what to write on sidewalk to make someone smiles
Exercise Not Move Off The Sidewalk Challenge: Holding Your Space in A White Globe
Last year, I was in the aerodrome on the rolling walkway with clear directions posted before stepping on the sidewalk to 'stand on the right or walk on the left.' At that place was a White man in front of me that disregarded the sign and stood in the heart of the rolling walkway preventing anyone from passing him. Behind me, I could hear someone approaching, and I turned around and saw a middle age Black woman walking briskly with her rolling suitcase flying behind her. I pressed myself and my luggage confronting the side rails to movement out of her way and allow her easy admission to pass me. She whizzed by me and in front of her was the White man, oblivious that she was backside him and in an apparent rush. He never turned effectually, never moved and never once thought that others behind him might need to pass. While I would like to say the Blackness woman, leaped over him, luggage in tow in a single bound, she stopped dead in her tracks. She never said a word. She never politely tapped the man on the shoulder to say, "Alibi me, may I get by yous?" She just accustomed that he was not going to move and for some reason even though she was in an apparent rush, she fabricated a choice not to enquire for him to cede the infinite for her to pass. She waited for the rolling walkway to come to an end, waited for him to saunter off the walkway then immediately took off in a sprint heading towards her gate. That pocket-sized interaction stayed with me my entire flight.
As I made my connecting flight, I was looking frontward to having pizza at the airport. I cannot recall the name of the eating house, but it has the best pizza with prosciutto, arugula and cooked eggs on top surrounded by hot, flossy goat cheese. Later I got my pizza, I sat down at an empty counter and put my earphones in, anxiously ready to take a huge seize with teeth. Before I could become my first bite, a White man walked up to the contrary side of the counter, facing me, with his food. I looked up at him then looked down at the completely empty counter infinite (besides me sitting at it) wondering why he chose to stand directly in front of me equally he added common salt to his food? Typically, I would move down, but after witnessing the Black woman on the rolling walkway, I made a decision, "I am NOT moving! I practise not care if he wants to stand up in that location until I have finished every bite of this pizza, I reject to move to accommodate him!" Later on he enjoyed a few bites of his nutrient and noticed that I was not going to move, he packed up his belongings and moved to the stop of the counter.
Victory!
It was but that easy. I fabricated a conscious decision as a Black woman to concur my space. I was non going to cede my space to a White person considering that is what was expected of me. Now, earlier yous read any further, this is non a blog about being rude, boorish, etc. I believe as an "average" human being we understand that there are sometimes yous must and should cede your space. If you are in the mode of someone that has some concrete challenges or someone is elderly and as a result, has some physical problems that is different. I am not talking about ordinary, everyday courtesy we extend to others for often apparent reasons. That is NOT what I am talking most then please do not bulletin me most that or make this web log most that. If you do, you are taking the easy way out of this blog and not looking at the totality of what I am discussing.
I am talking near Black people, particularly Blackness women and People of Color beingness cognizant of how they navigate throughout spaces making accommodations for White people and White people having an expectation that Blackness people or People of Color must navigate their bodies to permit White people access in spaces. This is more than someone beingness rude; this is about White people feeling equally if Black bodies should accommodate them in spaces and if we do not, it is seen as the Black person being rude, unpleasant and intimidating.
An example of this is a recent incident documented by Frederick T. Joseph, who took a photo of a White woman placing her feet on his dining tray on an aeroplane. The airline staff did not address the woman and when Joseph asked the woman to move her feet, she accused him of disrupting her flight. Co-ordinate to the article, when the flying staff asked the adult female to remove her feet she stated, "If I put ane foot downward, I want to exist accommodated for accommodating him." In this space, the White woman felt she was well within her correct to infringe on Joseph's space and when told she could not, she wanted to be accommodated as if respecting his infinite was doing him a favor.
Photo by Frederick T. Joseph/Twitter
Black people and People of Color accommodate spaces for White people so oft that we may not even realize that we are doing information technology or how ingrained information technology is in Black civilisation to sacrifice your infinite. I hadn't given thought to the incident in the airport in a while; yet, yesterday I read a Twitter thread by, Tatiana Mac and the memory of that day instantly came to my mind. (Delight read the complete thread on Twitter.)
White friends: If yous care about me, please read this.
Alone, these events take up only a few minutes each. I'm writing them out in particular in hopes that y'all might exist able to come across a modicum of what I (and other WOC) go through daily.
🧵thread🧵
— Tatiana Mac (@tatianatmac) July 9, 2018
While thousands of people shared, understood and could relate to Tatiana'southward story, there was an commutation by a White woman named Freedom Warrior that brought the thread full circle. (I am providing screenshots below because I knew it would but be a matter of time earlier Freedom Warrior blocked me and true to class, when I went to the thread today, she had blocked me. Because I bargain with women like Liberty Warrior often, I had already taken screen shots of the conversation because I knew she would do that. That is often the modus operandi of people like her. When they do not want to face the truth, they block the truth.)
Fifty-fifty in the virtual loonshit, Black people and People of Color are expected to cede their space. If y'all look at the thread, Liberty Warrior was repeatedly asked to remove herself from Tatiana'due south thread, and she refused. Instead of starting her own thread in her own virtual space, she felt it was necessary to list all the times that People of Colour have made her feel inferior in spaces on Tatiana'southward thread. She could not sympathise that she was doing the very matter that Tatiana was talking virtually just in a virtual infinite. When I mentioned this to her, she chosen me sweetheart, and when I told her that was not my proper noun, she proceeded to tell me that SHE tin call me whatever she wants. Why does she feel that she has that potency? Because in many spaces, even virtual spaces, many White people think that Black people and People of Color must footstep back, bow downwards, and relinquish their virtual space to accommodate their racism.
For centuries, White America has dictated how Black people can navigate our own bodies in spaces. It is not just the physical space itself being regulated past White people but the bodily way Black people can use their bodies in these spaces. For case, in that location was a time in this country that Blackness people were required to step off the sidewalk if a White person was approaching them and allow the White person to pass, before stepping on the sidewalk once again. According to Dr. Ronald L. F. Davis of
California Country University, Jim Crow laws provided "racial etiquette" for Black people. Blackness people were required to be "agreeable and non-challenging, even when the White person was mistaken about something."
Black people are often told how much space nosotros are allowed to take up, and our infinite is often infringed upon to adapt White people. If we are tall, our top is used as a way to demonize united states of america. This was axiomatic when 12-year-old Tamir Rice was murdered inside minutes by the police in Cleveland, Ohio. Tamir was described past now ousted police union president, Steve Loomis as, "Menacing. He's v-feet-7, 191 pounds. He wasn't that petty kid you're seeing in pictures. He's a 12-yr-old in an adult torso." Tamir could non help his tiptop. Yet his physical appearance was used to justify his murder. If we accept upwardly too much space, information technology is a problem. Blackness people and People of Color are acutely aware of our bodies in spaces. I have been in meetings, and anybody has been best-selling, just me or I am best-selling last. I accept sabbatum in spaces, and after a quick introduction, people cease directing whatever comments to me. It is near every bit if I am The Invisible Black Person by the door just taking up space. I am learning after the drome incident, to hold my infinite. I am hither, and I will not repent if me holding my infinite disrupts your 24-hour interval.
My challenge for Blackness people and People of Color, particularly Blackness women and Women of Color, is to hold your space. I claiming you for the next 24-48 hours to exist aware of your body in spaces and do not move for a White person or make any apologies for physically occupying any space. Exist mindful of how you navigate sidewalks, who moves to suit you and who doesn't. If someone infringes on your space, do you speak upwards or remain silent? Make a mental note of any time yous feel you lot were "expected" to motility and the reaction of the other person when you didn't. Have note of how people accommodate others in spaces. Was it frightening or empowering to hold your space? Exercise you remember people felt you were intimidating? How did you feel at the end of the twenty-four hours?
For White people, I challenge you for the next 24-48 hours to be aware of how to treat Black people and People of Color in spaces. Practice you have an expectation that Black people and People of Color should move out of your manner? How many times do you insert yourself and your comments into virtual spaces because you feel it is your right without reading and listening to People of Color that have stated their truth on a detail result? Do you speak effectually the Black person as if they are not in the room? Do you interrupt People of Colour when they are speaking? Are yous cutting a Black person or a Person of Color in line because y'all experience that is your right? Likewise be enlightened of how it feels to be cognizant of how your body navigates spaces and imagine how that would experience to do that at the very least for 8 hours out of each day.
When I held my infinite at the aerodrome, I felt empowered. I was angry that someone stood right in front of me and started eating as if I was non right there. I am here. I have every right to be hither. I have the right to be in spaces. I volition no longer apologize for taking upwards space nor volition I cede my infinite to a White person only because that is some unwritten but expected rule. Over the next two days, walk in your authority. Walk every bit if y'all desire the world to know, "I am here!" Because you are. And you deserve to be.
Please come back after you do the challenge and share some of your thoughts!
Bask the Sidewalk! Photo Credit: Nappy.co Artist: @photosbyphab
Source: https://writesomeshit.com/2018/07/12/do-not-move-off-the-sidewalk-challenge-holding-your-space-in-a-white-world/
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