My nephew who is 13 pushed back against one of his uncles saying this to him. He said “why aren’t you angrier and fighting for the world to be fairer then?” And you know what, he is absolutely right.

What I know from being Black my whole life, and poor for the majority of it, is that politely ignoring a root issue to attend to one closer to the surface is like robbing Peter to pay Paul. It’s a band-aid on a gaping wound, and it will not hold your flesh together for long. The US needs stitches.

I say it all the time, but imma say it again: a lot of very book smart people lack the emotional education and communication skills that would allow them to generate the courage they want to embody in their work. They are incurious about their own emotional lives, and consequently, those of others.

As long as the loudest folks on the left insist tone-policing, compromise on human rights, and acquiescence are our only options for a unified country, they will continue to lose the faith of the marginalized. And even when they win, they’ll just be waiting to lose the same way again.

Marginalized folks know TONE and LANGUAGE CHOICE are only part of what’s being communicated. But those in the power majority are accustomed to spaces that value and demand the faux nicety of polite tones no matter the core message being shared. To them, sounding angry makes you wrong in any event.