Current Events

Pissing on our heads and calling it rain

Recently, in Trump-landia, the Donald had this to say in the wake of complaining about (or vaguely threatening) NFL players for taking the knee during the national anthem and Kim Kardashian “advising” him about prison reform:

“What I’m going to do is, I’m going to say to them instead of talk … I am going to ask all of those people to recommend to me—because that’s what they’re protesting—people that they think were unfairly treated by the justice system. And I understand that.”

He added, “If the athletes have friends of theirs or people they know about that have been unfairly treated by the system, let me know.”

This statement was made to insinuate that he would be willing to use his power to “pardon” these individuals. As a result, liberal white folks from here to England have been swallowing their pride (and common sense) and choking out accolades for this dude. I actually had people that know me, who have interacted with me personally, low-key praising Trump. Are ya’ll ok? Do Black folks really have to sit y’all down and tell y’all why his statement is bullshit? I know sometimes racism isn’t obviously stated, but this one should have been easy to catch for more reasons than just one.

First of all … how’s that wall coming? Did they repeal and replace yet? Has he been able to successfully scrub Obama’s name from the history books and put Hillary Clinton in jail? Everything that comes outta that bum’s mouth is a cotton-pickin’ lie (in my Annie Mae Chapman voice). You can’t trust any person with money who chooses to show their face, publicly, looking like they got slapped with a bag of Cheeto dust.

Secondly, he’s basically pardoning folks in exchange for a damn photo opp. Its 2018, and Donald Trump still uses photos of famous folks, especially famous Black folks, for publicity. Think about it: we live in a country where a photo with the president pretty much gets you three wishes. I don’t know what Kim Kardashian spent her other two wishes on, but I’m sure we’ll find out when Kanye West decides to enlighten us on the finer points of systematic racism. Oh, for those of you who didn’t hear: Kim Kardashian read the cover of Michelle Alexander’s book and is now an expert on mass incarceration. She’s not the hero we need, but trust me … she’s the hero we deserve.

And for my final point, this statement has distracted some of you to the point that you don’t even realize how harmful this actually is. By insinuating that athletes are upset because they think their “friends” have been treated unfairly, Trump has transformed the whole conversation from a broader discussion about injustices that permeate every space in our justice system to a conversation about personal vendettas. Personal vendettas and special treatment.

Imma need a Super Saiyan-level side-eye for this one. Donald Trump isn’t the white savior this country needs or deserves. Even though we have totally become a cesspool of antiblackness and AR-15s, I still want to hold on to the thought that we deserve better than this.

Y’all don’t hear me, though.

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Photo by Denise Johnson on Unsplash.

A royal occasion

It’s almost June as I write this and I’m still trying to figure out how racist the Duchess of Sussex’s white side of the family had to be for her to cut them out of her life the way she had to.

The marriage between Meghan Markle and Prince Harry has been the must-see TV event of the year thus far. I was two days into my vacation when I woke up at the crack of dawn to see everything from the dress she wore to the people who were invited. I had the same view that many of her family members had and there is one glaring reason why.

This isn’t the Duchess of Sussex’s first wedding. Oh, no hon-tey. In 2011, she married some random in the Caribbean. She invited her entire family.

Wait, I got that wrong…her mother was in attendance. Her mother, Doria Ragland, was in attendance. Does that sound familiar? Now, just sit back and try to wrap your head around the fact that her clear side of the family is shitting ducks that they weren’t invited to this wedding, while simultaneously not caring that they were not invited to her first wedding.

You could assume that it’s all because of who she married this time around, but, with white supremacy running rampant and doing whatever the fuck it wants to do lately, we have to assume the obvious instead of assuming the best.

Meghan Markle’s white side of the family is likely very, very racist. It’s the obvious observation, but likely the most accurate. Her half brother and sister did an excellent job of hinting towards their prejudice in the days following their engagement. Everything from the promise of a “tell-all” book to writing letters to Kensington Palace trying to tell Prince Harry how “unqualified” Meghan was to marry him are examples of their prejudice probably manifested itself over the course of their rocky relationship.

Seems like they thought they should have a say in everything Meghan did or even thought about doing. Seems like they thought Meghan owed them something. Seems like they thought they owned Meghan in some way.

All three of these are classic examples of white supremacy in America. White people feel like they should have a say in everything, even about how we react to our own oppression. They feel like we owe them our service and respect just because their privilege put them in an elevated place in life. They feel like everything about us (from our music to dance to style) is something they are allowed to steal, wear and occasionally co-opt as their own.

And, in the case of Meghan, as soon as it became known to them who she was dating, her white side of the family quickly stepped into the spotlight and tried to lay claims to a sister they haven’t really spoken with in over 10 years. Not only did they try to lay claim to her, but they became furious when they realized that she was having none of that. Tears were shed and will continue to be shed.

Throughout all of this, the Duchess of Sussex and her mother have remained a shiny, beautiful example of how to handle stressful situations with grace. The ceremony was a beautiful mixture of British tradition with Black American culture. I, from the bottom of my heart, wish the couple a joyous and lasting marriage.

Her clear side of the family though? I hope y’all bitches get heartburn you can’t fix.

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“This is America” really IS America, and that’s a shame

It look less than 3.4789 seconds for folks to lose their collective minds over Donald Glover’s (AKA, Childish Gambino) “This is America” music video. Let’s all forgive his misogynistic and other questionable ways and bask in the glory of this latest piece of black trauma porn made for white folks, by Black folks. Its “Formation” reborn with all the articles and videos dedicated to breaking down every little facial expression and every single dance move contained in all 2 minutes 39 seconds of it. White women set a record and gentrified the hell out of it within seven days. It’s obvious the perpetrator, Nicole Arbour, has no Black friends…or, she has Black friends like Donald Glover who happily allow her to use racial slurs in their presence.

This is too much to break down, y’all. So, so many layers and I haven’t been this conflicted since Trump voters found out that the Affordable Care Care act they loved and used was actually the Obamacare they had been convinced they hated and realized that Trump planned to burn their shit to the ground.

Let’s start with Childish “I get off when women who are not Black call me nigger” Gambino. We can save his report of dating “the Black women of different races” later, let’s use our time to talk about this trauma porn.

One of the worst parts of violence against Black folks is that it is well documented. And, we’re not even talking about recently with camera phones. Going back to Jim Crow, white folks took a liking to photographing Black bodies hanging from trees. It wasn’t unusual to see a crowd of smiling men (wives and children) included in these photographs.  They enjoy seeing us abused and have for a very, very long time. If images of Black bodies being abused was going to change society, violence against us would have came to a halt even before Emmet Till’s life got cut short by Carolyn Bryant, who is still living today. All the “This is America” video did was give white folks some more violence to be entertained by. I get what he was trying to say, but he didn’t have to gun down the choir to do it.

Next, we talk about how colonizers stay colonizing. Nicole Arbour almost can’t be blamed for gentrifying “This is America” when we are fresh off of Taylor Swift gentrifying “September.” It’s not her video that you should be giving the side-eye to; it’s the intention behind it.

The problem with the white feminism movement is this idea that sexism is as bad or worse than racism (even though white women, for all that they deal with, still have more social and economic privilege than Black people because of their whiteness). They often claim that they understand racism because they have experienced sexism. It’s not unusual for them to dismiss their own racial biases by using a “but, what about sexism” approach. Nicole’s colonization of “This is America” was a little bit of all those points mixed together with some horseradish and raisins. Not only did she miss the point of subtlety, but she also derailed a conversation about violence against Black people to complain about how she is expected to look pretty. And the bih can’t rap or dance.

All that aside, I wonder if Donald Glover would consider Nicole to be one of the “Black women of other races” he’s mentioned? If he did, wouldn’t that mean her calling him a “nigga” would give him one of the best orgasms of his life? And if that happened, wouldn’t we just be wasting our time even talking about this? Sounds like he would probably like her attempt at reminding the world that white women are oppressed, too.

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