Thanks for writing this. I started watching the documentary and couldn’t finish. I wish all the hype around her would go away. I wish she’d go away and dissolve into a quiet live where she braids her and raises her sons. Let’s stop giving this woman a microphone. She’s hurting and discarding Black peoples. I wish it would all just stop.
A) I wish the world would stop giving her so much attention. It’s bad for her, bad for black people, for everyone. I wish she could just go back into oblivion. Maybe there’s a way she could be of service to the black community as she was before, but as a white ally. I don’t think she will take on the title of white ally, until she does, can she really support black people? Not really…
B) I don’t agree with her, but I hope the death threats and harassment stop so she can focus on raising her sons. What she did is wrong, but the harassment, death threats are also wrong. Where I’m from, the worse thing you can do to someone with a “cause” is ignore them. Let’s not murder her, that will make her maytar, let’s just ignore her.
C) IDK what this whole identifying as a “trans racial” thing she’s taking about, but it’s hurting trans gender people and I wish it would stop. I have a number of people I love in my life who happen to be trans gender, and I consider it a valid identity. Trans racial? As a white lady, I don’t think I can say much to that. I could listen my whole life, but never know what it feels like to be black and the discrimination that happens around it. People are now saying that accepting trans gender people has opened up the gates for people like her, who identify as trans racial. This has lead to more trans phobia. Trans gender is valid identity, I don’t know or understand what RD is doing, but it’s not the same as being trans gender.
D) As an adolescent, I have to admit, I wished I was black. Black women are beautiful, I felt ugly, and thought if I was black, I could beautiful like them. And one cannot deny the many contributions and rich cultural treasures of black communities. But I am white, and it never crossed my identity to pretend I was something else. Never once did I ever think I was ENTITLED to be black, to claim black culture, black identity, or black community as mine. It’s okay to appreciate, value, and serve black communities, and fight for them. But the number one rule there is to not make it about me, the white person. To be an ally means to show up to serve, humbly, help non-white leaders, to lend support, and not make the movement about me, my whiteness, or to put myself in a leadership role. It’s one thing to show up in support, it’s another to take the microphone and claim I speak for them. By taking on a black identity, she is saying black civil rights are about her, a white person. It’s yet another example of white people hijacking black resources and making everything about them. We can all appreciate and value black culture without stealing it and making it about us.