We are so frequently accosted in these ‘living while black’ incidents wherein someone calls the police on us as we engage in normal, non-criminal activities in our own communities, sometimes in our own homes. And nearly as often during these incidents, the accused begins explaining his occupation, salary or education as a means to suggest why the accusation is a complete implausibility.
But I say, “We have to stop explaining ourselves!”
Neither our income, our educational attainments, the cars we drive, nor the size of our homes should dictate the level of respect to which we are entitled. We are qualified for respect by our very personhood, by the breadth of life within our bodies. And if someone chooses to respect us based on some false qualifier such as our degree, membership or salary-they are in fact not respecting us at all. And neither are we in having such an expectation.
I am passionate about this issue as listeners will hear in this episode. We cannot continue to waste time and energy pleading for something that others refuse to give us. In fact, what we ask of others, we should give to ourselves.
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