On Oklahoma, TPUSA in High School, and "Owning the Libs"

Oklahoma is 50th in the nation in education.

50th.

But today, Oklahoma Superintendent of Schools Ryan Walters announced that every Oklahoma high school will have a Turning Point USA chapter to "promote free speech, open engagement, dialogue about [U.S.] American greatness, a dialogue around [U.S.] American values."

50th. In the nation. In education.

Their kids can't read and write. They aren't excelling. The Oklahoma Board of Education has historically put little funding into support programs or additional educational tools for Oklahoma students to try to turn this around. And now the little funds the Oklahoma Board of Education has, funds which will be lessened even more by all of the Federal budget cuts to education, will now be used to pay for Turning Point USA to have a propaganda wing in every high school in Oklahoma because we all know they aren't showing up for free.

50th.

These kids deserve much better than this.

But you know, "owning the libs," y'all.

On Tylenol, Charlatans, and Sheep

If you believe y'all's president, RFK, Jr. (a man that sounds like he eats a carton of lit cigarettes a day, staged a bear homicide in Central Park, spouts conspiracy theories, and has a dead brainworm in his head from eating suspicious meat), and Dr. Oz (a failed daytime talk show host who doesn't currently have a medical license that shills "miracle drugs" and was so unelectable that y'all's president had to give him a job) when they tell you, without proof, that autism is linked to acetaminophen usage during pregnancy?

I'mma go out on a limb and guess that you were takin' them horse pills at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Y'all's president literally told pregnant folx to, and I quote, "tough it out," ignore their doctors, and not use Tylenol (he had to start calling acetaminophen 'Tylenol' during the press conference because he couldn't pronounce acetaminophen) when they are experiencing fevers and pain during pregancy because, you know, lets endanger the mother and child with an uncontained fever.

Y'all's president also advocated for breaking up childhood vaccinations and pushing back the hepatitis B shot for newborns — a public health strategy that has brought the infection in children to the brink of elimination — to age 12 because, and I quote, "it’s too much liquid, too many different things are going into that baby.” Oh, and he also said hepatitis B was strictly an STI. I'll let you do with that what you will.

SIGH.

Autism is a natural part of human variation and genetics, but you know, why acknowledge facts when you can vilify and target millions of people?

This "medical advice" comes from a bunch of folx with zero credibility, no evidence, no studies, and no supporting research of any kind.

Nothing these folx said yesterday is valid.

This is just another rung on the ladder of this administration's concentrated attack on folx with autism.

This is just another rung on the ladder of this administration's mission to hurt as many people as possible.

But a whole bunch of y'all are still gonna champion this administration's destruction of all of us, ignore facts and science, and "do your part" by following directions, possibly doing medical harm to yourselves, and mistreating the folx in your life with autism by regurgitating this nonsense in their presence because that's what you think a "real (U.S.) American" would do, regardless of the facts presented to you.

Facepalm.

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 Messiahs, Deities, and Identities

Image description: At the top of the frame is a picture of Abraham Lincoln, JFK, MLK, a depiction of Jesus Christ, and Charlie Kirk standing above the sentence, "All because of words." Below that image is a smattering of confused faces trying to process the contents of the image.

It's intriguing to me how much so many people of pallor desperately want, or even need, a modern-day figurehead for their whiteness. So many people of pallor want that one person to look up to, to follow, to be an identity for their beliefs, and it's been mind-bogglingly dangerous to watch unfold.

There are so many people of pallor who really want their own Martin Luther King, Jr., which is ironic, seeing how they hated that man with every fiber of their being for being a voice of unity and non-violence and the people they earmark to be their version of MLK are, well, the complete opposite of that.

They desperately long for the person they can position as their next coming of Jesus, to the point where there's a whole MAGA Christian sect that view y'all's president as the messiah.

(Side note: if you're not familiar with the MAGA Christians and their "prophets," it's wilder than you may think it is. I would say, "Don't Google 'em," but you're probably already doing it, so good luck.)

And now, a white supremacist bigot, racist, xenophobe, transphobe, and misogynist is being deified by people of pallor across the United States for being a "civil rights activist" and "voice of the people."

But here's the thing, people of pallor: you wouldn't have to be constantly searching for an identity if your ancestors didn't make it their mission to remove your identities, homogenize you, and vilify the identities of others to make your homogenization feel superior in your heads.

You wouldn't always be on the hunt for a new messiah if you didn't feel your current belief set was sufficient enough to support your hate and white supremacy.

You wouldn't always fall for snake oil salesmen sellin' y'all soda water and tonics as the cure for all of your ills if so many of y'all weren't so desperate to be loved and lied to by these "prophets"and grifters who only care about your money and adulation.

And deep down inside, most people of pallor know this.

But a lot of y'all ain't ready for that kind of conversation. And the way so many of y'all act like lemmings?

You'll probably never be.

Enjoy walking off the cliff, following your idols - just stop trying to take the rest of us with you on the way down.

[Image description: At the top of the frame is a picture of Abraham Lincoln, JFK, MLK, a depiction of Jesus Christ, and Charlie Kirk standing above the sentence, "All because of words." Below that image is a smattering of confused faces trying to process the contents of the image.]