Big Brother 15 (US)
This was one of the hardest scenes i’ve ever watched on tv, it’s was heartbreaking as fuck to watch two black people resort to tears because they didn’t want to give into the stereotype that follows when a black person gets upset.
Watching her cry and talk about how she’d had enough of white housemates taunt her, call her “Sheniqua" and tell her that she was about to “get black" and flip her mattress off of the box-spring, throw her belongings to the ground, and three of them at the same time bully her until she almost got to the point of getting violent because she’d had enough and felt so threatened. A black man who’d grown up in the south knew better than to leave her in that situation he had to physically pick her up and take her out of the room.
Had to be carried to the Have Not room, a room known basically as the punishment room. A room that most of this season has been dominated by POC and minorities that the rest of the house deemed “unworthy" or just didn’t like to be calmed down. He had to talk her down, telling her that if there was one person in the house he was going out protecting it would be her, his fellow black woman. He’d gladly throw away money to protect her and make sure no one did something to her. He told her he’d give up a bed so she could sleep in it and not have to worry about those girls. She’d said she was tired of this behavior and the comments and why should they have to back down, that they should retaliate, that they shouldn’t be weak.
She was Malcolm X in the situations while he was preaching to her like Martin Luther King Jr.
He said they had to act better than them because all eyes were on them, they had to stay calm. And thats when she broke down and cried and sobbed in his arms, while he was barely able to control his anger towards that side of the house for doing that to her. They both sat their in tears, praying to God to give them the strength to get through the rest of this competition without blowing up.
They had to decide to back down against the enemy instead of give them a taste of their own medicine. They decided to be better than that situation, I applaud them for being so strong.
It was a hard scene to watch and go through as a woman of color. It was a hard fucking scene.
But when are you white people gonna stop this shit..
Also, when are white people going to stop saying if not for this program, seeing the abuse for themselves they’d keep thinking minorities were overreacting to micro-aggressions of stuff. Do you people not realize that this is a real person going through this? That if you would just listen to PoC when they tell you this shit, they wouldn’t have to be continually traumatized by your racism and collusion with a system of white supremacy?
also, the bold really bothers me, but I don’t feel like going in on why.
note: I’m not talking to anyone in this convo above with that first paragraph. I don’t think any of us are white.
I agree, Frank-E.
But I’ll scratch the surface, because I don’t have the patience for hand holding over this (not saying you are, saying I don’t have the patience to go as deep as I could/should).
But basically: You’re not seeing them be “strong.“ Or, perhaps more accurately, you’re seeing the strength in their human frailty. Which, okay, kudos you finally see Black folks’/POC’s humanity, but why does it take TELEVISED HARASSMENT to understand that this is everyday?
Aaryn (in particular, because I don’t watch the show, but I’ve been getting filled in and seeing stuff around) is not that subtle (to my mind) as to be described as perpetuating microaggressions. If anything, what she’s exemplifying is WWT and Liberal racism. To her, Aaryn, it’s a joke. She thinks (and I’ve seen her actually, literally, say the words) that because she doesn’t say anything “explicitly” racist, she’s in the all clear. However, everything else is blatantly racially motivated. Aaryn’s not just a bully who happens to pay a little extra focus on the WOC in the cast (she’s said some shit about Julie Chen as well). She’s a racist who thinks she can skirt recognition of her acts.
So yeah, you’re seeing strength, and kudos for you to recognize it OP, but it’s not just choosing to “be better" than the “bully.“ The advice to “be better,” the necessity for corralling their emotions, these are survival tactics. It’s not “turn the other cheek" it’s “Don’t engage because it could mean your physical safety.“
When you have CHILDREN being murdered on the street for just breathing while being Black, you think a Black person who loses their cool is safe? (both literally and metaphorically/metaphysically)