https://www.npr.org/2023/08/10/1193091939/montgomery-brawl-memes

From Eric Deggans, NPR’s first full-time TV critic and author of the book Race-Baiter, a book I’ve always wanted to read:

«I always say social media is often like a giant dinner party, where people forget they are sometimes listening in on conversations between other people. In this case, being asked to explain the folding chair memes felt like having someone barge into an ongoing conversation to ask for an explanation.

As I traded messages with people and retweeted the best memes, this felt like a moment where folks could be hilariously Black online and we could all share the experience together, laughing and consoling each other in one viral social media moment.

Someone popping up to demand an explanation felt like they were re-centering the conversation in a way I just wasn’t willing to do right away.

Sometimes, in situations like that, understanding comes best by sitting back, listening widely, and learning. Even for me.

I originally wrote a version of this column for my personal Tumblr page, mostly as a way of processing a response that was new and unfamiliar for me. I don’t know if this reaction is fair – especially given how much I’ve encouraged discussion about race over the years.

But it’s all I have left, in a world where I increasingly feel like a frog in pot of steadily heating water, watching racists and racism get bolder — wondering when the heat will begin to burn me, my loved ones, my family, my friends and my people.

Or when I’ll need to reach out for aid from a helpful brother with a folding chair.»

(btw, I will always be grateful for a Black person who has the patience and takes the time to explain something.)