On The Spectrum and Fake Empathy

So...let me speak on this one time, mainly because I realized that I've talked about it everywhere else but here:

If you heard what RFK Jr. said about autism and you didn't find yourself infuriated, scared, and ready to stand up for people in your life and community, it says a lot about how you're deciding to be "present" in the moment right now.

It speaks volumes about how performative your "allyship" is in moments of grave danger. It is an indictment of how you view Black and Brown lives. It's shows how you view people with disabilities. And it wipes away you showing up at those Hands Off protests a few weekends ago.

Now, some of y'all are gonna read that and be like, "It can't simultaneously be all of that, Pharoah." But, you see, it can and is ALL OF THAT. Past precedent, established over hundreds of years, has shown us time and again that it is all of those things. Those of you who say it can't be are choosing to be highly uneducated in the ways of oppression and refuse to see how picking and choosing what you care about to feed your "good person" complex is a key component of white supremacist culture. And real talk?

Ain't nobody got time for your apathy and discomfort with things you feel don't impact your life poorly disguised as empathy. Lives are at stake.

History has shown us that when dangerous, uneducated people are given power and control over any aspect of the populace, they more often than not create an even more dangerous set of precedents than they inherited. RFK Jr. and the deceased brain worm chillin' in his head should've never been given dominion over the health and well-being of the country, but because 60% of men of pallor, 53% of women of pallor, and 50% of Latine and Hispanic men voted for y'all's president, we now have a man who staged a bear homicide out here saying inaccurate, derisive, and dangerous statements about autism that will endanger the lives of millions of people.

I refuse to reiterate anything that man and his parelaphostrongylus tenuis said, but we should all be able to see that his hateful words masquerading as "expert" and "empathic" language are going to cause so much unnecessary harm, sterotyping, and prejudice for millions of people. He clearly doesn't understand autism in any way, shape, or form, yet here we are with the safety of millions in the hands of a person who refuses to believe decades of legitimate research and thinks he knows something when he has shown us time and again he knows nothing.

This transcends race, gender identities, socioeconomic statuses, and any other protected or non-protected class you might want to throw into the pot. But you know what?

EVERY FORM OF OPPRESSION DOES.

But y'all don't hear me, though.

And the wild thing is that most of y'all have autistic folx in your lives.

Just as wild is the fact that a whole grip of y'all are undiagnosed autistic folx who voted for what's about to happen.

Well, may the odds be forever in your favor, with yo' fake ass.

"...And they'll wish they never met you at all!"

[Image description: Stills from Carl Thomas' "I Wish" music video. In the first image, Carl Thomas can be seen looking out of his car window while driving. He has a look of despair on his face at what he is seeing. The second image shows Carl leaning back in his seat. He looks sick to his stomach as he holds in a deflated breath. He has a defeated look on his face. Both pictures are captioned with "White people when they share something wild they've said or done to a person of culture, look to another person of culture for validation or a cosign and realize they're about to get checked."]

[Image description: Stills from Carl Thomas' "I Wish" music video. In the first image, Carl Thomas can be seen looking out of his car window while driving. He has a look of despair on his face at what he is seeing. The second image shows Carl leaning back in his seat. He looks sick to his stomach as he holds in a deflated breath. He has a defeated look on his face. Both pictures are captioned with "White people when they share something wild they've said or done to a person of culture, look to another person of culture for validation or a cosign and realize they're about to get checked."]

On Nat, Magical Girls, and the Intersection of Justice

Sometimes, my energy is magical girl energy.

Sometimes, my energy is Nat Turner energy.

Either way, understand that justice is always at the center of who I am.

Also understand that you do not wanna come around me with hate and bigotry and catch me on a day where the Nat Turner in me pulls out his Sailor Scout wand to dispatch you and your ugliness.

Believe that.

On Wolves, White Violence, and "Changing the World" After Reading One Anti-Racism Book

One of the ongoing conversations I have with white people is around them feeling like they've taken a couple of trainings, read a few books, and now understand 400+ years of racism and white supremacy to the point where they're ready to "change the world" and "be an ally."

Y’all don’t realize how dangerous y’all are.

I would rather you didn’t open up the door to learning if you weren’t going to come in, take a seat, and make it your forever home.

All y’all are doing is adding more weapons to your anti-Black, racist, white supremacy-upholding arsenal. You’re more dangerous to communities of color, Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities, when you know a little because y’all conflate it as if you know a lot and wield your good/bad binary like a Morningstar.

I have yet to see a white person who has attended a couple of trainings at work and read a few basic books do anything but harm melanated folx while thinking they’re helping us with their new “education.” And I have yet to see an “educated” white person respond to being called in or out about harming others demonstrate that they have the emotional maturity and ongoing understanding of white supremacy enough to take in the feedback, atone, and do better.

Wolves in ill-fitting sheep’s clothing.

If you’re going to open the door, come in, stay awhile, and decide if you’re gonna love it or list it.

For all our sakes.

[Image Description: An image of two wolves staring at each other under a big moon. Above them are the words, “White people: inside you there are two wolves.” Below them are the words, “They’re both racist. One of them just hides it better than the other.”]

Image Description: An image of two wolves staring at each other under a big moon. Above them are the words, “White people: inside you there are two wolves.” Below them are the words, “They’re both racist. One of them just hides it better than the other.”

This Week's Opening Thought: May 8, 2023

TW: discussions of violence, gun violence, anti-Blackness, distortion of mental illness.

This week's opening thought: I grew up in Detroit, Michigan, in the 80s and 90s. At that time, Detroit was considered the most dangerous city in the United States. Its homicide rate was astronomical, with much of it attributed to gun violence. Growing up, my siblings and I grew accustomed to ducking and seeking cover at the sound of gunshots. As with most things related to the intersections of poverty, classism, systemic oppression, white supremacy, and anti-Blackness, politicians and pundits viewed gun violence in Black communities as an issue of values and upbringing. My community, Black communities, were told that the lack of fathers in our homes, a deficiency in morals, and a lack of “American values” were the catalyst for the gun violence in our neighborhoods. We were blamed for the gun violence in our communities, which increased the danger my community faced.

Then Columbine happened.

White U.S. Americans were shocked when the Columbine High School massacre happened in the Spring of 1999. As the news cycle ran with the story, the white shock became excuses and rationalizations for why two young white men killed thirteen people. White media ran with the narrative that these young white men had “lost their way.” Suddenly mental health and other conditions mattered because these young men “were raised by good families.” They were “good young men” who shouldn’t be judged too harshly for their murderous actions.

Fast forward to 2023, and the United States of America has had 199 mass shootings in less than five months. White men perpetrated all but a handful. The same excuses are used for their heinous actions over twenty years after Columbine. Meanwhile, Black communities are still facing the same hurdles with policing on physical and moral levels as poverty and generational trauma ignite gun violence in oppressed communities.

The wildest part of these two completely different narratives and treatments around gun violence in Black and white communities?

No one ever wants to talk about the damn guns.

In all this, the proliferation of and access to guns are never labeled as the issue they are.

After the past few weeks, with a mass shooting occurring almost every 48 hours, I'm confident that guns matter more than human lives in the United States. I'm more confident than I've ever been. Why?

Because whiteness has proven that it doesn't care about white lives over the right to own a gun and use it as you please.

And if whiteness will make excuses for white people gunning down other white people and white children while going out of its way to look past the elephant in the room?

Then the rest of us are chopped liver.

Once again, if whiteness won’t deal with its sh— and the harm it causes- we all suffer.

But you know, morals and a good upbringing and whatnot.