Alex Tha Great – When Black Privilege & White Privilege Collide [Video]

By Button Poetry

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Alex tha Great, performing at WoWPS 2020 in Dallas, TX.

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Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)

0:02
how i denounce my blackness daily
0:04
or tales from a black woman working in
0:07
higher ed
0:08
or when black privilege and white
0:10
privilege collide
0:12
stupid-ass keep trying to
0:14
antagonize me
0:16
i make excuses for them pass off their
0:18
ignorance as just innocent curiosity
0:20
but while they gotta complicate my life
0:23
like me
0:23
being black and woman and alive ain’t
0:27
enough for me to have to analyze see i’m
0:28
inclined to believe that questions like
0:29
these don’t find them sitting up at
0:31
night
0:31
they don’t constantly have to use their
0:32
brain as a filter as if their thoughts
0:34
do instead of their mouth
0:35
too often i get choked up on what i
0:37
should be saying why am i in charge of
0:39
your feelings
0:40
trying so hard to step on your toes i’m
0:41
just floating by placing an awkward last
0:43
what awkward silence used to be but it
0:45
ain’t funny so
0:47
so to the white woman who asked me what
0:49
my bruises look like
0:51
presumably in comparison to the color of
0:52
hers dare i say i was too taken aback to
0:55
give you a proper response then but the
0:57
fact that you even thought
0:58
it okay to ask me some like that
1:00
white privilege the fact
1:01
that you only asked and didn’t carry out
1:02
the act to see it black privilege
1:04
see unlike you i have to live this
1:06
attempt to navigate the my new space
1:08
between life and death
1:10
a smile and a tear one moment and the
1:12
next my bruises
1:13
looked like the atlantic ocean parted
1:15
open and swallowed three million bodies
1:16
in his belly
1:17
my bruises looked like the ring being
1:19
the only id emmett till’s corpse could
1:20
carry my bruises
1:22
like a whip knocking amnesia in the
1:23
country forgetting his name was toby one
1:25
foot
1:26
bullet to the head broken ribs gal’s
1:28
eyes severe tongue sound like a horror
1:30
movie but that’s mamie till’s story
1:32
sabrina fulton’s story coretta scott
1:34
king’s story it’s my testimony this body
1:36
be the pulpit this life is a sermon my
1:38
bruises look like having to teach you
1:40
this like the souls of black folk double
1:42
consciousness
1:42
see the fact that you spend your whole
1:44
life making a living white privilege
1:46
the fact that i spend my whole life
1:48
thinking about dying black privilege but
1:50
you want to know what my bruises look
1:51
like
1:52
like me being black and woman and alive
1:54
and enough for me to have to analyze see
1:56
my bruises look like this moment
1:58
like me channeling all of this rage in
2:00
the paper and pen instead of your face
2:02
and my fist my bruises look like freddie
2:04
gray like philando castile look like
2:07
i’m regurgitating on 400 years of
2:08
oppression my bruises
2:10
look like summer montgomery baltimore
2:12
ferguson like oakland look like any city
2:15
you
2:15
in i’m burning man can’t you see a body
2:18
on fire
2:19
you just stand there with that silly ass
2:21
grin on your face dousing more fuel on
2:23
the flames see this hearing easy man
2:25
this living is a constant challenge this
2:27
blackness is beautiful it’s a shame
2:29
i can only go to the mirror to see it
2:31
the fact that a sexual assault case
2:33
doesn’t prevent you from the presidency
2:35
white privilege the fact that i even
2:38
have a job in health coverage at the
2:39
same damn time black privilege
2:41
my bruises look like i bite my tongue so
2:43
hard last night i almost swallowed it
2:45
look like my hands stay at ten
2:46
and two i make no sudden movements my
2:49
bruises look like sandra bland
2:50
like the police can turn my eulogy into
2:52
a suicide note look like the state of
2:54
texas rewriting history
2:55
to call slaves workers and a slave trade
2:58
a migration
2:59
riddle what is another word for a black
3:01
family reunion
3:03
a graveyard i am always the butt of all
3:05
jokes the fact
3:06
that you got something to laugh about
3:08
white privilege the fact that i got
3:10
something to smile about
3:11
black privilege you asked me what my
3:13
bruises look like
3:14
the fact that you don’t see the irony
3:16
white privilege the fact
3:18
that i’m standing here as the evidence
3:20
black privilege
3:21
because if a black body ain’t the most
3:23
obvious example
3:25
of scarring and healing then truly
3:29
i can’t tell you what is
3:32
[Applause]

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This post was previously published on YouTube.

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