There’s some shit you think should be universally understood by any reasonable, rational person. Yet everyday as we spiral further away from God, there’s something to remind me that this is simply not the case. Despite living through or in the era of SCOTUS landmark rulings like Roe v. Wade, Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, and Obergefell v. Hodges, there are people who believe politics are still just a matter of opinion. Still. In the year of our Lord two thousand and eighteen.
So here’s the thing: opinions are held for things that don’t impact someone’s health, access, and livelihood. It’s my opinion that catfish and spaghetti shouldn’t be served together as a meal. In the opinion of others, coleslaw is made from and for the trash. Some say that sugar don’t belong in grits and pineapples ain’t for pizza. Others still hold the opinion that potato salad is enhanced by the addition of dried fruits. While that opinion will probably give someone the bubble guts, it won’t keep them from the right to marry or equal pay.
To believe that politics are merely a matter of personal beliefs is to exhibit privilege of living outside of a political body. To think that Candace Owens, Stacey Dash, Tina Campbell or Kanye West are being #cancelled by the Black delegation because they’re expressing conservative views is to be deliberately obtuse.
Your pastor and grandma probably still preach being gay as a lifestyle choice. Your bourgeois auntie probably still looks down her nose at women who receive government assistance and thinks college is the answer to Black social mobility. Some well-meaning Black person told a young pregnant person that the baby only needs love and that “the sin was in the sex” to dissuade them from that abortion. Basically, Black folks [especially if they’re religious] already espouse a lot of conservative views and yet we’re still a community.
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
We ain’t fucking with these so-called “free thinkers” because their thoughts are rooted in antiblackness that seeks approval from white gaze. Not to mention those free thoughts merely parrot the ancient arguments of conservative pundits. Dressing it up in blackface don’t make it revolutionary. We’re cancelling these #NewBlacks because they’re throwing the weight of their support behind a political figure whose political choices have caused marked and documented harm to our identity communities.
Politics positioned an unqualified Ben Carson to lead HUD into an era of tripling rent rates for low-income families. Politics positioned an unqualified and strangely orange man at the helm of the most politically powerful country in the world. Politics allowed that same man to disparage Haiti and poor African countries, to block Syrian refugees, and demand a narcissistic military parade at taxpayers expense. Politics also enabled said man to circumvent checks and balances with a pen and executive orders. Politics stood by Roy Moore and didn’t condemn the alt-right.
It’s easy to say politics are just personal opinions when it ain’t yo person that’s on the chopping block.
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