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This was from a Thursday protest as gun-toting white people rushed into the Michigan State House to demand that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer sentence more Michiganders to death. The mob of “Open the Economy” advocates rallied and stormed the capitol building as the state legislature weighed whether or not they would rescind Whitmire’s stay-at-home orders meant to curb the spread of the coronavirus. I’m sure no one was intimidated.

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Only white people could do this. It’s not just that the cops would shoot the first black person in the head as soon as they crossed the threshold. It’s not just that the armed invaders are so willing to offer other people’s bodies up for sacrifice in exchange for dining in at Applebees and checking out at Walmart. It’s that they are so unabashedly angry about it that they brought killing machines with them! Only someone with an abundance of entitled privilege would even release such a large amount of white-hot hate for such arbitrary and frivolous reasons.

These people hate America.

Oh, they love flags and guns and the idea of a Constitution. But they do not love America—not even the fantasyland of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that only exists in their dreams.

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No, these motherfuckers would never show up to protest for that America. They issue their own, individual stay-at-home orders when innocent black people are killed by police or when brown children are being locked in cages because they could give a fraction of a fuck about the non-white faces in that huddled mass yearning to breathe free. Their idea of democracy is really a dictatorship of whiteness, so they organized the Million Mayo March for... Well... No one really knows.

Gretchen Whitmire isn’t encroaching on their freedom. The government isn’t taking their guns. No one is forcing them to stay at home. And if you’re wondering how I can be so sure about this, here is why:

They are out of the house, screaming at the police, with their guns!

To be fair, this is not a white thing. The vast majority of people—regardless of race—aren’t cool with an economic anxiety-induced coronavirus genocide. According to the latest Politico/Morning Consult Poll, 73 percent of whites and 76 percent of black people believe “Americans should continue to social distance for as long as is needed to curb the spread of coronavirus even if it means continued damage to the economy.”

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Which is why I need your help, white people.

I know most people worried about the house parties in Chicago and the barbershops in Atlanta, but what about Lansing? Colin Kaepernick didn’t show up at Jay-Z’s house with a gun demanding a spot on a starting roster so you can’t complain about Kap kneeling until you do something about white-on-white crime.

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White people, I know you’re not down with this. We need you to come get your white mans and ‘nem. You people need to unite and work on problems in the outer city. Maybe you could set up an afterschool program for overprivileged youth or do some community service with people of no color.

And what in hillbilly hell is this about?

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Is that a pair of preteen Caucasians dressed in an American flag tutu and sequined Daisy Dukes wearing a Barack Obama mask while tap dancing to a bluegrass banjo parody of “Candy Man” about government intervention?

OK. I was just asking.

Anyway, white people, I just wanted to know if you could talk to your people who hate this country.

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Or, maybe you could just help create a world where black people don’t have to tuck the loathing for their oppressors behind white teeth and a clenched jaw. If I manage to survive your desire to unleash COVID-19 on Black America like a rabid dog in a meat factory, perhaps you could teach us how to release the insidious thing that gnaws at our insides without us having to wonder if our unrestrained rage will conjure up a noose or a call to the cops.

Black people are taught that the only path to our freedom is through peace and love while you get to slit throats and storm castles. Damn, it must be great to be immune from everything, including the golden rule. To be able to do unto others and never have it done unto you.

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No, I don’t hate white people. I wouldn’t even know what that felt like. Most black people don’t have the luxury of carrying around something that corrosive, waiting for it to eat us from the inside out. We weren’t born with the pressure-release valve that whiteness affords. But if we did have one, sometimes—perhaps as about as often as Coco danced—I might hate like nobody’s watching.

Nah...

I would just be free.