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The Three Step Shuffle
Everybody knows this dance. Your neighbor does it. Your coworker does it. Your representative does it. It's been passed down for generations and America has never stopped doing it.
Step one — I have a Black friend. What's their name? When's the last time you had dinner at their house? Or is this friendship based on sitting next to a Black guy at work ten years ago and laughing at his joke once? Because while you're posing for that photo, your "friend" is getting pulled over for driving in the wrong neighborhood. Getting followed in stores. Getting steered away from houses by realtors with redlined maps. Knowing one of us doesn't make you not racist any more than owning a plant makes you a farmer.
Step two — I don't see color. Then you don't see me. You don't see four hundred years of history. You don't see the Black family getting evicted. The school getting defunded. The voter registration line stretching for miles while somebody else walks right in. You closed your eyes and called it progress. The world kept burning in full color while you looked away.
Step three — I can't be racist. The grand finale. Racism isn't just the hood and the burning cross. It's the slow leak. The pipe dripping in the basement that nobody fixes until the whole foundation rots. It's the knee on the neck. The boy in the hoodie who never made it home. The church bombed on a Sunday morning. You see all of it. You're standing in it. But you fold your arms because you didn't personally light the match. Watching suffering and choosing comfort doesn't absolve you. It's just the third step in the dance.
This episode also explores what it's like to BE the Black friend. The questions we always get. "You're so articulate." "Where are you REALLY from?" "Can I touch your hair?" And the history behind it — from the Tignon Laws of 1786 forcing Black women to cover their hair to the CROWN Act still being fought for today.
The Three-Step Shuffle is comfortable. But comfort never changed anything. Discomfort did.
Stop shuffling. Start listening. Quote the Smoke.
🔗 FOLLOW EVERYWHERE:
- YouTube: https://youtube.com/@quotethesmoke
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jamesspearit
- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rabidsalvation.bsky.social
- X/Twitter: https://x.com/QuoteTheSmoke
- Discord: https://discord.gg/K34EztPNJ
#QuoteTheSmoke #ThreeStepShuffle #AmericasOldestDance #StopShuffling #StartListening #ThinkForYourself
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By SmokeEverybody knows this dance. Your neighbor does it. Your coworker does it. Your representative does it. It's been passed down for generations and America has never stopped doing it.
Step one — I have a Black friend. What's their name? When's the last time you had dinner at their house? Or is this friendship based on sitting next to a Black guy at work ten years ago and laughing at his joke once? Because while you're posing for that photo, your "friend" is getting pulled over for driving in the wrong neighborhood. Getting followed in stores. Getting steered away from houses by realtors with redlined maps. Knowing one of us doesn't make you not racist any more than owning a plant makes you a farmer.
Step two — I don't see color. Then you don't see me. You don't see four hundred years of history. You don't see the Black family getting evicted. The school getting defunded. The voter registration line stretching for miles while somebody else walks right in. You closed your eyes and called it progress. The world kept burning in full color while you looked away.
Step three — I can't be racist. The grand finale. Racism isn't just the hood and the burning cross. It's the slow leak. The pipe dripping in the basement that nobody fixes until the whole foundation rots. It's the knee on the neck. The boy in the hoodie who never made it home. The church bombed on a Sunday morning. You see all of it. You're standing in it. But you fold your arms because you didn't personally light the match. Watching suffering and choosing comfort doesn't absolve you. It's just the third step in the dance.
This episode also explores what it's like to BE the Black friend. The questions we always get. "You're so articulate." "Where are you REALLY from?" "Can I touch your hair?" And the history behind it — from the Tignon Laws of 1786 forcing Black women to cover their hair to the CROWN Act still being fought for today.
The Three-Step Shuffle is comfortable. But comfort never changed anything. Discomfort did.
Stop shuffling. Start listening. Quote the Smoke.
🔗 FOLLOW EVERYWHERE:
- YouTube: https://youtube.com/@quotethesmoke
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jamesspearit
- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rabidsalvation.bsky.social
- X/Twitter: https://x.com/QuoteTheSmoke
- Discord: https://discord.gg/K34EztPNJ
#QuoteTheSmoke #ThreeStepShuffle #AmericasOldestDance #StopShuffling #StartListening #ThinkForYourself