Freedom of Speech - to be continued

 The duality in the u.s.ofa. is always jarring, at best, but the whole treasured - even flaunted-in-the-face-of other countries - notion that we have freedom of speech is yet another beyond mindbogglingly contradiction of life in this country.

Think about it.

I hear so often things like "I can't say what I think, I'll lose my job." "If I put a bumper sticker on my vehicle, it will get vandalized." "If I put a sign in my yard, my neighbors will take it down." "If I say what I believe, my parents will disown me, my friends will desert me, my family will be angry with me."

So even before we test the boundaries of freedom of speech, our fear of consequences to speaking freely often stop us. Why? If we REALLY believed we have freedom of speech, how dare we not speak? 

Ok so there is a valid concern in the risk we take to speak. Let's take employers. People fear losing their jobs, getting fired over say going to a protest, etc. The thing is, IF we believe we have freedom of speech, and IF we know we have a constitution and Bill of Rights protecting that freedom, why do we stop ourselves before our employer attempts to stop us?

There's only one group of people in the u.s.ofa. who give up their constitutional rights when working for this entity, and that is the military.

My unintentional racsim

 This morning when talking with a couple of white womyn, I attributed to Angela Davis something that Alice Walker said. When I stood corrected by one of the womyn, I was mortified and then realized I had the opportunity to point out the racism in my words.

One of the womyn objected, saying it was the fact that I turned 70 years old a couple weeks ago that I inverted their names. "What if they were two white womyn authors," she continued to protest, "that wouldn't have been racism."

I agreed, if I'd mixed up two white womyn's names it would have been no big deal. Maybe I could have blamed an aging brain. 

I could have even blamed an aging brain this time also. But because I am an anti-racist, it is my constant challenge to be aware of racism.

I know for a fact that white womyn often call Black womyn by another Black womon's name.That this is part of the racism of white people do, not being able to distinguish between one Black person and another.

I know historically, all Black porters were called "George". 

I know all this and yet when I was speaking, I was not tuning in consciously, cautioning myself to be aware of racism. Thus I fucked up. 

It won't happen again.