On Working While Black

Maintaining employment while Black, and trying to make sure you're not being mentally, emotionally, and physically harmed by white supremacy and bigotry while doing so, is...exhausting. And I'm going to stick with the word exhausting because other words I would use are considered expletives.

I'm Black and tired. Always.

Even when I'm at my most rested, there's always an underlying tiredness that comes from living and existing in a world that does not care about you and processing the generational and societal trauma in my Black body to be the healthiest version of myself I can be. And employment being a horrible reflection of the world we live in does nothing to abate that underlying tiredness.

Neither does knowing that what I'm feeling in my brain and body is amplified by five for Black queer folx and times-ten for Black women.

Capitalism while Black is [insert expletive here].

On Saving Those Not Worthy of Your Save

It's the year of someone's Lord 2025 and a whole bunch of y'all are still out here trying to "get through to" hateful, willfully ignorant bigots, hoping to convert them.

Oh, Bro, Broseph, Bro-ham.

Oh, Sister, Sis, Ma'am.

Oh, my friend, my compadre, my peoples.

Y'all gotta stop with the tryin' to save these people.

To paraphrase light-skinned Jermaine, they don't wanna be saved.

People are defending Diddy and Tory Lanez out here, and trying to shame and ridicule those they've harmed. You can't save anybody that deeply enmeshed in that level of misogynoir.

There's a whole bunch of [redacted] people mad that Black folx are happy about the Nottaway Plantation roasting 'til the meat fell off the bone who have the audacity to call it a historical landmark and say tasteless nonsense like, "How would you feel if Auschwitz burned down like this?" You think you're gonna save someone who spews something so simultaneously anti-Black and anti-semetic that it'll make your head spin off of your neck?

There are millions of people who have spent the last 12 years voting for this current administration, knowing damn well what they were backing. Many of them are gleeful about the harm y'all's president and his Dollar General Batman villains are doing to communities across this country, including their own communities. You can't save somebody whose hatred for others is so powerful that they're willing to fall on their own sword multiple times to justify their hatred.

The past 12+ years in this country have made it clear - explicitly clear - that it's time to leave some people behind. If you haven't pivoted already, consider this your notice to turn around and walk away from hateful people and their unflinching toxicity. Focus your energies on the folx in your life and community that need support, because those are the folx who deserve your help and care.

Everybody ain't worth savin', regardless of their relation or degrees of separation from you and yours.

Hate doesn't deserve so much of your love.

On Hate, Bigotry, The Hold They Have on People, and Not Having Hobbies or Interests

I often think about the amount of energy that goes into being an absolutely hateful person. Like, think about how much time hateful people spend ruminating about communities and groups they hate. To hate someone based on their skin color, non-Christian religious beliefs, gender identity, gender expression, ethnocultural heritage...and to devote copious amounts of time - to devote chunks of your lifetime - to harassing and attacking said communities and groups in every space you can find...

You ain't got NOTHING else to do?

No interests, hobbies, or passions outside of your hatred for others?

Like, there are folx out there right now literally spending thousands of hours targeting folx who are minding their business, living their lives, doing nothing to them and for what? What do they have to show for it, outside of successfully fomenting their unwarranted phobias and isms? It's not like they're getting any joy out of it. It's not filling a void in their lives, or giving them a leg up on anyone, or making their lives better. Studies have shown that it's not even providing a momentary satisfaction for them when they do it.

What's the point, other than to live your life as an antagonist that thinks you're better than others?

They don't even realize that their insecurities are on display every time they do what they do, and that we all have to live with the fallout of their unwillingness to unpack their sh-- with a therapist.

Think about how preposterous and useless it is to dedicate so much of your time and energy to attacking trans folx, Black and Brown folx, communities of color, queer communities, non-Christian folx, who ain't even thinkin' about you.

You could be building boats in bottles or doin' needle point but instead you out here trolling people for hours on social media or going out of your way to be in a space with people you claim to not want to be around.

What a waste of time and life.

On "Restoring the Master Race," Gold Medals, and Child Rearin'

Me, watching y'all's president and his cronies try to bribe people of pallor into having more children with $5,000 checks and gold medals.

Image description: A brown teddy bear, wearing a green turtleneck and blue overalls, is giving the viewer a side-eye.

And people of pallor, before you say, "They're trying to get all of us to reproduce", y'all know damn well this "incentive" ain't geared toward Black, Brown, Indigenous, or melanated folx of any kind. They want y'all to "restore the master race" while still doing as much as they can to take away your - all of our - reproductive rights.

So gon' 'head - go have some government "sponsored"/forced-by-the-fragile-aryan-patriarchy unmelanated babies for y'all's president. Gon' now! Go ahead! What's stoppin' you? Oh, you don't want children, don't want more children, or can't afford to have children/more children?

But he's offering you a $5,000 check and a gold medal!

I mean, your children aren't going to have access to healthcare, daycare, fully-funded support programs that support their early development, vaccines, or human rights in general but you'll get a one-time check...that'll be used up in 30 days because having children isn’t a low-cost proposition. But you'll still have your gold medal, so that's something, right? You can probably pawn that, because y'all's president ain't gonna be helping you take care of all these kids he's trying to incentivize you to create!

So gon' 'head, get out there, and do your part to make [The United States of] America great again, people of pallor!

May all your condoms be expired and the odds in your favor!

[Image description: A brown teddy bear, wearing a green turtleneck and blue overalls, is giving the viewer a side-eye.]

Day 11

Y'all's president blamed DEI for the unfortunate and fatal collision of an American Airlines passenger jet and a military helicopter.

You read that right - he blamed DEI.

Dozens died, their families grieving, after the deadliest U.S. air disaster in two decades, yet somehow, Black and Brown folx, queer folx, and people with disabilities are the reason this happened. Not the FAA being in disarray due to his executive orders; no, that can't be it. According to y'all's president, it has to be the Blacks, Latinos, and people with disabilities whom the FAA and airlines have hired "overqualified, intelligent" white cis male candidates.

Sounds about white.

He has no evidence of anything regarding diversity, equity, or inclusion having ANYTHING to do with this horrific tragedy, but, you know, white supremacy and bigotry have never had to have an excuse for levying out hate, even in the most inappropriate moments like, I don't know, people mourning the loss of their loved one.

60% of cis males of pallor and 53% of cis women of pallor voted for this. You voted for this lack of empathy and humanity. You voted for misinformation, deflection, and no accountability. You voted for a man who fired the heads of the TSA and the Coast Guard on his second day in office because he felt they were "too woke." You voted for a man who is so harmful that the previous head of the FAA resigned rather than serve under him (he was likely going to get fired like the heads of the TSA and Coast Guard). You voted for a man who gutted the Aviation Security Advisory Committee. What's that? Oh, just a bipartisan committee created to examine safety issues at airlines and airports. Before he disbanded the committee, the group included representatives of all the key groups in the aviation industry — including the airlines and major unions as well as representatives from groups that represented the families of people lost to airline bombings. The vast majority of the group’s recommendations were adopted over the years. But they don't really exist anymore.

Because, you know, DEI.

It's day 11, y'all.