They say:“Now is not the time.”“We’re all suffering right now.”“Don’t make it about race.” But racism doesn’t take a break during a crisis.So why a
They say:
“Now is not the time.”
“We’re all suffering right now.”
“Don’t make it about race.”
But racism doesn’t take a break during a crisis.
So why are we expected to?
Over and over, Black people—especially Black women—are told to endure racism quietly.
In hospitals.
In disaster zones.
In meetings.
In mourning.
At work.
In protest.
Even in healing spaces.
We are expected to set aside our pain for the comfort of others.
To downplay our trauma so the system keeps running.
To stay silent while racism sneaks in even when we are already suffering.
But let’s name the truth:
This expectation is deadly.
It doesn’t just hurt our feelings.
It wounds the mind, the body, and the spirit.
When we are told to endure racism “just for now,”
…we learn to swallow it forever.
We internalize it.
We absorb it.
We shape our lives around it.
And what does that do?
🖤 It shatters self-worth.
🖤 It chips away at self-esteem.
🖤 It teaches us to doubt our value.
🖤 It rewires our nervous system to brace for harm—even in joy, even in love, even in prayer.
We do not owe our peace to the comfort of others.
We do not owe our silence to “timing.”
We do not owe our suffering to anyone.
The truth is this:
Racism is always wrong.
And the worst time to experience it is when you’re already fighting to survive.
So we reject the lie that says:
“Now is not the time to talk about it.”
“Let it go for now.”
We say:
Now is exactly the time.
Because our survival depends on it.
Every moment we name racism,
Every time we refuse to absorb it,
We reclaim life.
Because Black lives are not built to endure abuse.
They are built to shine, to thrive, to rise—uninterrupted.
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