Should Minorities Still Blame Their Problems on Society?

We need to separate individual problems and societal problems better.

“Racism isn’t as prevalent as it used to be.”

I always had a visceral reaction to that comment.

I follow a few black content creators that spew this rhetoric. And even though I always disagreed with it, I’m starting to understand why they say this.

I was wrong.

When you’re a black girl like me that decides to hop on SJW Twitter every three seconds, you’ll get radicalized and galvanized. You’ll get radicalized so much that you feel as if the world is racist, homophobic, transphobic, sexist, etc.

Heck, you’d think that Jim Crow segregation, The Holocaust, and worldwide domestic violence is happening all at once.

You bite off more social justice than you can chew and it starts to overload your brain, causing you to think that the world is against you.

Let me explain.

Should minorities blame all of our problems on society?

It depends on the problem.

If we’re talking about police brutality and mass incarceration, black people are at the brunt of that issue. The numbers speak for themselves.

But if we’re talking about our personal problems (e.g. not getting a part in a musical), we need to rethink our views on that.

Consuming mass amounts of social justice content can make us unintentionally hyper-aware of our surroundings. Even if we aren’t targeted, we can’t help but wonder if we are.

That causes us to blame every little problem we have on society instead of taking accountability for ourselves.

For example, 2020 was the best year of my life. I wrote and published articles online every single day for a year. I received 10k monthly views on my work. I made $20k from my articles directly.

All that happened…meanwhile, George Floyd got killed.

I was depressed for a couple of days when I saw what happened, but I couldn’t help but be proud of myself for taking a negative year like 2020 and turning it into a great one.

I can’t fully get behind the saying that “white people aren’t as racist as they used to be.”

That’s naive to me.

I’d be crazy to think hundreds of years of slavery, plus Jim Crow segregation, plus mass incarceration would disappear in a heartbeat.

Implicit racism doesn’t mean people aren’t racist.

But I can get behind the fact that I’m in more control of my destiny than my ancestors were hundreds of years ago.

We have the internet now. The ways of making money online are ridiculous. Anyone can run their business from their phone.

I can’t act as if the internet is against me.

No one is stopping me from posting quality content but myself.

Everything changed for me when found out what the 5-year rule was and read Atomic Habits by James Clear.

The 5-year rule is this:

You can become successful in any field if you work on a skill consistently for 5 years.

My first year of writing consistently was great. I can’t imagine how much better I’ll be in year five.

James Clear also makes a great point in Atomic Habits:

“Every action you take now is a vote for who you want to be in the future.”

Compounding habits work.

Maybe I’m selfish.

This might be some sellout take since I’ve achieved some success myself, but I still do have empathy for those that struggle.

I can’t remain in a defeated mindset forever.

Who wants to live in a world where they’re defeated before they’ve been born because of who they are?

I can acknowledge the problems that I, as a black woman will face while also having the courage to accomplish something for myself.

And you can do it too.

Main Takeaway

Sometimes you need to disconnect from social media.

SJW Twitter has a way of making people feel like shit when they’re having a great day. It’s weird. No one wants to live in defeat forever. It’s okay to have big goals — and having big goals can mean not paying attention to social justice as much as you used to.

At the end of the day, you decide your own fate.

Not society.

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