On Chet, Sheryl, and Not Addressing Elephants Trampling Us So Y'all Can Maintain White Comfort

TW: brief mentions of sexual harassment, assault, misgendering

You want to know one of my many white supremacist workplace culture pet peeves?

When everyone on the team or in a small company gets "reprimanded" or "coached" for something that one person has said or done. And we all know who did or said the thing but we all have to pay for it more than the people doing and saying the harmful and hateful things.

I loathe being in a meeting and a supervisor wants to stress the importance of respecting people's pronouns when we all know Sheryl is the one person on the team who gleefully misgenders people and disrespects pronouns.

I abhor everyone on the team having to take the online sexual harassment training for the umpteenth time this year because, for some reason, serial sexual harasser Chet is never fully held accountable for being scum that most of us have filed complaints about until it's way too late and he physically assaults someone.

The white supremacist workplace culture's right to comfort and fear of open conflict nonsense ensures that harmful people maintain status and employment instead of being shown the door.

Making all of us redo trainings or sit through group-wide "coaching sessions" that should be meant for Chet and Sheryl alone to make it clear to them that their words or actions have consequences ensures that Sheryl and Chet will continue doing harm and keeping the toxicity of your workplace nice and elevated.

But you know, let's prioritize that comfort, civility, and collegiality until the inevitable lawsuits come, right?

This Week's Opening Thought: October 13, 2025

This week’s opening thought - a personally hand-drawn bit of energy for a country still celebrating a national holiday based on white supremacy, colonialism, racism, and revisionist history.

Today is Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Period. Don’t be comin’ ’round here tryin’ to shout the praises of the mediocre male of pallor who “discovered America” because, and I cannot stress this enough, you can’t discover something that was already inhabited and thriving before your colonizin’ nonsense touched its soil!

Geezus.

It’s ridiculous that we’re still discussing how we should all accept the whitewashing and gaslighting of colonialism, oppression, and murder, especially around topics we all have the facts on and have had said facts at our disposal for countless decades.

Do better.


[Image description: A middle finger surrounded by a simple wreath of roses. A banner saying “Fuck Columbus” can be seen below the hand extending the middle finger.]

Image description: A middle finger surrounded by a simple wreath of roses. A banner saying “Fuck Columbus” can be seen below the hand extending the middle finger.

This Week's Opening Thought: September 29, 2025

This week's opening thought: For those not in the know, I live in "war ravaged" Portland, Oregon. You know, that place y'all's president said was on fire, overrun with violence, and 5 minutes away from devolving into Mad Max Fury Road levels of dystopia.

I was at the farmer's market Saturday morning in "war ravaged" Portland and y'all's president was right! There's just SO much danger here, y'all! Like, how am I supposed to fight these great prices on winter squash without y'all's president's help to keep me safe from getting produce right from the farmers themselves?!

Geezus christ.

If you believe that Portland is a fiery hellscape wrought with danger and violence, I've got some lakefront property in the Nevada desert to sell you for $1 a yard.

Portland has seen sizable decreases in homicides and shootings this year, down by 52% and 33% respectively from last year's numbers. Robberies and aggravated assaults? Also down. These numbers reflect one of the steepest declines among major U.S. cities surveyed regarding crime data.

So, am I scared? Do I need y'all's president to come and save me?

Hell no.

I'm not scared of folx struggling with homelessness, mental health, and addictions. Those folx need help, support, and resources, because all of those issues often stem from poverty, a lack of privilege, generational and societal trauma, and a capitalist white supremacist culture.

I'm not scared of crime in a metropolitan city. I grew up in Detroit, Michigan in the 80s and 90s. It's gonna take a lot more than the crime that Portland does struggle with to put fear in my heart regarding walking around and living in this city. And that crime? Also often stems from poverty, a lack of privilege, generational and societal trauma, and a capitalist white supremacist culture.

So no, I'm not scared living in a city where I can walk freely around downtown Portland and damn near every neighborhood I go and encounter dozens of people with clipboards seeking signatures for causes they champion before finding myself facing a potentially dangerous encounter with someone who needs our society to care about and help them.

Y'all's president could be helping Portland and countless cities across this country with funding for addiction services and addressing our ever-increasing local and national homeless crisis, but nope. He'd rather send in the National Guard to basically beat up folx with addictions, homeless folx, folx in crisis, and people peacefully protesting the inhumanity of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

His goal is to make non-dangerous places supremely dangerous for everyone living and working here to feed his narrative that "liberal cities" and "antifa" are a danger to the "[U.S.] American way of life" and harm and kill folx who protest and oppose him.

Portlanders: let's not give him what he wants.

Chill.

Have a beer.

And leave 'em to record themselves picking up trash, just like they're doing in D.C.

Taxpayer dollars at work.

On Ryan Walters, White Supremacy and its Beef With Education

So remember Oklahoma Superintendent of Schools Ryan Walters? You might recall that yesterday Ryan 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." Oklahoma is 50th in the nation in education, but sure! Why not?

Well, this morning, during a news interview with a local news affiliate, Ryan abruptly announced he's resigning as the Superintendent of Schools to become the CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance. Who are they?

The Teacher Freedom Alliance is a conservative nonprofit that says it assists educators “in their mission to develop free, moral, and upright American citizens.” What it actually does is target teachers unions who are aiming for inclusivity and equity in education while amplifying the voices of the hateful, racist bigots that teach and handle school administration in some areas of the country.

During his resignation announcement, Ryan happily proclaimed “We’re going to destroy the teachers unions. We have seen the teachers unions use money and power to corrupt our schools, to undermine our schools.”

Ryan then abruptly left the news studio, running from reporters as they tried to get some kind of timetable on when he made this decision, when he would be leaving his role as Superintendent, or if he felt destroying teachers unions across the country was a good idea. As you can see in the video, he had no additional comments at this time.

So, let's summarize: Ryan Walters sold out the Oklahoma educational system to Turning Point USA, giving a middle finger to thousands of children the state of Oklahoma are failing because learning doesn't matter when you can spend education funds to "combat woke", then bounced with no notice, lining his pockets by jumping to a hateful nonprofit where he can do the kind of damage he's done to students in Oklahoma on a national level.

Ryan is, for lack of a better term, a douche.

This situation saddens me. Children are hurt because of a ridiculous white supremacist bigot and a white supremacist nationalist agenda. Oklahomans voted for this man. He sold them on a vision of their state education system that decenters legitimate educational standards and amplifies their belief that their whiteness is in danger and needs to be protected at all costs. And the scariest thing?

Oklahoma ain't the only place in the United States with a Ryan.

(Somebody's) Lord help us all.

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.