Good Black News is grateful to brilliant young woman Zyda Culpepper Mellon for taking the time to put her thoughts and feelings on current events sparked by the brutal killings of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd into words and sharing her spot-on, heartfelt and timely message.
Mellon’s video appeared first on Facebook three days ago and has started going viral. Now, with her permission, Good Black News is sharing it directly on our site.
Mellon’s labor not only educates and challenges those who need it, it offers a tool to those who are struggling to find the words to say to white colleagues, friends and family while dealing with so much anger and trauma:
(Facebook: Zyda Culpepper; Instagram: @zydacsoprano; Twitter: @ZydaMellon)
Thank you Ms Zyda
She makes a lot of sense.
Yes. Thank you.
She is so right. When you call out white folks for the micro-aggressions, they have an immediate knee-jerk response that they are not racist. That *so* blocks their ability to process what they are being told. I have been weeding out the white “friends” who are too uncomfortable to fully have that conversation with me.
Thank you. I hope that any of my friends of color, or anyone I encounter will tell me if I ever say anything or do anything that is a micro aggression or a macro aggression or anything in between. Blessing and thank you.
Dear Ms. Mellon,
Thank you so much for this. I am sharing it with people I know and in social media groups I manage.
In conversations with other white people about racism, I’ve been using the Johari Window (a communication theory tool) which has four “window panes” — one of the “panes” stands for “what everyone knows about you, but you don’t know about yourself” as a way to explain why & how we white people can be/are covertly racist when we don’t “know” it ourselves. It can help to explain to some white people why/how their inner sense of self (“But I’m a good person! I can’t be racist!”) is not congruent with the micro (and macro) aggressions and assumptions that are so glaringly obvious to others. Perhaps that one “window pane” is another way to also illustrate the cognitive dissonance (of racism and prejudice) that Dr. Joy DeGruy talks about. And I am aware I still have my own “window pane” of what I’m clueless about.
I wish you well and truly hope for the safety and wellbeing of your and yours. Thanks for all you do.
Thank you!
Thank you for saying this.
I feel this young lady’s pain. Unfortunately I never thought the coronavirus would slow down something that has been a part of this country from the beginning. It was probably her youth and my tired old self having lived through the social upheavals of the 1960s, busing in Boston, murders of Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Eleanor Bumpers, Eric Garner etc. just in NYC. Once upon a time I was probably more like this young lady before this horrible week but that changed particularly when i saw naked racism in Boston. I have no qualms about speaking my truth because this is the world I live in. I am one generation removed from legalized segregation. I grew up with people who experienced far worse than I did. Experience shapes you and leaves an indelible impression on you. Sadly I predicted the state of affairs we are currently living through a few years ago. I posted I felt there would be great distress and people in the streets unseen since the 60s of my youth. I wish I was wrong, but as a New Yorker seeing that woman threaten to call the police because she felt he had no right to challenge her in breaking the law all bets were off. New Yorkers feel they are open minded tolerant living in the most diverse city but I knew that image had limits. For the last 20 years I’ve spoken up and no longer feel I didn’t want to hurt someone’s feelings because no one has cared about mine or the pain of being black in America. I walk around everyday in this skin living in a parallel universe. I work in a community college and many students, already stressed otut due to the closing of the college, are struggling to understand how they fit into this society and how will they survive. The wellness center has been inundated with messages. White people thought it was an exaggeration, you’re playing the race card, etc. but there is evidence showing disparities from the way police enforced social distancing with 80% of arrests being people of color to the blatant murder of Floyd George. Wake up America. I’ve looked in the mirror and the enemy is us. If we don’t seriously and not cosmetically address racism and inequality, and I mean white people taking off their blinders, there will not be a future for the United States of America.
Great job!