On "Breaking the Ice", Stereotypes, and Montell Jordan

Hey, people of pallor! Happy Tuesday! Just wanted to give you a quick reminder that you can find commonality with Black, Brown, Indigenous, Global Majority, and non-white folx without having to resort to stereotypes and things you think are our identities. Just because you can't fathom the notion that melanated folx are more than the elements you'd need to pick up at your local Spirit Halloween store to build a racist Halloween costume doesn't mean we have to want to engage with yo' ass around this kind of "icebreaker" nonsense.

Just because you figure out that I like R & B doesn't mean I want to talk with you about how Montell Jordan's "This is How We Do It" changed your life.

Just because I'm a Black person who cooks doesn't mean I want to "bond" with you over your "recently discovered love" for collard greens (which, might I add, most of y'all be saying as "collared greens", a pronunciation that makes me choke on my LaCroix every time I hear it) and black eyed peas.

Like, read the room and check yourself. Geez.

I'll be in a Batman shirt and y'all will look at me and be like, "I just watched this riveting documentary about apartheid!" WHAT?! How in the Hell are we not having a comic book conversation?! That's an instant “in” for a chat!

UGH. Do better.

On Superman, "Wokeness," and Pro-Immigration

Me when the fragile people of pallor are freaking out about the upcoming Superman film being “woke” and having a pro-immigrant stance.

Image description: A montage of images of SpongeBob SquarePants laughing or trying to suppress laughter.

Oh, bless y’alls lil’ papier-mâché hearts.

Superman is a literal extraterrestrial (see: alien) whose parents sought out asylum for their child in a land where they believed he would be safe and cared for, as his homeworld was dying an explosive death due to, ironically, climate change.

Superman was created by two Jewish immigrants as an allegory for the experience of immigrants in the United States and the strength of the human spirit.

Superman has been punchin’ Nazis and sh—ty people since Action Comics #1. Dude literally worked over some slumlords in one of his earliest adventures and spent his first year battling crappy human beings. He’s always been about using his powers and privilege to protect those less fortunate and most vulnerable.

How so many of y’all don’t understand that Superman has always been what y’all describe as woke and pro-immigrant is beyond me.

It’s gotta be a case of widespread kryptonite poisoning.

[Image description: A montage of images of SpongeBob SquarePants laughing or trying to suppress laughter.]

On Juneteenth and Four-Day Weekends for People of Pallor

I will never feel OK about Juneteenth being a federal holiday.

It will never feel right to me that people of pallor pulled a performative flex to give themselves a day off to "celebrate" what is essentially the impacts of their ancestors' enslavement, exploitation, and subjugation of Black bodies on stolen land.

Trust me when I say that 90% of the people of pallor who have today off from work aren't learning, reflecting, or giving their time or money to support Black communities in their cities. I can guarantee most of 'em are using this as a four-day weekend.

Making Juneteenth a federal holiday was never about acknowledging the generational trauma inflicted on Black people, discussing and learning about the ongoing systemic struggles that Black bodies have endured on this stolen land for centuries, or observing the documented end of Black bodies forced into chattel slavery. Making Juneteenth a federal holiday was about people of pallor with power and positionality making themselves feel like "good people" through grandiose performative actions to curry favor from Black folx without having to put in the work necessary to atone for centuries of harm. But ultimately? Making Juneteenth a federal holiday was really about people of pallor with power and positionality making themselves feel like "good people" through grandiose performative actions to curry favor from other "good" people of pallor who want to feel good about themselves.

And knowing that will never allow Juneteenth's status as a federal holiday to feel right in my brain or body.

I wish they had just left it alone.

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.

What In The Hell Is Wrong With This Country?: April 7, 2025, Edition

In today's edition of “What in the Hell is Wrong With This Country,” also knows as "People of Pallor Be Doin' The Most.:

A damn bouncy castle. 😑

Megan Gillman, a woman of pallor who considers herself a life coach and baby shaman (side note: that is some of the whitest sh-- I've heard in a minute) went viral in all the wrong ways yesterday on Threads after making the decision to write a review for her very first protest.

Yep, you read that right. Megan wrote a Yelp-style review FOR A PROTEST.

You see, Megan showed up to one of the Hands Off rallies this past weekend with her child in tow and decided to review the experience by stating her pale-ass child was "bored." Megan's suggestion?

"I don't think it would be too hard to arrange a bouncy castle or something..."

And this is exactly why y'all are on your own this go-round, easily-sunburned colonizer brethren. Y'all remain a part of the problem, even when you call yourselves not being a part of the problem.

Megan had an opportunity to be a role model for her child, to show them what it means to care about others. She could've engaged with her child, explaining what was going on and the significance of the moment. Hell, she coulda left that lil' mofo at home. But nope.

Megan wants to make sure any protests in the future consider having a bouncy house on hand, in case people or children "get bored."

Wouldn't want to bore you with activism and civil rights now, would we?

Megan has been gettin' dragged and read to filth, and rightfully so. But this kind of nonsense is why your "activism" means nothing, people of pallor. Y'all ain't about that life. Y'all are about capturing pictures and videos to show your friends. You're about reposting melanated voices then doing nothing those voices are telling y'all to do. And the moment you're even a little tired of fighting? You fall into your privilege and walk away, feeling like you've done your part when you've done nothing.

This is why you're on your own now. This is why we don't trust y'all.

A damn bounce house.

The caucasity.

[Image Description: A screenshot of a Threads post from a woman named Megan Gillman, who has a pale complexion. In the post, Megan reviews her experience at her first protest, one of the hundreds of Hands Off protests that occurred nationwide on April 5, 2025. In her post, she mentions that her young son was bored at the protest and expressed that she didn’t think it would be “too hard to arrange a bouncy castle or something” for the children present.]

Image Description: A screenshot of a Threads post from a woman named Megan Gillman, who has a pale complexion. In the post, Megan reviews her experience at her first protest, one of the hundreds of Hands Off protests that occurred nationwide on April 5, 2025. In her post, she mentions that her young son was bored at the protest and expressed that she didn’t think it would be “too hard to arrange a bouncy castle or something” for the children present.