such as we’re experiencing right now.

i did say in my post that it shouldn’t affect on how you support black lives matter because you should support it no matter what anyone says because black people are literally being ~murdered. 

celebrities have influence and a platform. they have fans who literally hang onto their every word and every action. like it’s been said so. many. times. silence is complicity. you shouldnt need a contract to speak up on your platform because that is literally the definition of performative activism if you are just saying something because “you have to.” bradley in particular has shown more than once, like i said in my post, he knows how to use his platform for good for something that he believes in. are you telling me that bradley doesn’t believe black lives matter?