Riddle me this, my friend: How did the hipster burn his hand? From touching the stove before it was cool!1Not my joke; author unknown. Bwah-ha-ha-hah!
Ok, righteous hipster slam aside, let me make something clear upfront: I am no hipster–a fact that should have been patently obvious from my most recent post, Here Comes The Pog Master.
What’s that? You thought my little vignette about Pogs was just another random story of mine? Well, amigo, don’t forget one simple, unshakeable truth: I have a story for every occasion. The Prize Pog Story2Get it? Get it?!? It’s a reference to The Prize Pig Story! was merely setting the stage for today.
So please, when it comes to social activism, don’t mistake me for a hipster–I can’t pretend that I stood up and supported Black Lives Matter “before it was cool.”
If anything, I’m a coward.3Yeah, like that time I said I wanted nothing to do with anything remotely historical?
You may be aware by now that I’ve started dipping my toe in some politically-tinged waters with my blog posts. Since this is a major departure from my self-imposed No Religion No Politics rule for this blog, I thought it would be worthwhile to go down the rabbit hole of the whys and hows I came to this not-so-light decision.
I attempted to explain it in one go in I Was Told There Would Be Pitchforks, before quickly realizing that–surprise, surprise–I had way more thoughts than what would fit in a 2-minute read.
You may find it helpful to go back and read that real quick; otherwise, suffice it to say that the point of that story was that I believe that there are a significant majority of people who, like me, have wondered to themselves why something as seemingly Golden Rule-ish as Black Lives Matter was so politically divisive, and have not previously supported it more openly because of that.
This is Logic Building Block #1, working towards the original thought that I wanted to communicate: please don’t slander thoughtful, giving people by dismissing and vilifying them as “A Mob/The Mob.”
An even more important point that I would like to eventually make is that it’s okay to support Black Lives Matter. Don’t listen to the haters–it won’t make you a terrorist.
Okay, so now that you have something of an idea what my overall train of thought looks like, let me focus on the today’s topic: risking something valuable for a cause.
As more and more people stand up and say “It is okay to be excellent to each other,”4That’s totally a Bill & Ted reference, and therefore you should go and read my instant-classic post, A Most Excellent Life Lesson, most immediately. the less risk there is for others who might want to stand up as well, but have more to lose.
But the nation is in the middle of this dynamic situation. While it is significantly less polarizing to express support for Black Lives Matter than it was even two months ago, there is still a long ways to go. True, it is increasingly being openly (and much more accurately) described as a human rights issue, and that’s incredibly encouraging progress.
Though the tide of public opinion seems to be turning in favor of BLM, the corresponding backlash is likewise increasing in terms of intensity, fierceness, and violence. After all, many have much to lose in a change to the status quo.
Well, there a few that have a lot to lose, but they tend to be somewhat effective at convincing others that they have much to lose as well.5This is a whole ‘nother topic, but I wholeheartedly believe that most of those that think that BLM will negatively affect them are listening to voices that don’t have their best interest in mind.
Anyways, you may be tempted to think that it is now trendy to support BLM. You know…the idea that it’s easy to mindlessly follow the mob mentality, without really thinking about or knowing what you’re doing.
But to this point I say there is still real risk.
If you go back and last Sunday’s post (and I highly recommend you do), Woke Whack-A-Mole, you’ll see that I darn6I really mean to say “d@mn well” but it kinda loses its edge once my Censorship code gets to it. well knew that my neighbors have already been targeted for having a BLM sign in their yard before I put up one in my own.
So if you think that I all willy-nilly spent $12.50 on a bi-chromatic sign and planted it in my yard without giving it much thought, you might want to reconsider that position.
The Boss Lady and I thoughtfully and deliberately wrestled with whether or not doing so was the right move for us.
We are risking relationships with our parents and neighbors who still might have a negative perception of Black Lives Matter and its supporters. We do not take that lightly at all.
We are risking unexpected violence towards our home and family by essentially putting a clear target in front of our house. Our girls’ bedrooms are at the front of our house, so if some armed anti-BLM folk gets too amped up on the rhetoric going around, there is a non-zero chance that our precious babies might catch a bullet or some broken glass.7In fact, my father-in-law has already brought up his concerns about this exact scenario.
So don’t tell me we’re blindly following the latest popular craze by supporting the BLM cause. Please understand that we are putting our most valuable possessions on the line when we do so.
I confess that I’m scared shitless at the thought of what I may have gotten myself and my loved ones into. I’ll admit that I am a huge coward by default, naturally running from danger in full risk-aversion mode.
I’m not the moral hero of the story here–otherwise I would have been bravely screaming “BLACK LIVES MATTER!” loudly and proudly since somewhere around 2016.
No, we gotta give credit where credit is due: I look at those who have gone before us and risked much more than I can even imagine. Thanks to them, I feel like the risk to us is at least manageable.
Now. you yourself may be curious about whether becoming privately and/or openly supportive of BLM is right for you. From my journey, I can say that I understand that what that risk looks like is very different and very personal for each person.8I mean, I can’t even imagine being back home in the woke wilderness of SW Kansas. I can’t say for sure that I would have the same courage as I find myself with here in not-completely rural North Carolina.
In the end, everyone has to make the decision for themselves, and I don’t fully expect anyone to hop on board just because of my public stance on the matter. My hope here is to follow in the footsteps of my more morally courageous trailblazers.
I hope that with the risks I take by putting a sign (give or take 127) in my yard and publicly blogging about it, that my neighbors, my family, and my friends will not have so much to lose in doing so themselves.
It’s sad that it should be so dangerous to stand up for what is right–but I have faith that we can change this.
So what if you haven’t been the loudest vocal of social justice all along? You’ve had plenty of good reasons not to put your neck on the line, especially when for so long it has seemed like an impossible uphill battle.
Just remember this, though: when it comes to building a better world, there simply aren’t enough hipsters to get the job done.
No, they’re going to need every last one of us cowards that they can get…
Content created on: 2, 9, & 10 July 2020 (Thurs/Thurs/Fri)
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