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Stop playing the victim they say [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-04-11

Today once more, I read a post of a white man telling a black man to “enjoy your victimhood” and it spurred me to address this issue again. First though let’s get this out of the way “Not all white people.”

Why do people think that calling them out is being a “victim?” That kind of mental gymnastics is worthy of Olympic Gold. We get that it’s just another way to try and shame us, to make us drop our fight for equality in this country but it ain’t gonna work.

I’m not being a victim, when I demand you remove cartoonish caricatures of my ethnicity from your culture, I’m pointing out the fact that they form your children’s opinion of mine, and my children’s opinion of themselves.

I’m not being sensitive when I tell you I’m no longer going to accept how you talk to me and things you assume about me. I’m just pointing out to you that you are being rude and often racist.

I’m not being lazy, when I tell you I will no longer work 3 jobs and still be unable to make the rent. I’m just pointing out the fact that corporations are greedy and selfish.

I’m not being silly, when I ask for educational reform because I want my children to be able to succeed in life, I’m just pointing out the fact that your school districts are overfunded and ours underfunded.

I’m not being a snowflake when I call you out on your discriminatory systems, I’m just bringing to the front what you would prefer stays hidden.

I’m not being contrarian, when I talk about police reform, I’m addressing the fact that our communities and my people are over police and if you need proof look into your jails, but mostly look at the: arrest records and exoneration ratios.

I’m not ignoring your lives when I say “Black lives Matter” I’m pointing out that when you say “All” it does not include us see the document which says “all men are created equal, but also call Black folks 3/5th of a man”. Now , it’s all jobs are created equal but Black folks get paid 20% less. The mentality that minorities are worth less hasn’t changed in hundreds of years.

See you call these things “silly and superficial” because you’ve never had to live in a world that didn’t cater to you. You’ve never had to fight to make a law so that your natural hair would not be a reason for not hiring or firing you. It has not affected your lives, wait le me correct that, our discomforts have benefited your lives.

If we didn’t point out these things, pants would still be for people without curves, Band-Aids would be only one color, your toys would still be white only, like your Disney movies and for each one we’ve managed to diversify there are a 100s more that are still crafted only for you.

You see I’ve grown up under all these unwritten and unspoken rules and restrictions blocking my path, and I’ve decided it’s time to stop jumping over them and to start removing them. That’s all. If that offends you, if that scares you, I’m not sorry because you’ve enjoyed the fruits of my labor for ages, and it’s time for me to partake in them.

Yes, I know, a Black man was twice elected to the presidency, but that my dears do not mean you are not a racist country, truly it doesn’t. As I keep saying, the racism is embedded into your culture, and that is where it must be rooted out.

#ThePoet

Muriel Vieux – April 11th, 2025, ©All rights reserved

paypal.me/murielvieux if you can spare a few to help Haitian families

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