Symone Sanders - No, You Shut Up: Speaking Truth to Power and Reclaiming America

To Averi, Daniel, Jose, Madre, and Daddy

because each of you believed I could and are a large part of the reason I can.

Greetings! Lets get down to business.

Have you ever been making a really great point when someone tells you to shut up? As if you dont know what youre talking about or your point isnt valid enough? As if you did not have permission to give your opinion? As if you werent qualified to speak on something in the first place?

Well, I have.

In August 2017, I was on air at CNN discussing the atrocities at the hands of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia. What was a far-right protest against the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee had quickly turned into a display of violent aggression against marginalized people: one counter-protester. She was killed when a neo-Nazi drove a car into the crowd, and nineteen others were injured. The CNN segment I was taking part in came after Trumps comments blaming both sides for the violence, though of course only one side had committed any.

I was appearing live on New Day on CNN with Chris Cuomo alongside Ken Cuccinelli, the former attorney general of Virginia. My argument was that what happened in Charlottesville was a gruesome manifestation of white supremacy, a problem that has grown more virulent and violent since Trump took office. Cuccinelli disagreed. He claimed the violence was an aberration, the result of an individual organizers plot to disrupt what was billed as an innocent protest.

I was, I admit, annoyed at this rationale. These were neo-Nazis and white supremacists that had come together to inflict terror upon this community, with advance planning; this was not a peaceful, spur-of-the-moment gathering. The debate got heated, and we began talking over each other. Cuccinelli accused me of jumping from one thing to another; I replied that I was being factual, and he was hedging to avoid the heart of the issue. Cuomo jumped in to ask Cuccinelli what, exactly, he was disagreeing with. You know what white supremacists are about, Cuomo said. You know what Robert E. Lee evokes. Thats what they use for the basis for coming to gather. What is your point of disagreement exactly?

Cuccinelli again tried to redirect the conversation, drawing attention to the local blogger who got the permit to protest, saying the protest was an excuse on his part, not a part of a larger scheme. By that point I was fuming.

And now someones dead, I cut in.

Cuccinelli did not like that.

Can I finish, Symone? Will you just shut up for a minute and let me finish?

Pardon me, sir, I began, my voice getting louder. (He was no match for me on that front.) You dont get to tell me to shut up on national television.

Cuomo agreed, and he said so.

Then how do you make them stop talking when they keep interrupting you? Cuccinelli continued.

Them? They? I said. Im sitting right here!

It doesnt matter what Cuccinelli looked like, how old he was, or how powerful (read: old white man politician), we all know that isnt an acceptable way to speak to anybody. And I told him so, on national television: Under no circumstances do you get to speak to me in that manner.

YUP. He told me to shut up on national television. I had a right to have my voice heard, and my perspective was crucial to the conversation; however, when youre speaking truth and spitting facts, sometimes the powers that be try to shut you down. Well, just like I had to claim, reclaim, and assert my power on CNN that day, in the iconic spirit of Auntie Maxine Waters (one of my heroes)... the time has come for all of us to band together and do the same.

We are at a pivotal moment in our nations history. Im not only talking about the lead-up to the next election. Im talking about this very moment, where white supremacy is no longer being quietly tolerated or waved away, but is being actively promoted by our own elected officials. When I had my tte--tte with Cuch, he was just a former state attorney general. You know what he is now, as I write this? Hes the Trump administrations acting director of the Citizenship and Immigration Services office. And you know what he said on Erin Burnetts show on CNN today, the day I recount that story to you? Of the inscription on the Statue of Liberty, from the iconic Emma Lazarus poem The New Colossusyou know, Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free / The wretched refuse of your teeming shorehe said, Of course that poem was referring to people coming from Europe. Not Black or brown or melanated people, of course. He spent the rest of the interview essentially advocating for policies that make our country whiter and less welcoming to diversity. This comes a few weeks after the president of the United States told four congresswomen of color to go back to the countries from which they came, even though three of the four were born RIGHT HERE and the other has been a naturalized citizen since she was a teenager.

More than ever, we need to stand up, not shut up. And so this book is for all the people who have ever been told to turn back or go quietly. I know folks want us to pipe down, wait our turn, earn our stripes. Folks want us to temper our expectations, be respectful, and just let the seasoned adults handle things. This book is for any person who has been told they dream too big. Anybody who has been shut down, shut out, talked over, ignored, talked down to, or dismissed. This is for every single young person, and young person at heart, out there who has a passion, an idea, a spark, but the powers that be just wont let you live.

Ive come to say: NOT TODAY!

So, how do we get started, you say? First off, lets not waste our time looking for a magic wand that we can wave and suddenly solve all of our countrys problems. How many of you have heard the expression If I had a magic wand, Id...? Well, guess what? I dont have one in my handbag, I cant pull one out of thin air, and youre not going to find one buried in the back pages of this book (theres some other great stuff back there, though, I promise!). So lets not wait for a fairy godmother or a magician to save the day. We dont need to wait for anyone or anything.

Also, getting started is exactly that: it involves a beginning, taking steps in the direction you want to go. Some people want to think we can just wipe the slate clean and start over, just take down the whole darn thing and create a new government from the ground up, with our designated survivor leading the way. Whats that, you say? Oh, whenever all of Congress comes together for the State of the Union address, a cabinet member is picked as the designated survivor (DS); he or she is kept in an undisclosed location in case all hell breaks loose and the Capitol building gets blown up with all of our leaders inside (you know, or something like that). The DS then becomes acting president of the US.

Theres actually a show on TV right now with this premise. In the first season, this new president and his team are working through the crisis, trying to figure out how it happened; they are actually presented the opportunity to rebuild democracy and do things differently. But it aint going down like thatunless we are blowing up the Capitol, which I dont think anyone reading this book seriously wants to do (I hope to God). It doesnt work like that in reality.

What we do want is to be heard. To be taken seriously. To have the freedom to pursue our goals of a more equitable, inclusive society where everyones future looks brighter. And to achieve that, we will not shut up. We shall not back down. We wont be quiet. The world needs us now more than ever. We are the change agents, the gurus, the masterminds, the artists, the entrepreneurs, the business folks, the politicians, the elected officials, the activists, the radical revolutionaries that we have been waiting for. IT IS US. And the time is RIGHT NOW.