Stop Expecting Black People To Save The Country

Once we got past the anxiety of the midterm elections, my fellow Democrats and liberal leaning friends began to throw more interest towards the 2020 presidential election. I began to see my white liberal friends (especially the women) begin throwing out names. “Kamala Harris 2020,” or “Cory Booker for President!” And every time I saw those comments and posts, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.

Listen up white folks, black people aren’t going to save this country for you. So if you could just step away from that frame of thinking, that would be awesome.

Whenever something goes wrong politically, white liberals just assume that their folks are gonna do the right thing. By now, they should know that it’s not going to go down like that. It is not in white people’s nature to do anything but protect their own interests. If we learned anything from 2016, it should be that. I don’t want to bring up the 45% of white women who voted for old Cheeto face, but well, I can’t resist.

Here’s the real talk: Black folks will always do the “right” thing, even if they know they won’t get anything from it. By now, it’s ingrained in us. We had to fight like hell for every civil right we’ve been granted, and we’re the only ones who use them beyond our own personal comfort.

Throughout the last 50 plus years, we have always been the ones to do the right thing and save the day. There were plenty of black people who weren’t keen on the idea of Hillary Clinton as president, myself included. But, we aren’t stupid either. We knew the alternative was significantly worse. And bloop, we were right.

Or look at Alabama. White people were willing to vote for Roy Moore, an accused child abuser. Had black women not come out and done the right thing, he’d be in the Senate. After that election, I suddenly saw my white liberal friends falling all over themselves calling out their fellow whites and to make sure they “thanked” black women for doing the right thing.

Too little, too late.

How many times do we need to save your asses before you realize that you’re the problem? This blind trust in other white people is astounding. And not in a good way, let me tell you.

You just assume that at the end of the day logic will win out. But you’re failing to take into consideration that these people — the racist, homophobic, generally awful ones — don’t care to change what they think. They like the way things are because they can maintain their power and don’t have to give up any of their privilege. Another POC in charge would upend their way of life, and they don’t want that.

Black people can’t keep saving white people from themselves. We can barely keep ourselves alive thanks to your racist relatives and friends. And the fact that you keep expecting us to put ourselves out there for the “greater good” of the country is bullshit. You all need to step up your game.

You can’t appeal to the humanity of a racist. Humanity doesn’t exist in their body. Your mom’s a supporter of old cotton candy hair? Tell her that she won’t get to see her grandkids until she gets her head out of her racist ass. Uncle Jimmy still crowing about Hillary’s emails? Mute him. Take no prisoners. You’re not getting anywhere with love and understanding.

And in the meantime, stop relying on black people to do the heavy lifting. We have problems of our own. It’s not fair that we do the right things and still get left out of the conversation. But then you sit there and wait for us to be grateful. Pretty soon the few of us who are left are gonna walk away and let y’all handle your own people. Our quality of life never changes no matter what we do, so maybe we’ll just stop altogether.

People of color didn’t create the mess that’s happening now — we saw it coming and tried to warn you. But you were all standing around like, “Oh, any sane and logical person isn’t going to vote for the pussy grabber,” and then that’s exactly what happened. You got complacent, and the time for complacency is long gone. Pull your heads out, folks.

The swamp has been drained, and not the way they thought. It has brought out every racist, sexist piece of shit imaginable. And they come prepared to make the lives of black people hell. Look at what the Tweeter In Chief did to Maxine Waters — he basically sicced his entire following on her and called her unintelligent. And in spite of that, she still stands tall. White people do not deserve black women.

So no, I don’t want Kamala Harris to run for president. She’d be a fool to even try. Black women are the least respected women in this damn country, even though it was literally built on our backs. If you really want to support her, then force her white contemporaries to do their fucking job, so she doesn’t have to carry the weight on her shoulders.

No sane black person, or any other person of color, is going to put themselves in the line of fire right now. White people need to use their privilege to begin to dismantle the system from the inside out. And the only way that’s going to happen is if you get off your soapbox, get off Facebook, and get to fucking work. We’re not going to keep saving you from yourselves.