We’re Sitting This One Out: A Letter from the Tired Black Community
- Jun 14, 2025
- 3 min read
As calls for support grow, many Black people are sitting this one out. This piece explains why, through personal experience, historical context, and a call for self-preservation.
Let’s be clear: Black people are empathetic to what the Latinx community is going through right now. We see the pain, the fear, the ICE raids, the mass deportations. We know what it means to be hunted. We’ve lived it—every single day for over 400 years. But this time? We’re sitting this one out.
The 92% of us did what we were supposed to do. We showed up. We protested. We organized. We voted with clarity while others voted against their own best interests. We’ve marched, died, and bled on this country’s soil for the promise of a freedom that still hasn’t reached our doorsteps. And every time there’s a new struggle, we’re expected to be the first ones on the front lines—for everyone but ourselves.
We’re tired of being the saviors when no one ever comes to save us.
And for me, this hits deeper. I grew up in Harrisonburg, Virginia—a town where there were maybe 15 Black students in the whole school. And the harshest racism I experienced came not from white students, but from the Hispanic community. I was told Black women are ugly. We were constantly confused for one another, as if we were interchangeable—even though we didn’t look alike at all. Black Dominican kids would get offended if anyone thought they were African American, and they didn’t hesitate to insult us or try to distance themselves from us like we were beneath them. That kind of anti-Blackness doesn’t disappear just because you’re facing oppression now.
We don’t say this from a place of bitterness, but from exhaustion. Our Black bodies pay the highest price during protest. The police don’t hesitate when it comes to us. Tear gas, batons, bullets—we get it all. So when we say we’re keeping our Black bodies indoors for the next 1,315 days, it’s not because we don’t care. It’s because we can’t afford not to.
We know that after the Latinx community, we’re next—hell, we were always the first. This isn’t new to us. It’s been slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, COINTELPRO, mass incarceration, the crack epidemic, redlining, overpolicing, and even our music being used as propaganda to glorify drug use, violence, and hypersexuality. We’ve been made the villain in every American story—and still somehow, the hero.
Where was the Latinx community when we needed support? Some Latinx individuals did come out for the Black Lives Matter movement, and we remember that. But many didn’t. Many stayed silent, or worse—hurled slurs at us from the sidelines. Let’s not forget that Martin Luther King Jr. stood in support of Cesar Chavez, but once the Latinx community gained some ground, far too many returned to calling us “monkeys,” “the N-word,” and “bullet bags.”
Now there’s a video circulating on social media of a Mexican man calling out famous Black celebrities for not showing up or speaking out. He names not one Latinx artist. Not Bad Bunny, not Daddy Yankee, not J.Lo, not Pitbull. This is not the only post of its kind. I have seen at least a dozen videos with people echoing the same sentiment. It’s always on Black people to be the voice, the shield, the sacrifice. We carried the BLM movement, the fight for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland—and so many more. We did that.
And now? The Latinx community is going to have to FAFO. We’re keeping our Black hearts open, but our Black bodies at home.
Empathy does not equal action this time around. We are allowed to rest. We are allowed to protect our peace.
We are allowed to choose self-preservation in a system that’s never preserved us.
We’ll pray for the oppressed, like we always have. But if you’re looking for bodies to throw in front of the next riot squad—you’re going to have to look elsewhere.
Now where them fans at?
Continue following the Apples to Oranges Newsletter for future updates.
Comments