Oppress me, too!
Who likes to be left out?
No one.
It’s one of the worst feelings there is. Eleven guys at the court, and only ten can play. Nobody wants to be that lone player who hangs his head in shame and says, “I got next.”
How about the middle school dance when the slow jam comes on? You look around as everyone is scoping out a potential grinding partner, and you begin to sweat as you’re one of the last left uncoupled. You can’t two-step by yourself to an old school jam. That would be horror!
So, we can all agree that not being included is painful. If your older brother can go to the mall, why can’t you?
That must be how some people feel: like they’ve been left out. Like everyone else is getting all of the attention. All of the “fun.”
Oh, how sad it must be to see so many others marginalized and oppressed without really experiencing that yourself. How tormented you must feel to hear cries for equity and justice when you’ve never really had to cry for it.
I know how they feel.
My older cousins and uncle always went to the movies and mall without me.
So, while the past four months have sparked protests and dialogue centered around police brutality and systemic racism, some folks have felt unseen, unheard.
But not anymore.
They demand to be heard and to be seen.
No longer are they to sit idly by while others feel the brunt of oppression. No longer will they only lean on Black bird-watchers or breathers for their dosage of terror.
Naa. They want the right to contract a virus that might kill them or others they know, but the government is trying to take their God-given, American, Christian right to do so. Of course they should protest and resist.
WWJDIHWFLOWHAOPAHWLONBOAA?
What Would Jesus Do If He Was Feeling Like Others Were Having An Oppression Party And He Was Left Outside Not Being Oppressed At All?
You got it! He would march in his local Target.
Now, we are all in the same boat. I mean, not one of the boats that brought enslaved Africans over — not that boat. But the boat of oppression. That probably was a name of an actual slave ship, but I digress.
No one is left out now. We are equally oppressed. Centuries of racialized violence, dehumanization, discriminatory practices and fifteen minutes with breathable cloth over your face is pretty much the same thing.
Right?