mental health: don’t feel guilty for checking the f*ck out when needed

Most days, being poor, Black, and queer in Trump’s America leave me breathless, full of cruel laughter.

Tuesday, I signed up for health insurance through the HealthCare.gov exchange. Unlike last year, my current state of Georgia found me eligible for Medicaid, but “the state of Georgia has chosen not to offer you this health coverage at this time.” Great.

On the news, red-faced White pundits pathetically searching for answers as to how things could be so dark, so scary, so fast. This week, they came to the conclusion that Trump’s bigotry is genuine and when he said that most Mexicans are “probably” rapists after the president tweeted out anti-Muslim propaganda from his personal account.

A social media, another man kills a Black woman who tried to leave him. More White cops kill with impunity.

“These tax cuts are gonna hurt me personally—BELIEVE ME.”

Boy, it’s hot for December. I wonder what Betsey DeVoss is up to.

An ancient Negro proverb tells us that all we have to do in this life is to “stay Black and die”. This, above all else, is true. What’s fucked up about it is that so much of ‘staying Black’ in a predominately White country, like the United States, is a ceaseless battle. A battle for human dignity in the eyes of law enforcement, equal opportunities, and respect for our human rights.

“Never, not ever, have we seen anything like opioid-dependency in rural White communities!” “Opioid-dependent newborns.”

What happened to “crack baby”?

If you need permission to reclaim your time, here it is:

You ain’t gotta stay at peak wokeness 24/7 for every moment of the rest of your life. It’s not your individual responsibility to organize so hard that fall into poverty and self-destruction. To feed the world before feeding yourself. In the AFROPUNK community, there are so many of us who want to help others, help each other, with our artistry, time, money, platforms, whatever we have as we hold tight through the Trump storm, and blatant socio-political attacks of White Supremacy. But doing so for too long, to the detriment of your mental health and your relationship with yourself isn’t a good thing for anybody.

Now that the holidays are in full-swing, friends and family are in town and there’s gonna be lots to do or not to do. Yes, shit is getting real with the GOP’s tax cut for corporations and the rich and Net Neutrality is seemingly on its last leg, but frankly…

Fuck it.

For at least one weekend in December. Take the month off, even. Deactivate, log out, drop out. Leave of ‘read’. It’s okay to do that.