PJ and I started watching the show Woke on Hulu. It stars LaMorne Morris who I loved as Winston on New Girl – so I was in.

I felt a little funny watching a show called Woke because it’s what one of my white friends calls me when I write about Black Lives Matter.

According to him, I should just be cool to everyone and then there’s no need to pander to the public and prove to everyone how “woke” I am.

The thing is, I don’t do anything to prove to people who or what I am. I do and talk about things when they mean something to me. I live by “do unto others as you’d have done to you”, and it’s only natural for me to speak up about something when I know it’s some bullshit.

The show is based on a true story about a black comic strip writer named Keef Knight (in real life his name is Keith Knight and it annoys me that it’s Keef on the show but whatevs) who is mistaken for a mugger and is thrown to the ground in front of a crowd of people by a cop who puts a gun to his head. The experience makes him start having delusions and ultimately becoming “woke”, when before, he lived his life trying not to make waves as a black man.

It’s a good show and points out a lot of hypocrisy in the world in general, not just when it comes to the lives of black people.

One thing they cover is how white people are so angry about black injustice. They mock white people who are upset on their behalf.

My first instincts were to be insulted and embarrassed. I felt like Baby Houseman after Johnny got fired from his job at Kellerman’s even though she confessed that she was with Johnny the night the Schumachers stole the wallets from the Shelldrake Hotel. I almost jumped up from the couch and screamed in PJ’s face:

“So I did it for nothing! I did it for NOTHING! See PJ … you can’t win no matter what you do!”

But I kept quiet and kept watching. And I realized that getting mad about them making fun of me only proves their point.

See, white people CAN get angry on their behalf. They can scream and protest and write blogs and Facebook posts, and the most that will happen to them is that their feelings get hurt when a friend or a show makes fun of them.

Me, as a white person, can put it down and think, “I’m not going to say anything anymore. I’ll just be quiet and let my life go back to normal.”

Therein lies the problem, and it’s the reason for the frustration. Black people don’t have that choice. They can’t unzip their skin and take it off at the end of the day. The can’t put it all down if they choose to.

The best thing you could do for yourself and others is step out of your own shoes and into theirs, and try to understand why people say the things they say and act the way they act. Not just with black people, with everyone.

So mock me all you want, Keef with an F (Ugh why did they do that??) not even you can shut me up 😊