Get Mad, but don't Get Even

I just saw this statement in a review of Infinity War (2018)

Apparently, treatments of PoC were less than stellar. And in one review by Steven Barnes, he goes into all of this. And then he says what I've been feeling and what many don't seem to want to see. I'll give it to you in an excerpt from his great review.

"So the message for white readers: if you create black characters, invest them with the same humanity you give your white characters, or leave us out of your damned stories. We don’t exist to uplift you and your children.

For black readers: Don’t settle for being second-bananas in someone else’s fantasies of power and glory. Just…don’t. Create your own. And if you aren’t creators, support the films that understand that you aren’t a sock puppet to die nobly protecting white people. You just…aren’t.

Get mad, but don’t “get even." Win by showing how its done right."

That is what I've been trying to say- but haven't been able to find the correct words to do so. And it is so true.

An eye for an eye leaves the world blind- a great saying that people seem to forget in the heat of the moment. Yes, there have been wrongs and injustices. But the focus should be on justice- not making them pay. Do the right thing, even in the face of systematic oppression, and take the high ground to win a permanent war, rather than just scoring points by winning a battle. In the end, we all have to live together, and our gains should be focused on this.

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