That "apology" yesterday 12July 2022 at the J6 hearing a thread [View all]

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I want to address "the apology". For too long in our history, Black people have had no choice not to show grace and accept apologies for heinous things after the fact. For equally as long, white people issuing these have perceived them as "all good". 1/
During Slavery and Jim Crow, for a Black person not to be gracious when wronged was a potential death sentence. Since the Civil Rights era, these moments have been used by white people as assumed absolution. When our son was young, we taught him a few things about apologies. 2/

They always come after the fact. They always come for behavior that was controllable. They almost always come after a choice has been made. It's no surprise to me that there were a few tweets suggesting that #OfficerDunn accepted the "apology" given. They are important 3/
to give when done sincerely and with evidence of atonement for the behavior that caused them. That doesn't mean they're always accepted, especially when it's likely that the apologizer is trying to save themself from the consequences they didn't bother to consider in the 4/
first place. Yes, we have seen Black people show grace when we've been lynched, murdered, discriminated against, wronged. Some do. That's their choice. But it is NEVER white people's decision to determine whether an apology like we saw yesterday was accepted and that act 5/
perpetuates paternalism (if I'm being kind) and white supremacy (if I'm not being kind). It demonstrates that the person making that assumption, whether they realize it or not, thinks it's their hierarchical place to make that decision. It isn't. Ever. 6/6