On Olive Garden and White Supremacist Workplace Lunch

You wanna know a low-key bit of white supremacist workplace culture that most people don't think twice about?

When your supervisor or manager orders Olive Garden for a work lunch, when there are 85 freakin’ local restaurants making fantastic ethnocultural dishes in your area that would be better and supportive of your local economy. Hell, I guarantee you that there's a poppin' local Italian restaurant that is absolutely delicious and authentic as hell, but nope!

Olive Garden.

Olive Garden is basically the restaurant version of most people of pallor: safe, unremarkable basic b--- energy. Always talking about how we're a family while knowing we all know it's just a catchphrase (what, you forgot we work here and see how y'all act every day?). Not offensive to most people on the surface, but as you peel back the lasagna layers, you see there's more filler than substance. No evolution in who they are or what they have to offer others in decades.

No wonder it's the ultimate fallback lunch for most workplaces.

Guess that marinara sauce is more of a mirror than you probably thought.

On Trans Day of Remembrance

On this Trans Day of Remembrance, I hope that we all can take the time to remember the trans friends, family, and community members we've lost to hate and bigotry. I also hope that we're celebrating their lives, their energy, their joys, the impacts they had on our lives, and the belief that there is still hope that one day we won't have to lay to rest vibrant people who only wanted to live happy lives without hiding their true identities.

There are still fights ahead. There's still work to do. But the fights and the work are worth it because memoriam should come with knowing that lives weren't taken away from us for naught - they are still with us, hand in hand, fighting for a better tomorrow.

None of us is safe if some of us are facing a constant wave of terror for just existing and living freely as who we are.

None of us is free if some of us are in a never-ending battle for rights and privileges that so many of us take for granted.

To my trans friends, family, colleagues, neighbors: you are loved. You are worthy of love. You deserve the right to exist without danger and bigotry hanging over your heads.

And fighting for you is and will always be worth it.

On Pharrell and Catering to Those Who Don't Care About You

To my melanated folx: today, choose not to be Pharrell.

Choose this tomorrow, too.

And the day after. And the day after that.

Just add "don't be Pharrell" to your daily philosophy system.

Don't let that paper-thin "acceptance" from pallor audiences and the vestiges of tokenism sold to you as perks, privilege, and capitalist gains make you a tool of your white supremacist oppressors against other oppressed communities, especially not your own people.

Also, don't wear those hats like he was doin' for a while there. Only Cree Summer can rock those.

Choose not to be Pharrell.

On Clay, Louisiana, and Being Careful About Who You Choose To Represent You

TW: Mentions of sexual abuse, rape, sex trafficking, pedophilia.

The House chamber has overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill that would compel the Justice Department to release all its Epstein case files. The vote? 427-1. The one holdout? GOP Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana. Why?

He's worried about the innocent people this could hurt.

You know, the innocent people who were physically, mentally, and psychologically harmed, sexually assaulted, trafficked, and raped, who have been seeking justice for YEARS.

Oh wait - he's not talking about those innocent people, is he? Because if he were, he would've heard their pleas for justice and wouldn't have voted no.

Hey, Louisianans: I hope y'all finally take the time to make Clay feel VERY welcome when he gets back home, seeing how so many of y'all are as invested in getting these Esptein files out to the public as the rest of us, and this seems to be the only thing right now most of us are in solidarity about.

I mean, he's been voting against your best interests since y'all elected him and is a regular keynote speaker with such "wonderful organizations" as the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters, which should truly be disqualifiers for y'all when it comes to voting for his ass. Still, nothing has seemed to push y'all to boot Clay from office, so we'll take what we can get.

Vote these horrible creatures out of office, y'all. Your vote can change your city, state, and this country for the better. It is one of the truly pivotal powers we have as the citizenry.

They ain't out here tryin' to gerrymander districts and voting maps for no reason.

This Week's Opening Thought: November 17, 2025

This week’s opening thought, directed at people of pallor: Last Friday, I posted about how the current hubbub around that one particular Epstein e-mail was rooted in homophobia. By Sunday morning, I watched as hundreds of comments from an overwhelmingly large number of people of pallor called my queer self everything from a coward and a hetero mansplainer to homophobic for calling out casual homophobia and hoping we could all be just a little better than the 800 sexual innuendo memes floating across the internet right now. Most of them had profile bios touting their liberal views. Fun!

Meanwhile, a person of pallor I know posted a similar message to my own a day after my original post. The response they got? Nothing but kudos, atta boys, and agreements from other people of pallor.

Real talk?

I really need people of pallor, especially the “moderates” and the “allies,” to own why they hop online and attack Black and Brown folx, especially Black women and intersectional melanated folx, for having informed views and opinions that call you in or out for doing and saying harmful things then turn around and applaud people of pallor who damn near copy and paste what we already posted or said that irked you so much you couldn't contain your outrage towards us but could swallow hearing it from a plagiarizing skin-susceptible-to-the-sun virtue signaler.

I mean, we, the melanated masses, know why you do what you do. But I can't help but wonder if y'all ever have a moment in your day where you take a second to sit with your ingrained white supremacist values long enough to realize no matter how many rallies you attend, causes you swear you support, or books you read, you're still too thin-skinned to look yourselves in the mirror and process how angry Black and Brown folx, Black women, and melanated queer folx make you feel about how “good” as neighbors, co-workers, and community members y'all actually are