Evelyn: (speaking to camera) Have you ever just wanted to call in black to work? You heard what I said. Call in … black.
I don’t know if you can relate, but maybe your mornings are a little like mine. They usually go a little something like this:
Voiceover: It’s morning and your alarm rings. You hate mornings, but you’re alive and employed so you can’t complain too long, right?
Evelyn (acting, lying in bed): You right.
Voiceover: Because you’re a millennial you instinctively begin scrolling through every news/feed board, and you slowly start to notice something.
Evelyn (acting, lying in bed): Wait, what?
Evelyn (speaking to the camera): Another unarmed black person assaulted and/or murdered. FU–! Your emotions and thoughts could run the gamut from hopeless and confused (video cuts to Evelyn talking to herself in a dejected manner) to infuriated (video cuts to Evelyn talking to herself, speaking angrily, and waving her hand). The other day when I was driving to work and I noticed water randomly pouring from my eyes, I realized something: I was grieving. The specifics might differ.
Swop a grown man with a teenage girl in a bathing suit, switch the skittles for loud music or not using your turning signal, or praying in a church, or walking. Every reblog, retweet, repost, a citizen video footage that ultimately will never see the light of a courtroom. Every vine you watch of someone you know from twitter getting pepper sprayed, and every link to a racist GoFundMe page.
Sure the specifics might differ, but watching the same narrative play out over and over and over and over and over and over again takes a toll. Sometimes I need a minute, okay?? And that’s where calling in black would be so clutch.
Evelyn: (acting and lying in bed with the covers over her head) Oh no no, it’s not contagious. I need a solid day to reaffirm my humanity to myself, so, see you tomorrow.
Evelyn: (acting and lying in bed with the covers over her head) Oh, no no no, it’s not allergies, it’s just I watched the police choke somebody to death and I know they’re not going to go to jail for it, so see you at 11.
Evelyn: (acting and lying in bed with the covers over her head) I have a slight fever… boiling with the rage of the police killing my people!!
Evelyn: (speaking to the camera) Anyway, I want to hear from you. For you all watching, what has been the emotional toll of the constant online consumption of black bodies getting systematically assaulted and/or murdered? I look forward to your comments. My name’s Evelyn and I’ll see you on the internet somewhere.
