I don't need comfortable allies.

I want to talk about comfortable white allies.
Don't be one.

I watched the United Airlines video, along with most everyone else, and I've seen it a few times. There's a white lady that's memorable because she loudly exclaims "Look what you did to him!"

I'm gonna use her as an example of the problems that happen when an ally is comfortable.

A man, a POC, was assaulted and forcibly dragged away by police because he said 'No.'

Everyone on the plane was watching. And this woman cried out, cried out so loudly that her voice comes across clearly in the video.

One might say that she is so much better than people who sat silently, because at least she said something.

I would argue that she's worse. 

She didn't sit silently. She sat vocally. But she still sat. She cried out against what was happening. From her chair. With her phone out, taking a video.

This is comfort. It is not ok. This doesn't help anyone.

Was he any less assaulted? His face any less bloodied?

The last thing we need is for people to cry loudly about how terrible racism is from the comfort of their seats. 

We need you to stand up. We need you to stand up because you have so much less to loose. We need you to stand up in place of the POC who can't, because they're dead or in prison. We need your voices, but most importantly, we need you, standing up, and being uncomfortable.

Because our society is so deeply entrenched in racism, if you're white and comfortable, you're not fighting it. You're not helping us, and if you're not helping us you're hurting us. The last thing we need is for people that want to help is to think that all they have to do is say 'racism is bad' and go to bed.

That won't cut it. You need to speak out. You need to be uncomfortable, you need to force others to look at things differently. We do it all the time and, honestly, we're tired. 

And we're not going to thank you. You're not going to get some flowers or a card, you may not even get a smile, but I'll tell you why.

We face racism every. single. day. You facing it when you choose is not something for us to fawn over. You have the luxury of dealing with it whenever you like. You HAVE to choose to make yourself uncomfortable, because the world is set up to make you comfortable. So your fight, your thankless, tireless fight to undo racist behavior?

That's called being a decent fucking human being and no one gives out prizes for not being an asshole.