In case you have not heard, there is a protest scheduled today in front of the Department of Justice in Washington, DC about hate crimes. A WAOD reader, Shane, has organized a “counter protest” of the protest. But “counter protest” is an inartful way to describe what is going to take place today because “counter” implies that Shane is against the stated goals of the original protest. That is not true he probably agrees with the folk getting on charter buses to march in DC. So instead of “counter protest” a better way to describe what Shane has organized is “a very public CONVERSATION.” Folks are coming to DC for a monologue well Shane just made it a dialog and some people are in a uproar that he would dare have such a dialog on the streets of DC during their carefully crafted protest. You see, with the same fervor that some folks hundreds of years ago believe that the earth was flat, they believe that Black folks can't have a VERY PUBLIC CONVERSATION without the whole of Black America imploding on the spot, instantaneously. We survived the Middle Passage, Slavery, Jim Crow and flavor of Love, but what we cannot survive, to some folks, is a VERY PUBLIC CONVERSATION!
Shane's planned “CONVERSATION”got a write up in USA Today maybe someone will even take a picture of the CONVERSATION and spend some ink on the CONVERSATION in a paper. Maybe a news camera will capture the CONVERSATION I don't know. But guess what. Not matter what happens today, tomorrow Black America will still be here. We'll still be breathing. Life will go on. A crevice isn't going to open on the street outside DOJ and swallow all of the protesters and the CONVERSAT-ORS whole because Black folks appear to be calling out other Black folks in public. It's not a bad thing, it is a good thing
People have said what Shane is doing is creating disunity. That is intellectually dishonest because the counter protesters and the protesters are unified. They are both talking about the same thing: human rights.
He's not taking anything FROM the protest with the counter protest. What he is doing is adding to it. If you are truly concerned about human rights and civil rights of all people, you will go over and embrace him today and say “I know. I care. I am concerned too” and have a CONVERSATION with him and what other brave souls dare to stand with him today
We will all be judged on Judgment Day for what we DID on earth, but we will also be judged for what we DID NOT DO. For those that have been following WAOD, you know I didn't plan any of this ( Yes. Yes. I know Rev. Renita, you told me to stop saying that, but it is true) I have extreme doubts and fears about WAOD. Each post is an act of FAITH (I guess I am not a cynic after all). I wonder sometimes if I am doing the right thing in the right way. I am engaged in a perpetual internal struggle with what this blog has become and terrified of what it could become.
There is a lot I do not know right now, but one thing I DO KNOW is that Black American can survive a CONVERSATION. In fact, we'll be better for it. What we cannot survive is continued SILENCE. This craving for SILENCE for the sake of UNITY is killing us literally.
So everybody chill out. Today is a great day for Black America. Today we will have concrete proof that we can have a public CONVERSATION and a public “engagement” and Black America will survive and thrive.
Let that marinate.
