Let me tell you what white supremacy and the media will do to you. They will have you, a socially conscious, anti-racist educator, black woman who herself a victim of a lifetime of racism, never question whether or not maybe one of those black teens lived in this rich, upscale McKinney, TX neighborhood, never question that maybe it was a black teen living in the neighborhood who decided to throw an end of the year party. Or that the majority of the kids, especially the kids of color, lived in the "upper middle-class neighborhood." Ugh, sick.
So as I was already upset over watching the original video, now I'm even sicker with the additional knowledge after watching Tatiana, the 19 year old who organized the party, tell her story. CNN and other news sources were saying that kids who did not have permission to be at the pool party or who did not belong were asked to leave. When they wouldn't disperse, an altercation broke out, and police were called. How did people know that some kids did not belong? What about them gave away that they didn't belong? Did those residents know every single person in their neighborhood? I wonder ... No I don't. The white residents at the pool saw black teens in their white space and wanted them to leave.
Blacks are often accused of playing the race card and living in the past. But who played the race card in this incident? Who's really living in the past?
This incident makes it clear, if it wasn't clear to you before, that some white people still believe in white spaces that are off limits to black people. It also makes it clear that white spaces are still not safe for people of color to even exist.
If we don't call it what it is, the perpetuation of white supremacy, we are all complicit in allowing racism to thrive.
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