On Amber Ruffin and the Amazing Disappearing White House Correspondents Dinner

Back in March of this year, comedienne Amber Ruffin was announced as the featured entertainer at this year’s White House Correspondents Association dinner. It was all set in stone. The event was a go. Amber is an incredible comedienne, a pioneer in late-night television (when she joined Late Night with Seth Meyers' writing team, she became the first Black woman to write for a late-night network talk show in the United States), and more than deserving of the spotlight she was offered.

And then, during a podcast appearance, Amber called out the hateful, murderous actions of y'all's president and his cronies and made clear her focus at the White House Correspondents dinner would largely be on the president's actions.

And just like that, Amber Ruffin was out.

And just like that, Eugene Daniels, the White House Correspondents Association's president, said the group wanted to "refocus" the annual event on journalistic excellence and wouldn’t have a comedian going forward.

And just like that, y'all's president declared that the Correspondents dinner was no longer an event that acting presidents needed to attend, defeating the purpose of the whole thing, because he was obviously uncomfortable with his massive flaws being on display.

I posted about this back in March, as I felt it was a red flag for the abuses of Black women I saw on the horizon as well as the deterioration of free speech. Most of y'all didn't engage with that post.

But a whole lot of y'all engaged with my posts around Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel.

And while those cancellations are scary and emblematic of the direction we're going in as a country, guess what?

So was Amber's situation.

Where was y'all's outrage then? Wanna talk about that? Of course you don't. Y'all ain't ready for that kind of conversation.

Y'all also ain't ready to talk about the Venn Diagram of liberal viewpoints, anti-Blackness, and anti-Black woman and Black femme ideologies that so many of y'all be doin' the butterfly and the Tootsie Roll on while patting yourself on the back for standing up for something.

Holla at me when y'all are ready to chat.

[Image description: A picture of Black female comedienne Amber Ruffin, laughing while sitting on a red couch.]

Image description: A picture of Black female comedienne Amber Ruffin, laughing while sitting on a red couch.

On Crossing Streets, Clutching Pearls, and the "Danger" Debate

It's wild to me that people of pallor still do that thing to me where they see me coming and cross the street, clutch their purse, pull their kids "out of harm's way", or recoil in general when they see me in a store, restaurant, or out on a walk, minding my Black business. After 43 years on this planet, with at least 33 of those years spent observing this nonsense, I can't help but be amused by how ridiculous many people of pallor are with these ignorant antics.

People of pallor, I think I can speak for almost all Black people when I say that - and I cannot emphasize this enough - WE DON'T WANT YOU.

We're not out to get you. When we're out and about, living our lives? We don't want to engage with you unless we have to. We don't want anything in your purse.

And we definitely don't want yo' kids.

The overwhelming majority of us aren't out here to "endanger" people of pallor. We seriously don't want to be involved in any messiness with y'all, no matter how miniscule it may seem. We're just out here trying to live in a world that hates us, yet we're always painted as a threat to said world. It's preposterous. It's weak. It's old. And I think I can speak for most Black folx when I say that the less interactions and engagements we have to have with most people of pallor, the better.

In this economy? In this increasingly hostile country we live in?

No thank you.

Y'all are, and continue to be, more of a threat to Black bodies than we are to y'all, and you don't need to Google that to know that it's true.

I'm at the store, pink headphones on, listenin' to Clipse and buyin' some Triscuits, not even thinkin' of you, while you out here fleeing in terror and trying to get the attention of a staff member because melanin has "invaded" what you believe is "your space" and you feel squirmy in your white supremacist, anti-Black tummy.

Chile, please.

Your stomach feels that bad, you probably need to be grabbin' some Triscuits too.

On Trey Reed and Strange Fruit

TW: Anti-black violence, harm, black body trauma, murder.

A 21-year-old student named Trey Reed from Grenada, Mississippi, was found hanging from a tree this morning on the campus of Delta State University at 7:00 a.m.

Authorities closed the campus after discovering Trey's body, but made sure to emphasize that no lockdown was put in place and that there is no danger to the campus.

The local authorities and the Delta State University administration do not believe there was any foul play. They're all expecting things to "get back to normal" in the next day or so.

And, to top it off, the local authorities said nothing about Trey's death to the public until this afternoon. THE AFTERNOON.

And that all leads me to a whole lot of "don't believes":

I don't believe for one minute that Trey hung himself from a tree and completed suicide. Black people do not hang themselves from trees.

I don't believe for one minute that Delta State University's campus is not a current and present danger to students, staff, and faculty, especially the Black and Brown folx attending classes or working there.

I don't believe Delta State will address the matter if it is found not to be a suicide. Nor will local law enforcement.

I don't believe that there will be any kind of resolution to this horrible situation that will not cosign the ongoing understanding that Black people live with every day: that in the United States, strange fruit still hangs from the poplar tree.

I don’t believe we'll ever have a clear answer to any of this.

I so hope in my soul that Trey and his family find justice in this, but I live in the United States, so I don't expect anything but disappointment and trauma.

I'm so sorry, Trey. Whatever happened, you did not deserve this kind of pain.

On Blackness as a Scapegoat For White Supremacy

It took hateful, emboldened people of pallor less than 24 hours to blame Black people for the murder of one of their hate idols, even though all the evidence points to a shooter of pallor.

Less than 24 hours to begin threatening violence at HBCUs across the country, forcing them to lock down their campuses or outright cancel classes to ensure their Black students, who had NOTHING TO DO with yesterday’s violence, don’t become casualties of anti-Black hate and terrorism.

Less than 24 hours to see Black bodies as their perfect scapegoats for the violence they feel justified to inflict on their ”enemies.”

I swear racism and white supremacy have had the same playbook for 400+ years.

On Schadenfreude, Bigotry, and Job Interviews

Image description: A male of pallor is shown in a workplace meeting, making their melanated colleagues highly uncomfortable.

One of my favorite things in the world is watching bigots being outed by the public, losing their jobs. I have no issue with hateful Karens and Chets losing their jobs after their beliefs are shared with their employers by people in the community. But while I love allowing the schadenfreude to wash over me like a gentle autumn rain, I can’t help but think about the one party in these matters that is never held accountable: the companies that hire these people.

I’ve been recruiting and interviewing people for over 20 years. I’ve conducted hundreds of interviews and led dozens of recruitments. Please believe that Karens and Chets don’t suddenly wake up one morning and decide they want to be hateful people. They are and have always been hateful people, and it comes out in their job interviews. The way they answer questions, the way they show up in spaces. The red flags are always there.

And companies hire these people anyway.

I can count on my fingers and toes multiple times how often hiring managers and department heads have willingly ignored red flags around hate and bigotry and pushed someone through a recruitment process because they “really like them,” are “a person I’d grab a beer with,” or they “remind me of myself at that age.” Why?

Because it’s easier to ride with the comforts and familiarity of white supremacy than it is to take a stance and not bring people into your organization that pose a risk to your employees and the people you serve.

It has been proven that people hire people with whom they feel comfortable. Bigots, or people who are comfortable with bigotry happening in front of them and not calling it out, hire bigots. Chets and Karens hire other Chets and Karens. It’s white supremacist workplace culture 101. And it’s never a workplace issue until that bigotry gets attached to the company name in a public way.

Chet and Karen have been doing and saying horrible things at work for years. They’ve been reported to HR and their supervisors for their harmful words and actions for years. But as soon as their hateful nonsense spills out into the public in a way that gets them screenshotted and recorded? Then it’s an immediate dismissal and a well-written PR statement touting how the company doesn’t support these views and cares about equity and inclusion. Meanwhile, everyone who has had to work with and be harmed by Karen and Chet every damn day for years has to sit with the learned understanding that their company has never really cared about equity and inclusion and has no issue with gaslighting their employees around supporting these views.

Be mad at Chet and Karen. Be glad that they’re getting their comeuppance. But save some of those side-eyes for the jerks that employed them in the first place, who now want to absolve themselves of their responsibility in giving these people a paycheck.

[Image description: A male of pallor is shown in a workplace meeting, making their melanated colleagues highly uncomfortable.]