Dear Amy Cooper.
I will not tolerate a finger wag of privilege or entitlement
From you.
No email
No facebook message
No unliked post will go unscrutinized.
For power wielding
or galavanting your unearned lordship over me
Will not be overlooked.
Not today.
And not any day beyond it.
Amy Cooper.
You will not use fear tactics to con me into giving you what you want
When you want it
Or let you think that I am anything other than human
Imperfect
Full of hope and promises
And also failure.
I will not let you reduce me to my productivity
Or a (my/our) learned habit
of gripping onto statements
made at a time very different from today
and resurrecting them as some concrete statute of truth.
I am not bound
to any part of my being
That I was yesterday
Because that being is not the one who stands before you today.
This being is traumatized and still thriving
She is shining light in the dawn of some of the darkest corners of the history of the earth
She is carrying battered beings
and nourishing belittling beings
with the same quality of care
This being is bruised and still serving.
No
I will not
let you have that power.
I AM A PERSON!
I was not designed to serve you but I do so
Willfully
With a heart bursting
with a desire to see you succeed
And grow
And flourish
And bloom,
Amy cooper.
Don’t you dare diminish the leaps and bounds I travel to make and keep you happy.
How many times have I stroked your ego?
How many times have I made you believe in yourself when you could not see beyond the coat of shame and unworthiness?
How many times have I lifted you when I could barely carry myself?
Amy cooper you are not absolved of your dirty hands
You viewed but did not comment
Did not message
Did not advocate
You didn’t resist the violence of that symbolic downward pointed finger
That resembles a gun pointed at my brothers
This community will be built by me and my ideals
It will be shaped in my image because my vision is trusted here
Not just by humans
But by my destiny
My destiny trusts me to manifest the fullness of my potential
And shape a world
full with the beauty of
Justice
Of intimate and honest connection
Of mistakes and failure and ownership
And imperfection
And..
This world was crafted for you
to feel comfortable shaming
and disparaging
and belittling, my efforts
my intelligence
my contributions
with these small but shrieking gestures
you don't even notice the weight of
but I will tear this world down pebble by pebble
and beseech you
to help me clean up the rubble.
These are my words
this is a declaration.
I want to thank you for acknowledging
The space of respect I am
Inciting
Provoking
Begging
Encouraging
Screaming for
you to
Take note of
and honor.