It is the start of “Pride Month” and all I can say is: Black Lives Matter.
Solidarity isn’t always neat and convenient. Solidarity isn’t something to be called upon just when *you* have to struggle. Solidarity is about fighting so that everyone can have the rights you enjoy, whether you inherently had them, fought for them and won, or are still fighting for them.
Solidarity is working so that others cannot have something that we consider a right deprived of them arbitrarily. If you’re sat there now and happy to say that what you have shouldn’t be the status quo for others, if you cannot say you would be happy being treated as you are seeing other humans be treated, then what you’ve got is not a right, it’s a privilege. That’s fine but it’s only yours until the next storm blows through and it’s taken from you. Don’t go crying about it when it happens, for it will not be a right that has been taken from you. Privilege is the gift of fortune and force.
I am a white, gay man and as such I cannot ignore the fact that Stonewall was a series of riots that lasted for days and is internationally recognised for being a turning point in the Gay Liberation movement. Whether or not she thew the first brick, we cannot ignore the fact that Masha P. Johnson, a black drag queen, played an important role in the moment and the movements that followed. I enjoy the rights to express myself and love who I choose because of a fight fought (bravely, passionately and violently) by others over decades and that, in many ways, on many fronts, is still ongoing. The willingness of others to ignore these facts deeply worries me.
Eventually enough is enough. That boiling point, the spark that sets a cause and the people behind it alight, is the catalyst for meaningful change. If what you’re seeing makes you uncomfortable, figure out why before you go condemning what’s happening. The fight that you’re suddenly witnessing has been happening longer than the current news cycle.
No one is trying to steal your rights or your wealth.
My life is steeped in privilege, largely conferred to me through the most passive thing ever, the colour of my skin. This is not about surrendering that and I’m not saying that there haven’t been things that I have had to fight for; there are and they are numerous, but just for looking like me I was and continue to be given a head start.
This is about elevating and protecting others to make the privilege of some into everyones privilege, to be able to recognise that what some of us enjoy and are protected by should not be a gift conferred to some, but the right of everyone. This can only happen when we recognise that what most would agree to be fundamental rights of every person are being denied and have been denied a group of people, brutally and repeatedly. Over and over and over...
And yes, you could take what I have written and with a few tweaks it could be about trans rights, women’s rights, gay rights… If that says anything to you other than the fight happening right now is just and part of a bigger universal struggle, one that you should recognise and stand in solidarity alongside then you have missed the point, utterly. If you are more worried about protecting property than people, if you cannot see why you should support this movement, then right now, you are part of the problem and you do a disservice to all those that in the past have fought for you by not picking up the mantels of equality, fairness, justice and solidarity with others, no matter where they have come from or what they look like.
If you disagree with anything I’ve said here, if it’s “all just too much”, don’t debate with me. Take it somewhere else.