#tw raid

Protect People Of Color.

#ProtectAsianLives + #BlackLivesMatter

Last May, George Floyd was killed by police brutality.

Last March, Breanna Taylor was killed by police brutality.

A year later, people still deny it. They say that it was a mistake, or Breanna/George’s fault.

It wasn’t, just so you know. George Floyd was killed because of a “counterfeit” twenty dollar bill that turned out to be real. Breanna Taylor was killed because of a botched raid on her apartment. There was not a search warrant, and her apartment was not searched afterwards.

After the news got out, there were protests and memorials. Everyone was (and still is,) outraged. How could the police, people who are supposed to protect us, do this? They killed a man with a family. They killed a woman with a family.

I stand with them, not the saying of “All Lives Matter.” Do you know why? Because all lives do matter, until it’s a person of color.

Let’s talk about the eight killed in the Atlanta Spa Shooting. Six of them were women of Asian descent. That’s racism. There is no way that the shooter wasn’t specifically looking for asian women.

The coronavirus is the coronavirus. It’s not the “chinese virus,” as so many people like to call it. It’s just the coronavirus.

Apparently the chief of police doesn’t think so, as he posted a shirt saying:

“COVID 19

IMPORTED VIRUS FROM CHY-NA.”

We need to stop this. It is unfair, racist, and terrifying. People have given me dirty looks for asking where the notebooks are in a Target. Once, a boy about 12 said to me, at the park; “Don’t steal that,” and pointed at his water bottle. This world has become a hateful place, and only benefits people that check the boxes by being either cis, straight, white, neurotypical, or skinny.

Now let’s talk about microaggressions. Microaggressions are everywhere, for example:

Touching a Black person’s hair without asking, and saying “Is this a wig?” (This has happened to me multiple times, and I hate it.)

Pretending to gag at a person’s food. (Whether they’re a person of color or not, this is very rude. It mostly happens to people of color, though.)

Whitewashing in books, television, and movies. Whitewashing is: Making a POC (person of color) original character have lighter skin, or eyes that are not brown. If your character is a person of color, THEY SHOULD HAVE BROWN EYES. Have you ever met an Indian with blue eyes? A Black person with green eyes? That’s what I thought. Even if you have, the majority do not have brown eyes.

Pretending to be weirded out by customs and cultures.

Making cultural appropriation okay through ignoring the stories of people of color who have been mocked for wearing their cultural clothes while praising a white person for doing so.

Not trying to learn how to pronounce an person's ethnic name correctly, or asking, "Can I call you by something else?".

Making assumptions about countries (including their political, historical and cultural landscape).

The definition of a microaggression is:

“Indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalized group.” Here’s my rule of thumb. If you would be offended if someone said what you’re about to say to you, then don’t say it.

The question I have for you is, why don’t you care if All Lives Matter. If you think all lives matter, why aren’t you mad. Why aren’t you shouting for justice. Why aren’t you going to protests? You could be using Carrds to know how to help, you could be making a difference. But no, you have to log on to your social media, and spread stuff like “He deserved it.” or, “This virus is all their fault.”. No, Karen. The reason COVID-19 is still here, is because:

Barely anyone thought it was real at first.

Barely anyone wore masks, or social distanced.

Barely anyone listened to science. The majority of people just kept battling over politics. Some of us are still battling over politics.

It’s actually all our fault. Instead of making jokes about countries that have basically gotten rid of the virus, we should work on following their lead.