Since 2009 I’ve been lucky enough to work in music which affords me opportunities to travel. So many people are jealous of this privilege and I am truly grateful for it all. Too few of my friends, family and coworkers understand exactly how terrified...
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Since 2009 I’ve been lucky enough to work in music which affords me opportunities to travel. So many people are jealous of this privilege and I am truly grateful for it all. Too few of my friends, family and coworkers understand exactly how terrified I am and why I so often turn down the invitation to explore the cities we play after the show. Do I really wanna be walking around lost somewhere unfamiliar to me? Can I put the burden or the trust on relative strangers when I interact with some racist pig cop? Even at the job itself… My tour credentials are sometimes barely enough to get me past the security guards that technically work on my behalf. An extra pat down. Needing an escort 3rd party to vouch with a “is he ACTUALLY on this tour?!”. Balancing my pride with my protection. The stakes remain too high and the bar remains too low. Too many people still think it’s all about the removal of a few ugly words, too many people still believe it’s just about cultural appropriation of a hair style or a dance. Too many people thought it was about a seat at some theatrical political table, or a seat on a bus, or access to a water fountain or a stool in a diner, far too many people think it’s about taking a joke or an image out of tv show, a movie or a comedy special. It’s a little bit about that, but Internet outrage about micro-aggressions starts to feel a lot like Activism (with a capital “A”) when you’ve never interfaced with actual Activism or real Activists.
Don’t be fooled. Don’t be lulled. I would much rather have the levers and systems of our “justice system” replaced with real Justice. So the expediency that we remove unfit police officers that publicly murder those that look like me is equal to or greater than the swiftness that we remove the ones that have sex at work. We need bold, deliberate action. Not performative platitudes and hollow holidays.
Love to Queen Coretta. Love to MLK3. Love to Queen Yolanda. Love to Queen Bernice. Thank you all for sharing with us your very own Martin Luther King Jr. (at Tennessee)
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