Enemy to Ally

Today was an interesting day. I have a friend who is Caucasian, we have been friends on facebook for years now and we went to elementary school as well as middle school with each other. He is a great guy I never had any problems with him. Now that there is so much civil unrest going on in the world I obviously am posting more things about the horrible incidents that are happening to people of color in America. I find it amazing how multiple times this friend of mine has been quick to jump down my throat because I am posting things that I feel is wrong and needs to be seen.

My first way of thinking was, “does he all of a sudden not like Black people?” Or maybe he just never liked Black people. Well today I think I got my answer. I don’t think he has a problem that I am standing up for Black people I think he thinks that I am against White people. I posted a picture of the comparison about Lori Laughlin and Tonya Mcdowell, Lori got 2 months in prison and the picture leads you to believe that Tonya got sentenced 5 years, but that was not the case. Tonya settled in court for 5 years due to charges that she acquired after the initial charge of larceny. He told me “she was selling drugs fact check your stuff before you post this garbage.”

Me personally I took it as an attack, but before I replied I checked on what he said and yes the 5 year sentence wasn’t just because of the larceny. But what shocked me more was what happened after. I told him yes I should’ve caught that but the fact that a homeless woman can get charged with a 1st degree felony which is minimum 1 year in prison for sending her son to a public school thats not in his district and a rich woman can get 2 months for paying off a college institution has to show that something is wrong. Then I thought about it and told him this issue goes far beyond black and white this is an issue of the rich and poor. Believe it or not, he agreed with me.

We both agreed that our government was screwed up and needed to change. I think this is an issue that until now I didn’t know needed to be addressed. A lot of this hatred is coming from the misunderstanding that black people hate all white people, when in actuality Black people are upset at the government institution keeping them oppressed. The thing about it is that that institution is controlled mostly by whites. I don’t hate my white neighbor I hate the white man in the government unwilling to do what is necessary to make this country more equal for people of color and people in the working class. This man is my enemy, not that childhood friend who has in no way hurt me.

All in all I feel that this is a strategy of the rich being able to confuse the masses by having them at war with each other while they continue to do whatever it is that they want to do. They manipulate and take from us ( the poor and working class) while their wealth and injustices continue to go unnoticed. Me taking the time to not get offended and explain my viewpoint to someone who disagreed with me helped me figure out that we were only disagreeing because a conversation was not had about how we felt about the whole issue. In taking that extra moment a long time friend that nearly became an enemy turned into an ally.