Full Stop: Casually Anti-Black Behaviors I’ve Observed This Month

I need this to not become a series but is anyone getting what they want right now?

I got fed up with all the casually anti-Black behaviors on social media last month and wrote a piece called Full Stop: Casually Anti-Black Behaviors You Need to Quit NOW about it. The piece went semi-viral and encouraged a lot of proudly racist folks to pop up in public spaces to give me newer examples of the behaviors I wrote about. They also ironically enough highlighted items that didn’t make the original list so I wanted to honor that with another list. Thanks, Bekki! (That’s really her name and hopefully she knows what she did by now).

1. Don’t care about us only when it’s trendy. If your organization thrives off systematic racism, and you’re comfortable with that, then you don’t get to post an empty statement to make yourself or your company look good. You need actionable items and you need to start them this second. You also need to care forever because the work doesn’t stop when you start getting fewer likes and shares. If you’re not going to start doing the work then don’t waste my time and clog up my inbox/newsfeed/etc.

2. Don’t turn to a Black acquaintance(s) for sympathy when you do something problematic. If other Black people have called you out for it then that’s all you need to know. Your searching through Black people you’ve interacted with this year trying to find one of us that will agree with you just makes you more problematic. It also tells us a…