The American Society of Magical Negroes

Aren: You're not my friend. And you don't want to be friends, because if we were actual friends, you would have to talk to me and listen to me and make space for the reality that I live in a country that makes me feel like it wants me dead. Where if I get shot today, there is an army of people ready to explain how it was probably my fault. And I feel that every day, in every glance, in every movie that's supposed to be uplifting. And that changes everything. That changes how I walk and how I talk and how I take up space! Or don't! It changes what risks feel reasonable and which ones are insane. And it's taken me my whole life to realize that this is a weight that I walk around with all the time. And after this lifelong journey of figuring out that maybe this shit impacts everything I do, you want to turn around and act like I'm crazy for acknowledging it. No, no, no, no. No, no, no, no. You don't get to put me in danger just because you don't want to feel like an asshole. Be the asshole. Because the shame that you feel like you did something wrong just by being yourself, that is my whole life. And this place, this country has been so deeply indifferent to whether or not I exist that on some level, I don't think I have the right to. And what I am saying to you that you so steadfastly refuse to hear is fuck that! I do! I deserve to be here, not just on this stage but in this world. And that, believe it or not, is a revelation to me. So you want to know about my-my "diverse experience"? I have been on this planet for 27 years, and I just figured out this week that I deserve to be alive.