It is so hard to know what to say right now, but it is pretty clear that my usual technique of ignoring the hard topics is doing real harm, especially when so many of us do that.
Black lives matter. And for my friends who want to say that all lives matter, my comeback is “duh”. Of course they all matter. But right now, it is black people who are being killed in the street for being black. If for one minute, you think that this is not your problem, or that you are not responsible, you need to sit down, shut up, and listen to the members of your community who are literally screaming for help. They don’t want our prayers, or hugs, or our tears. They want us to rise up by their sides and stop this madness.
I’m a coward. I’ll freely admit this. You won’t find me marching in the streets. But you can be damn sure you will catch me in November, voting these bastards out of office. I hope their replacements are wiser.
Until then, I will continue doing the work to move from being silently non-racist to vocally anti-racist. Right now I’m reading “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates. It’s deep and hard, and it hurts me that people feel like this. I hope it is helping to open my eyes. When I need a break from that, I listen to The Fall Line podcast. It highlights marginalized cold case crimes in the south. Season 3 of the Serial podcast is also shocking and focuses on the criminal justice system in Cleveland.
Another thing I’m doing is supporting my fellow makers. I’ve signed up for two classes tonight. The first is with Carole Lyles Shaw. I’ve known her for a few years – we were in a beginning blogger program together. I’m so impressed with how far she has come. She’s diving into online teaching in a big way, while I’m still dithering over camera stands. I’ve signed up for her Fibonacci class – I’m looking forward to it.
Sarah L Bond is a quilter I’ve met and whose work I admire. I’ve been lazy and not taken her classes when she’s been at Gotham Quilts. Not any more! Thanks to Mancuso, Sarah has a bunch of online classes coming up. I’m signed up for the Infinity Fan workshop.
Cultured Expressions, in Rahway NJ, is a shop specializing in African fabrics. I will admit, I usually don’t get excited by the super busy African prints I’ve seen. I’ve actually quilted several tops with them recently, though, and I am starting to see the appeal. I ordered some scrap packs to play with.
I follow a few makers of color on Instagram. Once in a while I go intentionally looking for more. Here are my favorites, and what I follow them for:
Sarah Bond – Mind blowing paper piecing
Carole Lyles Shaw – Modern piecing, curves
Chawne Kimber – Tiny piecing, hard truths
Ebony Love – All things die cutting
Latifah Saafir – Glam Clam
Living Water Quilter – Ruler work quilting
Meet Makers of Color – Exposing me to different makers
That Black Chic Blog – Amazing clothing
If you are looking for more accounts to follow, a trick I learned is to go to a maker of color’s account, and see who they are following. It is an easy, unobtrusive way to learn more about our maker community.
Also, if I have missed anyone, I apologize. I tried scrolling though my list of “follows” on Instagram, but it is too long. I legitimately cannot remember everyone I follow, and I don’t categorize who is what in my mind.
My final thought is that I’m incredibly grateful for the community built by Ivete and Andrea at Gotham Quilts. I know for a fact that employing makers of color as teachers is a priority for them.
I’ve been part of the NYC quilting scene for a few years. I have been exposed to such a diverse range of quilters, and I have loved it. Getting outside of my comfort zone has made a big difference in my quilting journey. I highly recommend taking some steps outside of your comfort zone.
If I have offended anyone with this post, sorry, not sorry. Please don’t respond by being critical, unless you are actually black and this is hurting you. Those are the only people I need guidance from. If your white self is upset by my feelings, too bad. Sit down and think about why this upsets you, then think about how you can fix it. Because it is past time for you and me to stand up and fix this. Clearly, none of the white men we keep electing care enough to do it for us.
Bravo Jen.
Well said Jen.
Nicely said.
Thanks for sharing this, Jen.
Thank you.
Good for you, Jen. I’m with you – voting those bastards out!
Thank you for this post. Found Some new folks to follow. And I like the idea of supporting black artists by taking Their classes. Also on IG @pinkmimosabyjacinta has compiled a list ofPOC shops/designers to support
Beautifully said hit them at the voting booths.
I’m not offended at all. You have a right to express your opinion. I wouldn’t dream of criticizing you. I do have trouble understanding it though.
What I don’t understand is why all the anger when justice is actually being served? The man who committed this atrocious crime is behind bars. And the three who stood by and let him do it are being charged as well. How does this mean our country and our leaders in particular are all racists? Or that nobody is doing anything about it? Or that because we aren’t marching in the streets, we are somehow lacking? You are laying false guilt upon yourself and everybody else who isn’t outraged. Clearly, something was done. The people we should be angry at are the ones who let this police officer continue in his position when he had multiple complaints against him already. The Minneapolis police department and the people running that city. Unless you live in Minneapolis, I fail to see how this has anything to do with who we vote for. I have never had a problem with people peacefully protesting for change, but when we see cities being looted and burned even as justice is actually taking place, it makes zero sense to me.. Where is all the outrage about that? People’s livelihoods (including POC) being completely destroyed to make a statement? How is that good? Or even right? I try to let logic and common sense rule when I evaluate current events but this one has me truly puzzled.
Hi Janice,
I am glad to see that you are seeking to understand the anger instead of just dismissing it. Because the questions you ask are valid until you start to understand. I think the anger comes from the fact that it’s truly systemic. It wasn’t an accident that we got to the place we are today. It’s years of the systemic racism that is going to be hard to undo. I really applaud Jen for speaking out as I personally have been trying to wrap my head around everything that is going on and reflecting in my life as a POC first generation in the US. George Floyd and what happened in Minneapolis was only one instance of racism and justice and change we are seeing is a start to undoing all the years of racism in our country. Things that we all have been blind to (myself included). As for the looting and rioting, I think Emmanuel Acho explained it best. “And so now we’ve seen riots because black people and hurt people are trying to get the attention of the oppressor. They’re trying to raise awareness of the oppression.” The monologue is much longer and goes into the stages of grief to really give you insight of what is going on and I definitely think it’s worth a listen. Here’s the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8jUA7JBkF4
Jen – thanks for speaking out… I’m still trying to figure out what I want to say.
I would suggest you read “Between the World and Me” which is the only book I’ve finished on this topic thus far. “The New Jim Crow” is also pretty strong, but I’ve just started. I’m not as well educated on this topic as I would like to be, and that has stopped me from responding to you. I know you, and I like you, and I don’t want to be harsh to a friend.
Can you imagine being trapped in a system where literally nothing you do will keep you or your family safe? Can you imagine having someone shoot your family member or friend, have it caught on camera, and have no confidence that justice will be served? To have murderers time and again be brought up on charges, only to go free? And then to have a neighbor pulled out of their bed, shot and killed, and then have the murderer admit they had the wrong person? Obviously, I don’t know the details of all of these cases – I just can’t remember all of it at once. But I’d be pretty angry if I felt like nothing that my family or I did could help us get to a better, safer life. I might lose my temper and do some foolish shit.
The cops who murdered George Floyd should have been put into cuffs and brought up on charges immediately. Whatever he did to draw police attention was not a capital crime. And even if it was, those police officers were not empowered to mete out that punishment. That was an egregious abuse of power.
In the face of such an outrage, it isn’t surprising that there was destruction. The larger surprise is that Minneapolis is still standing. How can we expect black people to take this abuse over and over again in a country where we tout freedom and equality?
The guilt I feel isn’t because I have done anything. It’s because I haven’t. I see that our legal system is broken. It needs to be fixed, and the way to fix it is to overthrow the government on election day, because all of the petitions I’m signing don’t seem to be doing a damn thing.
I hope you can find it in your heart to do some learning on this topic. If you can’t, the internet is a big place.
Good for you Jen!
Well said Jennifer.
WELL said, Jen, love the last bit especially. We as white privileged people need to stand up for them now. Thank you for the suggestions and links to makers to follow, some new ones in there for me, but lots that I already follow and admire. I know on Carole!! She’s rockin’ it!
I appreciate your comments, Jen, and I see a lot of what I have been thinking and feeling echoed and summed up here.
Well said Jen. I think your anger is justified and you are so right about voting. People need to listen to all candidates in their riding and then vote for the one that they feel are speaking honestly and are interested in doing the right thing for our countries. Thank you for posting a list of some wonderful sites. A couple of them were new to me so I’m off to check them out now. 👍 Carol
Thanks for speaking out. I appreciate and agree wholeheartedly.
Janice, if you truly don’t understand all the anger, then I would ask you to look back over the history of police violence all across the country against people of color. This is not a single isolated incident in one city. So many innocent people killed by the police, Philando Castile, Freddie Gray, Alton Sterling, Breonna Taylor to name just a few.
Most of the violence happened before the officers who committed the murder were even charged. So many times when unarmed people of color are killed by police, no one is convicted. Look at the Freddie Gray death in Baltimore. The coroner ruled it a homicide but, even though many of the officers involved were initially charged, no one was convicted. The officer who murdered Philanso Castile also got off. Alton Sterling was murdered by Baton Rouge, Louisiana police and they weren’t even charged. There were protests after each of these, but nothing changed.
People justifiably believed that the officers were going to get away with it again. If there wasn’t such a clear and compelling video of the crime, nothing would have happened. Chauvin, the officer who murdered Mr. Flyod, had 18 prior complaints against him two of which resulted in discipline but was able to keep his job. Even with this murder charge against him, the police union president has stated that he will be moving to get Chauvin back on the force.
But again, this is happening all over the country. Please google list of unarmed black men killed by police. How outraged would you be if members of your family and community were killed again and again and no one was held to account. Historically peaceful protests, like Colin Kaepernick taking a knee at football games, have been ignored and derided. If people don’t listen to you no matter how loudly you yell, you might be inclined to violence. I certainly don’t condone the burning of a police station, but I can understand the rage that caused it.
As for the looting, that is a different matter. During the first few days, there was some opportunistic looting after acts of rage. The Target was attacked when it was reported that they wouldn’t sell milk to use on the eyes of people who had been tear gassed. After that, all reports of looters were criminals who were taking advantage of the confusion and lack of police presence. I watched an interview with the owner of a store in Philadelphia that was looted. He went through all the surveillance videos and confirmed that the criminals were NOT members of that community. The people in the neighborhood surrounding the store DID come out to help afterward and show their support.
The people who are protesting all over the country and all over the world want true, meaningful and lasting police reform. There are calls to (partially) defund the police and have a portion of the calls go to civilians who would be better trained. For example, a call to report a rape would send a qualified rape counsellor who takes the information and gives it to detective who can then investigate, a call to move a homeless person from a storefront would send a social worker and most importantly calls regarding a family member having an emotional crisis, which so often end in a police related tragedy, would be dealt with by a mental health professional. This has been done successfully in other cities. Camden, NJ actually disbanded their police department and made every officer re-apply for a job in the new department. The transformation has been incredible. Not surprisingly, most police departments and especially police unions are passionately against any sort of reform.
I hope this gives you something to think about and allows you to understand the reason behind the protests.