“OK, Snowflake.” (Eye roll)

(originally posted on my personal Facebook page on June 25, 2020)

 

“Positive intention doesn’t sanitize negative impact.”

 

That’s one line out of this twenty-minute podcast. The full twenty is worth a listen if you’re resistant to (and especially if you’re mocking) the current civil rights movement in this country. I don’t know if anyone else is calling it that, but I am. I think we’re living in historical times.

 

My social media newsfeed is a jarring, mixed-crowd minefield. It dramatically alternates between Black Lives Matter posts and get-over-it-snowflake memes. I can usually roll with it, I figure everyone has an opinion and I’m open to learning from people who think differently than I do, and who knows, maybe I even have something to offer. I’m sincerely interested; I want to understand what makes a person tick. These days, though, it’s especially revealing.

 

The past couple of days, my tolerant kumbaya vibe is wearing thin. I’m weary. I have never been so tempted to unfriend people. And these people are my friends. I like them. I respect them. I thought they were; I thought I did. But when that same person repetitively posts memes and comments and articles that are not just vaguely insensitive and clueless, they are making a mockery of the struggle? I’ve now got that itchy trigger finger on the unfriend button.

 

I saw a quote today on a meme that resonated (queue your eye roll?): “Choosing to ‘stay out of politics’ and social justice issues is white privilege. You have the ability to ignore oppression only because you aren’t facing it or being forced to address it like other races.”

 

I never liked posting about politics, so I’ve avoided it. This doesn’t feel like just politics anymore. This is our humanity. Shouldn’t we all be in this together? Can’t we have just a tick more “I’m my brother/sister’s keeper” in us?

 

Head’s up: To anyone who may be reading this who’s posting super offensive memes, comments, and articles…we’re on thin ice.

 

(Again, eye roll queue?) You may say, “that’s okay, snowflake. Buh bye.”

 

Just know, I’ve tried to love and understand as best I can.

 

Maybe you are, too.

 

Maybe some of you are just trying to keep it light, like the Arizona politician today at a rally who said, “I can’t breathe” as he yanked off his mask.

 

Hilarious.

 

I think this podcast is valuable because Brooke Castillo is brutally honest about recognizing her own cluelessness relating to racism, racial equality, etc. She wants to find out what she doesn’t know.

 

I think that’s refreshing.

 

Who knows, maybe to you it can be as refreshing as a snowflake.

 

#OKsnowflake

#DontLookAway