I AM ANGRY. I say this in all caps because I need to, because all of my “please listen to my opinion,” my “I mean, I don’t want to step on any toes” and my “I understand where you’re coming from, but here’s what I think,” phrases aren’t working — because my kindness isn’t reaching you.

I don’t know if you’ve got it by now, but I am a proud black woman. No, I’m not talking about the weave-wearing, slang-shouting, attitude-bearing, sassy-snapping black woman you like to compare me to, as if comparing me to those women might embarrass me. I puff with pride when I think of my beautiful black and brown sisters confidently strutting down streets with their braided hair and gorgeous African American vernacular. No, you won't turn me against them because when I speak, I speak with them. Daughter of a strong black man, filled with black girl magic and culturally raised with twisted dreadlocks and cowry shells in my hair. I am a proud black woman, analytical and defiant. So I am done making myself smaller for you.

You killed Mike Brown, Trayvon Martin, Eric Gartner and Sandra Bland with your hatred. You killed American democracy with your cries for “Mexicans” to get out of “your” country — as if half of it hadn’t belonged to Mexico in the first place. You claim Islam is to blame for the hatred of society, as if your senators didn’t propose bills denying rights to women and LGBT members of our country. And I’m not talking pre-LGBTQ marriage laws; I’m talking yesterday. I’m looking at you, North Carolina.

I don’t expect you to understand what it means to me when I say I am a proud black woman, but I do expect that when I say it you listen, and you respect me. For I have earned this crown, and I have earned the right to be listened to when I speak.

So to the white dude who keeps trolling on my Facebook feed, I kindly remind you to check your privilege, and to remember which spaces are for you. No, you cannot debate my experience, and no, you cannot deny privilege and racism exist. You in your ignorance have taken everything, so this, my friend, you cannot have. No matter how many times you compare the hatred of Islam to the hatred of Nazi Germany and ignore your own pseudo fascist lead candidate or your own hatred, no matter how many comments you write asking me to apologize for my voice in that disgustingly sleazy, sneaky way you do, and no matter how many days you pry and poke and force me to explain my identity and my struggle to you, you will never take away this voice, or my words.

So thank you, white dude who keeps trolling my Facebook feed, for reminding me day in and day out that my comments and my posts are reaching people, and that there is still a tremendous amount of work to do.

Sincerely,

An Unapologetically Loud Multicultural Woman