Can White Portland’s Fragility Handle a Megaquake?
Tiara Darnell (6/16/2020)
"White people,
Consider your performative solidarity officially on notice:
Doing the least, like sending a guilty “just checking in” text or a sympathy-saturated “thinking of you” email to your Black friend, compelling them to choose to respond to your fleeting request for coddling, is insufficient. Your #BlackOutTuesday post ain’t cuttin’ it. Don’t expect a pat on the back for the nine-minute video of you pressed against the scorching pavement chanting “Black Lives Matter.” Let’s not even go there on the topic of the selfies you took of your clenched palms, raised among a sea of whiteness at the park in your gentrified neighborhood. Yes, your presence in numbers this time around at protests in Portland and elsewhere speaks volumes, but you get no kudos for just showing up. Black people have been here..."
Consider your performative solidarity officially on notice:
Doing the least, like sending a guilty “just checking in” text or a sympathy-saturated “thinking of you” email to your Black friend, compelling them to choose to respond to your fleeting request for coddling, is insufficient. Your #BlackOutTuesday post ain’t cuttin’ it. Don’t expect a pat on the back for the nine-minute video of you pressed against the scorching pavement chanting “Black Lives Matter.” Let’s not even go there on the topic of the selfies you took of your clenched palms, raised among a sea of whiteness at the park in your gentrified neighborhood. Yes, your presence in numbers this time around at protests in Portland and elsewhere speaks volumes, but you get no kudos for just showing up. Black people have been here..."