Dear (some) White people for the love of Martin, Malcolm, Rosa, and Harriet do us a favor, and please stop comparing yourself and other people that are not Black to Black Civil Rights Leaders.

You would have to be living under a rock not to have heard the shitstorm United unleashed around the world when officers dragged Dr. David Dao off a United flight so other passengers, employees could catch a flight from Chicago to Louisville. What is about an hour flight or a 4-5 hour drive turned into a public relations and what will soon be a very expensive nightmare for United. Dr. David Dao was left a bloody mess after this encounter and United has been kissing ass, apologizing because they do not want to lose any more money  they care about their passengers. To add insult to literal injury, the Courier-Journal, a local paper where Dr. Dao resides, published a sensationalized piece, digging up Dr. Dao’s past and essentially blaming him for getting his ass kicked. We learned about alleged pill mills, and of course, other publications tossed in gay sex to add the cherry on top of the victim blaming sundae. Because what is digging up someone’s past if we don’t exploit gay sex?

Many felt all of this was done to somehow make an excuse for what happened to Dr. Dao. For the first and what I pray will be the only time in my life I thought to myself, “That’s that bullshit Donald Trump be talking about.”

We rallied around Dr. Dao as if it was the 90’s and we were fighting to Free Tupac.

And then today happened…
Dr.Dao’s attorney, Thomas Demetrio, said that he got an email describing Dr.Dao as the modern-day “Asian version of Rosa Parks.”
Say what now?

The modern-day who? Cause I know this man didn’t say Dr. Dao was the modern-day Rosa Parks. Which Rosa? Rosa Jenkins from 34th and Crenshaw? Cause I know, he didn’t mean our Rosa. Not Rosa Parks that became the face of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Rosa that refused to give up her seat to a White passenger in segregated Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. Where she risked her very life to say, “Not today. Go on with all that bullshit. I ain’t in the mood for all that. I done worked all day, and I’m tired.”

While what happened to Dr. Dao should not have happened and was a clear abuse of power, let’s not go overboard. We are rooting for you! We want to see you win! We want to see you get a fat check, retire and then ride on United in first class just to be petty. Don’t let your attorney ruin the support the world has for you with his ignorance.

Dr. Dao is in no way comparable to Rosa Parks or any other civil rights leaders that sacrificed everything so that Black people today could have an ounce of freedom.

Just this week CNN political commentator Jeffrey Lord said, “Think of President Trump as the Martin Luther King of health care.” On what fucking planet?

This is a man that wants to STRIP people of having a modicum of peace knowing they have health care, can afford their children’s medicine and can be treated even if they have a preexisting condition. And we are supposed to hold this man up as a modern-day Martin Luther King Jr.? This man that has incited racial violence across this nation against everyone that is not White? This man that allowed Black men and women to be assaulted at his rallies? This is the man that we should consider the Martin Luther King of health care? If that’s how we are making comparisons, give me a wig, rhinestone encrusted leotard and call me Beyonce.

Just a few months ago, people wanted to compare Education Secretary, Betty Devos, to Ruby Bridges. A person hell bent on ruining the educational system compared to a little girl fighting her way through the educational system because she was Black. There is no comparison.

On behalf of former and current Black activists, please stop comparing people that are not Black to Black Civil Rights Leaders. I know, you don’t see color, but it cheapens the accomplishments that Black Civil Rights leaders have made in this world. Black people have sacrificed and have died to have basic, CIVIL rights. To this day, we are still fighting. To this day, there is no collective outrage when a Black person is shot down in the street. There is no collective outrage when a Black person is assaulted by the police.

Just days after the collective outrage that occurred with Dr. Dao, Demetrius Bryan Hollins, a Black man, had his head stomped into the ground even as he was on the ground, handcuffed and subdued by an officer and the world at large remained silent. There was no outrage for him. No one compared him to Civil Rights Leaders that were assaulted and arrested. To this world, he is just a Black man being put in his place and “we shouldn’t rush to judgment” or “he should have just complied.”

If you are outraged at Dr. Dao’s treatment but not outraged at a Black man having his head stomped into the ground by an officer, look in the mirror. If you are going to compare anything, compare the reaction of the nation concerning both incidents and then maybe you will understand why we continue to fight. And why we will not let you co-opt the sacrifices of our leaders.

Photos: Giphy