We began marching. As we marched and ran into cops, I was incredibly frustrated with non-black folks who felt it in their right to yell, antagonize and get in the faces of cops while not fucking thinking twice about the danger we are putting black folks in. Several times I saw black folks asking non-black folks to check themselves and to pull their shit together.

…Towards the end, I was defeated by the inability of non-black folks (myself included) to support black folks in true solidarity by listening, not co-opting their struggle and not putting their lives in more danger by aggressively interacting with cops. At the end, similar to the beginning gathering in Union Square, non-black folks were saying things like “We are all Trayvon, Mike, X.” And we are fucking not. This is anti-blackness. This is not solidarity. And us non-black folks need to do better.

Some other feelings I’m having about marching is that we non-black folks don’t only need to shut down streets. We need to shut down racism and anti-blackness in our personal lives. My general sentiment last night was that so many of with access marched and can go home without the fear of ever losing our life to police violence. What are we doing outside of marching? I felt strongly that the trademark white queer “anarchist” “punk” presence lacks any real analysis of how their bodies are not targets of anti-black violence, and conflating their issues with what happened in Ferguson is gross, violent, and racist.

Bottom line, Black Lives Matter. And as non-black folks, as queers and people of color we need to show up in solidarity with black folks, shut the fuck up, and do exactly what we are told.

Stephanie Bernal-Martinez, on their experience of NYC’s November 25th protests in solidarity with Ferguson. 

from “The QTPOC Speakeasy Reports Back“ at Autostraddle

(via commovente)