This year Columbus Day rolled around in October like it always does, but aside from the usual jokes there seemed a loud murmur on social media regarding the dismissal of this holiday commemorating the lost and confused explorer in exchange for memorializing the Indigenous Peoples of North America. The Baltimore City council is considering this after city councilman Brandon Scott introduced the legislation when students at City Neighbors High School suggested it. I saw quite a few people cheekily or defiantly wishing others a Happy Indigenous Peoples Day, but I also saw people outraged at this suggested change. There was anger at how, politically correct, everyone was and I found it ironic at how offended people were at others taking offense. I wondered what about these conversations made people so uneasy, and what about changing the narrative upset people so?
When I was in the 7th grade I went on a trip to New York with my family before the upcoming school year. I was excited to see New York, get out of Salisbury and get clothes from somewhere besides the mall. I found a brown shirt, with a cartoon lady sporting a huge afro and it boldly declared that black girls do it better. I took my find home and wore it to school a couple weeks later, clueless that people would assume I was making a statement. One of my friends later told me that a group of students in her math class we're discussing why my shirt was offensive and if “someone else” had worn a shirt like it, it would be deemed inappropriate. I was puzzled and instantly self-conscious, but even at that age, I understood that the passive aggressive pride through my shirt was not meant to be demeaning to someone else. Girls wore blondes do it better, blondes have more fun and things of that nature all of the time and unless you’re factoring in Australian Aboriginal you know that the shirts were overwhelmingly referring to Caucasian women, but unabashedly throwing race into the ring turned a silly graphic tee into something more.
Today I find it odd that people take issue with things like "Black Girls Rock!" which is a ‘multi-faceted movement and award show dedicated to elevating the narratives of black women and shining a light on the nexus of achievements of women of color whose contributions often go under the radar in mainstream media’ and say ‘what if there was a white girls rock’? In a time when telling it like it is the fashion I wonder why does my version of this unsettle people? So much so that there are counter-movements to movements demanding equality. It seems ignorant, trivial and downright dismissive to label events like "Black Girls Rock!" as exclusive and offensive to others. For so many young girls and even grown women who so rarely see themselves represented as nothing more than maids, mammies, twerkers, bitter, sassy, sidekicks, comic relief, hyper-sexualized, angry and first to die sacrifices in horror films, these platforms permit young women to see themselves cast in a light other than the one that the media feeds them. In 2016 I have found myself constantly asking, "what part of this empowerment of people is offending you?"
I reflect on this as I sit in my apartment in my corner of inner city Hell, USA. I’m black and my boyfriend is Latino, so according to Mr. Trump, these are the communities to which we belong. The past few months I’ve realized that this particular presidential candidate has ushered in a movement of “saying it like it is”, which encourages the acceptance and vocalization of xenophobia, sexism and mass generalizations of groups; Labelling Mexicans as rapists, using inner city interchangeably with black and overall fueling a campaign on phantom "bad hombre's". I was sure these thoughts would be met with outright disgust, but these talking points are in fact the political leg he stands upon as he plays into the deep seeded insecurity and fears of some Americans. These "bad hombre's" are either the reasons they have not achieved the American dream, are trying to pry it out of their hands or maybe they simply believe that the former host of Celebrity Apprentice is fit to serve as commander-in-chief. In a time like this, when a potential president voices, opinions and statements are so blindly ignorant and stereotypical, why are people offended at my offense?
As exhausting as these conversations have become for many, myself included, it is impossible to back away from the dialogue that is happening whether we like it or not. So before you get offended at someone’s offense, truly ask yourself, what about their unrest on subjects that affect them bothers you? Why are you really mad?
