This is the video I originally posted on TikTok — the one that started a very interesting conversation.
(Scroll past the clip to read the reflection.)
They always say “wake up” like they woke the dream.
And sometimes I wonder who exactly they think they’re talking to.
A man I’ve never met told me to “wake up and change history for the better.”
Maybe he thought it was encouragement.
Maybe he thought it was correction.
But what it really was—was tone-policing dressed as civility, another remix of “calm down, little lady” from a world that only listens to us if we’re smiling.
I looked at his page.
Ordinary man. Cancer survivor. Some jokes. A few GoFundMes. Plenty of Jesus quotes.
He’s not a villain, but he’s not listening either.
And that’s the thing about comments like his: they sound harmless until you realize they’re written from the vantage point of victory.
History isn’t a sandbox you rebuild. It’s a record of who got buried and who got to write the eulogy.
So when he says wake up, what he really means is quiet down.
But silence is part of the problem.
Silence is what made “foundational truths” sound holy in the first place.
I don’t need to wake up.
I just need to keep speaking.💎
Thanks for reading this week’s The Interruption.
If the piece resonates, share it, quote it, or whisper it to someone who still believes the dream was mutual.
