(ETA: I apologize; I am a work in progress. The picture's transcription is in the comments.)
Artist Chrisette Michelle offered her thoughts on the protests of and growing movement around the deaths of African Americans, particularly at the hands of police:
There are valid reasons why today's movement can't (and shouldn't) be a mirror image of the CRM, but I don't think Chrisette Michele argues those reasons.
1) I think she conflates rioting and protesting.2) I think someone needs to point out to her that individual success does not negate structural and institutional problems. Drop some Michelle Alexander on her:
"Any racial justice movement, to be successful, must VIGOROUSLY challenge the public consensus that underlies the prevailing system of control."3) I think she needs to read Audre Lorde's "The Uses of Anger.""Black success stories lend credence to the notion that anyone, no matter how poor or how black you may be, can make it to the top, if only you try hard enough."
"There is no inconsistency whatsoever between the election of Barack Obama to the highest office in the land and the existence of a racial caste system in the era of colorblindness. The current system of control depends on black exceptionalism; it is not disproved or undermined by it."
4) I think she should drop the word "civilized" from her vocabulary. I hate that word!
And those are my thoughts...
From the picture: I'm. No #PoliticalGenius Respectfully, I don't believe that a boycott is the answer. It was the answer 60 years ago. I don't believe that marches are the answer. They were the answer 60 years ago. Not when you have clothing label owners like Nicki Minaj, leading the way at chains like K-Mart. Not when you've got hair product owners like Courtney Adelye leading the way at stores like Sally's. Not when you have record label owners like myself and Janelle Mone selling music at stores like Target. Black men like Rick Ross owning Wing Stops, black men like Kasim Reed as mayor of Atlanta. Not when we finally have a black president. This is what they faught for 60 years ago. Now is not the time to destroy it. Now is the time to achieve. Now is the time to send black boys to college. Now is the time to get good grades and become the lawyers that our uncles couldn't, become the Mayor that our fathers couldn't, own the stores that we couldn't walk into. It's the time to be the greatest and most civilized we have ever been. Now is the time to attend City Hall meetings. Now is the time to vote and change laws. Now is the time to write letters to the politicians, and government. If you want to see change, speak with educated voices that we couldn't afford before. We couldn't even attend their schools. Now we receive scholarships to them. We couldn't play their sports. Now we are the first ones drafted. We couldn't walk into their venues. Now we are selling them out. Action is voting. Action is education. Action is the well spoken. It is not chaos. It is not killing. It is not anger. Action is greatness. Arise and be the greatest. That is how we must speak. Respectfully, Chrisette Michele, a law abiding citizen with the power to vote
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