This IS America: White Supremacy, The Status Quo, and Why Black Lives are Not Surprised
We try to deny that “the world is different” based upon what one looks like
Denial does not make such denial true
I am a Black woman who is the mother of Black Children
What happened yesterday and the varying responses to it, remind me daily that I am a Black woman trying to nurture and raise Black children in this world.
Hearing about the domestic terrorists’ siege on the Nation’s Capitol, as a Black woman who has existed in my Blackness my entire life, there was no feeling of shock
Because shock would imply that I did not believe that White people in America would be so invested in White supremacy that they would seek to dismantle the same institution that had been established and invested in upholding it since its very inception
The cries of “this is not who we are”, were met with disbelief by myself and my Black daughters — -who have also been raised knowing how this world perceives them
They know instinctively that THIS is EXACTLY who we are
That this country has fought wars
Lynched people
Pushed communities out of their communities
Massively incarcerated (and otherwise caged)
Underfunded schools educating people who looked like them — — -
All to maintain what those storming the Capitol were trying to uphold
White Supremacy is helluva drug
And America has gotten high off of it for centuries
Yet, within all of this, I hold space for my Black Daughters, my community, and myself
Because knowing something does not negate the hurt that seeing it causes
Having those go against the very institutions they say they revere because their hatred for us and the possibility of our full humanity finally being realized — -is painful
Having the world insist that when people who look like us have been murdered by the same law enforcement who are tasked with protecting us — -and being told that they just lack training
And then being made to watch as these same officers are attacked by White Americans and yet, those same White people
Who are not sleeping in their beds
Who are not selling loose cigarettes
Who are not just sitting in their own homes
But are actively trying to stage a coup of the country
Live — -they live. They are not shot.
Because, you can’t teach seeing someone as human
And unlike #BreonnaTaylor #TamirRice and others, the domestic terrorists were seen in all of their humanity through the cloak of Acceptable Whiteness
One can try to deny it
Yet as I physically and emotionally hold my children and my community close
It is in the exhaustion, but full understanding that
This is America
What we did (and are) witnessing is what it has always been
#CapitolHill #CapitolHillRiots #TrumpsTerrorists #AttemptedCoup
#BlackLivesMatter #DrTyffani
Dr. Dent is a licensed psychologist. Her hardest job is being a Black Woman who centers the experiences of Black women and girls. She recognizes America for what it is, while fighting for the fact that the country is also hers — -and that the fight continues to make it great — — for the very first time.