So can we talk about something?
So, ya'll I saw something on Twitter, and it sat in my mind.
It's no longer a viral controversy.
But I still wanted to present it to you guys because sometimes
when I have my reaction to things, I think, am I alone in this feeling?
Because this is really weird and I feel like
I'm alone in my feeling here.
So let me show you guys something that I saw on social media
that just made me feel
many, many types of ways.
So I saw this white woman post on Twitter,
this picture of herself wearing a shirt that says stolen
black breast milk, built this nation.
And she captioned it with happy women's history month!
bitch.
What love fuck like, oh, my, I saw this.
What I was I was honestly like, where were the thoughts?
Where were the thoughts, you know, and
the problem
I have with this conversation is this and this is where I want you guys to help me.
So here's the thing.
We've had so many conversations on this channel
and in many other platforms about allyship.
And I want for my white friends
to be able to speak up about injustice.
I think that is something people who are invested
in a better future for everyone will just simply do.
I think speaking about racism is really fucking important
and the reality is a lot of us in this country are taught this very sort
of patriotic version of history that has a really, really sneaky way
of completely erasing a lot of the darker
sides of what it meant to be a person of color in this country.
And so
I understand the sort of
reasoning behind this post.
I understand what she's trying to do.
She's trying to draw attention to an often not discussed
topic of black women
who during slavery time used their bodies to rear up
white children who she is crediting as the builders of the country.
But we will not unpack that here.
Where is she wearing this?
Do you know what I mean?
Like, where the fuck is she wearing this shirt?
That says stolen black breast milk?
Built this nation around black folks.
That's real cringe to me.
The reason I ask who this is for is because personally, I just have this
inherent discomfort with these shirts with an overt political message on them.
I understand what they're trying to do. I get it.
But for me, it's always just kind of cringe
because it's just you're preaching on your T-shirt,
and sometimes that makes sense, but a lot of times it doesn't, in my opinion.
But, you know, that's just. That's just me.
That's just me.
But I just feel like the only people she's
wearing this t shirt around are other white people,
probably in the most gentrified
lefty liberal part of the country.
Right.
Where I guess this feels like a normal thing to do.
But I guarantee you, if she wore that shirt in front of black folks,
it would be a really strange out of place thing.
Here's my thing.
It's easy to wear the t shirt.
It's easy to make the social media post
I really don't know what context
you would have this conversation in, but like
I would prefer you to have a conversation with with your white friends and family.
Like, can you do that instead?
I get that impression that she wouldn't she wouldn't wear this
in front of her racist family.
I might be wrong. Listen, I'm not.
Why I, I don't know what that experience has never been, that...
don't have that emotion, but
I don't know it just to me it just seems like a weird thing to do.
There's a lot of people who do this thing where they're like performing activism,
but whether or not that activism actually properly addresses
the people they're claiming to help.
Who cares?
She's wearing a shirt that's got a message about black people!
That's the vibe it gives again, what?
Who is it for? Because I promise you,
if she went to a
predominately black space, it would be really weird.
Ma'am, ma'am, what are you.
What are you wearing?
And I love the idea of just, like,
imagining her being like, yeah, I'm invited to the fucking cookout.
I'm invited to the fucking cookout.
And her just showing up in this shirt and be like, who the fuck invited?
Are you just wearing this shirt?
That's like a reminder of trauma.
Really fucked up. Intense trauma too!!
Like, this act very much so.
Prevented black women from properly raising their children.
Because what happened during slavery
is that oftentimes when these slaves would breastfeed children,
they would not even be able to feed their own.
So oftentimes, the breast milk was only given to the white child.
It's a pretty serious fucking thing.
It's not really a conversation starter.
And also, black people already know this.
So who is this for?
Well, I don't think that anyone
is asking for a white person to walk around
with a literal recitation of trauma on their T-shirt.
Black people probably generally don't need to be reminded.
I guess white people might if I don't want it.
Do you want it?
Black women in the audience?
Do you want this??
Do you want this?
Because I don't know who, who, who asked for this?
This is
this is certainly not what I ordered.
I will be calling Uber Eats right now for my full refund.
Who asked for this?
He really was not receptive to black
women who were calling her out, saying that this is not a good thing.
A lot of black women on Twitter were like, girl, why are you doing this?
Please stop doing this. We didn't ask for this.
And she responded with like these fucking pictures
of black slaves feeding white children.
And it was so condescending to you.
It was as though these black women who were saying, please don't do this.
We're just completely unaware.
They have never heard that.
I didn't know about it before.
You said it like it was just so condescending.
And I just it's weird.
You know, sometimes people, they discover new information and the way
that they act, the way that they act is like it's new to everyone.
Like, baby,
some of us have been invested in this conversation
all of our life because we've had to be, you know, to be.
Some of us have been talking about this forever because we quite
literally cannot exist in this country or in this society generally
without understanding that our race is going to make our life a bit different.
When I look at a shirt like this, I cannot imagine
how it's helping black women.
I can't.
Especially since it reduces black women to
breast milk. Right.
Breast milk. That said,
white people, she'd go,
Who are we talking about building this nation?
White people!
The White sons and daughters of slave owners?
Because that's weird.
That's weird..
It's just the optics of it are very strange.
And the thing that makes this worse
is that apparently this woman is selling these T-shirts.
And I have not looked deeply into this.
I probably should.
But apparently this person is also a tik toker,
and I think they got their start calling out COVID stuff, I suppose.
And to my understanding, she got into some sort of altercation
with another tiktoker, a black man.
He called her out for performative activism
and apparently in the disagreement that she had with him,
she posted his criminal record and everything to like win the argument.
Like, again, I haven't looked deeply into this.
I've kind of seen some stuff, but baby it's given me very much anti-black.
It's giving me very much so anti-blackness.
You know, that's just very much so the vibe.
It's giving it also apparently this woman got married on a plantation and like,
baby, I
I appreciate that.
You know this let's put it this way. But
nah, that's that's really what I have to say.
Nah, nah, nah, nah.
It feels so performative.
Also so, like and here's my biggest thing, and I know
that this probably isn't the point
but it's so ugly.
It's also so fucking ugly.
Like, it's also just genuinely a bad design.
I get what she's going for very much
it's very, like,
so that, like, hipster-y vibe but, like,
it's ugly, it's ugly, and you also can't really see it.
It's also not very legible.
It's a really powerful message written in an legible font, you know?
So who is it for?
Who is it for?
Is this also is this an egg?
Is it a is it a piece of fried chicken?
Hmm. Interesting choice.
Interesting for you to put a piece of fried chicken
on your T-shirt where you're advocating
for black people just saying it's a little suspect.
It's a little suss-y I have to say.
Please read the room
please read the room,
because I promise you,
I promise you, black folks don't need this.
Guess.
Really, what I wanted to talk to you guys about is like, what is this shit for?
Because there's part of me that thinks that this white woman
is wearing this t shirt because she, for whatever reason, believes
that this is what black people want.
This is definitely probably one of the weirder things I've seen on social media.
So I'm curious how people feel about this.
Where is the line between an ally doing too much
and an ally making like a really loud message?
What is the line?
I think just so frequently people don't again
think about whether or not the thing they are doing
is actually helping the people they are advocating for.
I think that that should be your first thought if you want to be a hashtag ally.
But to be honest with you
all, I'm you know, I'm starting to think maybe this ally thing was a mistake,
not because I don't now because I think that being an
ally is a bad thing, but there's really something to be said
about the way that this is often enacted, because I can tell
just looking at this woman's face, she is so satisfied with herself.
She is so happy she did this and she does not even probably
vaguely considered the fact that the black folks don't want this.
That black woman specifically don't want this.
And to me, it's just like really worth thinking about that.
So yes.
Anyway, like I said, would love to hear what you guys have to say about that.
And I'll know I will catch you guys in the next video!
Bye!!