Civil Rights Credentials - I Am Over It

Over the last few weeks I have had many conversations with individuals proclaiming that the current manifestation of “Black Lives Matter” needs to be adjusted: white washed into a broader more inclusive theme.  They further proclaim that the violence they are seeing in the media needs to be addressed.

As I speak to these individuals they become offended when pressed on how their views, if adopted, will support the current oppressive system.  Many resort to stating something like “Don’t tell me about civil rights, I was there in 1969 when”

Well, frankly let me tell you I DON”T GIVE A @#*#% about your civil rights credentials. If you stand now with the oppressor through your calls for non-action you are part of the problem.

Have you really forgotten the narrative the national media used to suppress your actions all those years ago?

Have you really become so comfortable in your privileged lives that you cannot see that the current protests are the next step in achieving what you were seeking all those years ago?

Do you really see the current movement as something unrelated to the broader effort for equality in our nation?

Have you slipped into viewing your historic participation as being involved in the “real civil rights movement?

What is happening today is “THE REAL CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT”

Get on board or risk loosing the moral authority that you dearly covet because “you were there when”.   If you continue to seek to smooth over what makes you uncomfortable, you are no different than the very oppressors you opposed in the past.

Wake up, we need our elders to be engaged, willing to listen, able to see that the protests happening now are an expression of the values they proclaimed when they marched in their youth.

I DON’T CARE IF YOU WERE THERE WHEN, I CARE IF YOU SHOW UP NOW!

BLACK LIVES MATTER!