For future reference, you can contact me anytime at mistyjohnsonparker@gmail.com.
It indeed is a subject that needs to be discussed. We need to pause for a moment and listen to each other.
I can't speak for the Black community because as you can see from how I look, I haven't experienced what my sisters and brother have. I do know, from my body type (that I inherited from my dad's family) that commenting of the bodies of Black women is a very sensitive topic. Our bodies have been sexualized for millennia. We were treated as less than human yet good enough for white men to have sex with. We're still treated as objects, people assume we're more willing, free, wild, etc. It's touchy.
It's not even a "clouded thing," there's a very real generational trauma that comes along with our history. We're on guard because we don't want it to keep happening. Just like my Jewish sisters and brothers are very sensitve to the horrific persecution their ancestors endured and have residual fears surrounding that, and rightfully so.
I'm fortunate in that I walk a strange line between 3 or 4 expereinces and very distinct identities. What I see from my Black brothers and sisters is trauma. We want to hear you, but some of us can't, there's just been so much, so much pain, so much brutality and it keeps happening. It's tough to keep an open mind when you feel constantly under attack.
Do know that I see and hear you as an ally. I know you mean only good and wish for nothing but understanding and to find common ground. I'm sorry you were hurt by comments made. Hurt people hurt people, and we are a hurt people, all of us, Black people, Jewish people, other people of colour. We've been hurt in ways that span generations and colour our way of interacting with the world.
Keep asking the questions, please! We need dialogue and understanding. When people are divided, they can be conqured, but when they stand together, they can't. See our colour, it's beautiful, it's proud, it's thousands of years of not just pain, oppression and slavery, but intelligence, pride, kings and queens and excellence. It's okay, at least in my books. We all want to be seen and heard, that's where healing starts and opening this dialogue is a good start.
