Thursday 5/30/24
I get so many things like what you're about to see from so many presses where we see revolting people trying to trade on skin color and such.
Color color color color color color color color color color color color. Hey! We're one of the good ones! Color color color color color color color! Check them boxes!!!! And never, ever, ever, ever, ever have it be about a person's ability, the quality and value of what they produced.
Take, for instance, this forthcoming title from the University of Minnesota Press, which might be perfect for your child, Shannon Gibney's We Miss You, George Floyd.
You see that regularly--the stuffed animalization of George Floyd. Like he's a plush toy. We miss you, pal.
That's not morally repugnant to you? You miss him, do you? People who didn't know him ought to miss him? Children miss him? Children should? And if a child should miss someone, they should look up to who they were as a person, right?
Let's consider this calmly and slowly, shall we? Say that you're Shannon Gibney. You've written a children's book about cuddly George Floyd. Now, you probably know a few things about George Floyd if you're writing a book about him, yes?
So then you would know that George Floyd held a gun to the belly of a pregnant woman.
I feel like that's pretty bad. What do you think? Do you think it's not? You think it's eh, whatever? Do you think--because you went out and learned a bunch of things attesting as much--that George Floyd hit his low point that day as a human and then went in a totally different direction and became his brother and sister's keeper?
What would you say to that woman who had had that gun held against her stomach with her unborn child inside about your book if you were Shannon Gibney? Should she buy it? Should she buy your book and read it to her kids? Like that kid who had been in her belly?
But I guess Shannon Gibney might not know about that thing that is very easy to know about.
What do you think, though? If I had to guess, I bet you think she knew, and thought, "Fuck that, who cares, I'm race hustling, baby! What else am I going to do?"
Here's a thing: Taking a life is wrong. There is no one who should have their life taken by someone else. But that doesn't mean you're not a bad person because someone took your life or perpetuated an atrocity against you.
For instance, Hitler. Not a good guy. Let's say someone did something awful to Hitler. They raped and tortured him. Probably still not the best idea if you were going to write a book about brutality to use Hitler as your go-to character.
You could likely find someone else, without the evil, to do that with, don't you think?
But if Shannon Gibney did that, she couldn't trade on race and the name of a person who is now well-known. But not because of anything they did. Not because of their character. Their goodness, their decency, their respect and regard for their fellow humans and the well being of those humans.
So yeah, children's book about the man who held a gun to the head--though to be fair, there was that buffer of a pregnant mother's skin--of an unborn child.
We miss you, George Floyd!!!! If only you were here to put your gun against our young skulls!!!!

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