In all of the political crap that is going on I have had a few moments of just anger. I was talking to a parent, a dear lady I talk to a lot, yesterday. She is a black educator also but does not want to teach while her youngest is so young and because of how she has been treated. I have seen it myself, my district is now all about equity but they can't win back all the teachers they burned out. One thing that came up was that I could have a voice in the white community for these issues that are becoming more well known. And I realized that I don't have much of a voice. I think I am kind of a joke to people. It is funny to laugh at how I got a degree in western humanities with a minor in philosophy. Heck I laugh at it first so I beat people to it. The food I have eaten over the years, the times I was vegetarian for long periods, the reusable bags, the lots of meditation, the funny things I seem to do. And I am generally not bothered, being a person who does not care what others think. But being a joke is not having an effective voice either.
My family jokes and teases a lot, they do not like real emotions very much. So they joke and tease about everything but themselves. I have been the brunt of it for a very long time, either the black sheep they were mad at or eventually when they became 'nicer' it became a joke. I snapped at my mom when they came out at the holidays however. I was telling her about a conversation I had with my brother which included how his Iowa friends do not like spicy food (he made yummy cookies with a touch of cayenne). She got mad and told me to stop picking on Iowa, to which I replied they have been picking on my food for 30 years, including at dinner the night before.
I don't know, anyone else have a family that teases and jokes but you know it isn't as nice as they try to make it?