Nathan Whiteside
Jul 25, 2017 · 1 min read

Yes, in fact you can and you should — either in solidarity with the black communities you communicate with, or on your own platform. Here, you seem to be using it to hijack and deflect the conversation.

As for ancestors, scientists have found that trauma can be passed down genetically for at least 14 generations. When you understand that black people were barely more free after the Civil War than before it, via share cropping and laws designed to keep black people impoverished and powerless, as well as regular daily+ lynchings to inspire terror in black communities, you don’t even have to go back that far for the effects to be felt. Add in the systemic racism, regular police brutality, uneven application of law enforcement, and mass incarceration of black people, and you don’t have to go back at all. It’s still happening today.

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