"Protect X at all costs"

[browngirl]

That's a phrase of support which I learned from Tumblr, where people are fond of saying things like "Protect Tony Stark at all costs". I ... have my own list. Including my fellow Black people.

Two friends sent me two different awesome things:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/01/12/meet-daliy
ah-the-4-year-old-girl-who-has-read-more-than-1000-books/

Daliyah, who is four, utterly darling, and has read a thousand books. She fills me with delight.

And yet there's a corner of my soul that knows how many of our fellow Americans looked at her and said things like "no point wasting books on a future crack whore." For instance, just look at the response to the new Lady Liberty dollar coin, a lovely Black woman:

https://mobile.twitter.com/usmint/status/819622733021642755/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Just look at all those charming responses. "a disgrace", "embarrassing", "ghetto". *sigh* (Also, dollops of Islamophobia out of nowhere, but that's another post.)

These are my fellow Americans, the people I as a liberal am supposed to reach out to and compromise with (whereas they aren't expected to move whatsoever).

Still, they both exist, the coin and the child. And I love them both with all my heart.

Comments

[boosette.livejournal.com]

I would have gone with a star crown more proportionate to her braids but hold damn that is a beautiful coin, and imagery we sorely need

[shirebound]

Still, they both exist, the coin and the child.

I love how you phrase that.

To quote my own tweet to the Treasury and whoever else...

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

That is so beautiful!

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Exactly what I came here to say, with some extra "OMG"s thrown in.

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

Hon, reading the comments of random people on the internet is practically guaranteed to make you feel terrible. Could you either stop doing it entirely -- or, if that's too hard, limit yourself to twice a week or something?

*hug*

[tendyl.livejournal.com]

Seconded.  All the trolls come out en mass.

[sabotabby]

I never got the "protect X at all costs" thing.

But the coin and the child both rule.

[songquake.livejournal.com]

I love Daliyah now. Thanks for pointing her out!

Also, that coin is gorgeous. I want one :)

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

Ugh! Why did I read the comments on that coin? How deeply sad. I don't know if she's supposed to be representing an abolitionist, a civil rights worker, or an everywoman who has stood up against adversity for freedom--well I guess she's an abstraction, so she's all of them, but who can possibly embody liberty more than someone who has had to fight for it. And that's what she looks like on that coin. As fine and noble a visage that's ever graced a gold doubloon.

And yay for the nerdy little girl and her thousand books and her library adventure. I wish her a rich and noble life.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

Blast, that's not one of the gold-colored dollar coins that I can use, but an unaffordable actual gold coin. I guess I won't be spending them. At least I have my Susan B. Anthony dollars with the Apollo 11 insignia on the back.

[maiac.livejournal.com]

"who can possibly embody liberty more than someone who has had to fight for it"

THIS.

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

^^^^^^^^
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

I can't understand racism. I once read the only reason some people are white is that the sun in the North isn't strong enough for people with darker skin to produce vitamin D, so pale skin evolved to remedy that. We are all human beings.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Love that coin, and love that little girl. We'll cherish them long and hard. Our side has joy has love, has open arms.

((hugs))

[maiac.livejournal.com]

I have very, very carefully avoided "comments section" responses to the new Liberty coin. Me, I think it's wonderful in so many ways, and the responses of the people I know personally have been, "WOW! That's awesome!"

And yeah: "You need to be more sympathetic to people who hate you and everything you believe" -- nobody's telling them "you need to be more sympathetic instead of hating those people". Fuck that noise. I don't take advice that says, "Just accept your inferiority."

[blcwriter.livejournal.com]

She is terrific, indeed.

[med_cat]

I've mostly stopped reading comments a while back--and it had been the same for comments in Russian--I'd noticed years ago, that comments on the most seemingly-innocent things, such as a song about autumn on YT, end up--I don't know how!--descending into horrible vitriol and flaming.

So...:)

And yes, that's great re: coin and child both.