I'm catching up on this space from last night.
In short, it was fuckery.
What was supposed to be a Q&A w/Rashad to learn more about him, his National Reparations League organization, and his march on Washington.. instead, we got a bunch of emotionally hurt egos and deflections.
From what I gathered from Rashad, he is passionate about reparations. He wanted to do something about it, and instead of following someone else or waiting on someone, he took it upon himself to create a march. Aye, props to him. Because I understand pursuing any passion or project is very hard to do. It's very hard, that's why so many people rather follow someone than do the work themselves.
I don't know enough about Rashad to say he's legit nor can I say I agree with everything he says or doing. But he's making a move, and he doesn't need anyone's permission to do what he wants to do.
Marcel hopped on and questioned Rashad about why Hawk Newsome was invited to speak. And he did attack Hawk's past work, but later claimed he wasn't attacking Hawk. He clearly was. Rashad didn't give the best response. And when Hawk entered the room, he defended himself and explained why he's speaking at the march. ---because of his platform, followers, and reach to bring more awareness to his friend, Rashad and his reparations organization. But Marcel was real disrespectful to the point the host, Juicy was trying to get him to mute his mic.
To me, I get it. Because when I'm planning an event and need some reliable help and support, guess who I'm reaching to first? MY FRIENDS. lol. Duh. But Tezlyn stepped up to speak and was apparently offended by his answer, claiming her platform is just as big as his. So?? lol. But Rashad reached out to Hawk instead because he personally knew him. Tezlyn came off as jealous.
LionessCrowned came off aggressive as well towards Rashad, because she was offended when he said he was surprised at the audience in the space. Lioness quickly said he was out of touch and that grassroots always been there. Okay, that may be true. But last night was Rashad's first time literally in a Twitter space. It's new to him. It's a big world out there outside of Twitter. That was nothing to be offended about. You can tell Rashad is not even that tech-savvy. So I understood his comment. She was also questioning how he was able to get a permit, but not her and Tariq for that same weekend. Like he would know the answer to that. lol. But she dropped an opportunity because Rashad said she could reach out to him and he'll share his contacts and who helped him secure his permit. To me, it's like most things in life, it's who you know. And that could've been a great networking opportunity. In fact, Rashad said he was planning to reach out and invite Tariq to speak at the march.
Rashad apparently is friends with Nyhiem. I didn't know he who was until a few days ago. I personally don't care for him because he was very disrespectful towards Jay on a Space.
But people need to understand, many of us have different visions of what our reparations should be. And I didn't like the attitude of Tezlyn, Marcel, and others trying to dictate who is and who isn't "qualified" to speak on reparations in this "leaderless" movement. That's gatekeeping.
I sure as hell don't agree with everyone's reparations views, but if they're a descendant of black American slaves, they have a right to their own view. Whether I agree with it or not. And I have been vocal about my disagreements with it. But I also promote critical thinking and always say you don't have to agree with me.
But this is verrrryyyy interesting how all this is playing out before mid-term elections. IMO, sounds like the system of white supremacy is doing what they do best, infiltrating and destabilizing movements. And doing it at a time when we're so focused on fighting others and not THEM.
