This Week's Opening Thought: July 22, 2025

Trigger warning: anti-Black woman hate and harm, anti-Black violence, murder of Black bodies, transphobia, white supremacy.

This week's opening thought: Brett Hankinson, one of the Louisville police officers who murdered Breonna Taylor in her home on March 13, 2020, is due to be sentenced this afternoon. As we wait in unity with Breonna's family for a verdict that somewhat resembles some kind of justice, never forget that y'all's president's hateful and racist Department of Justice has recommended that Brett serve just one day in prison and three years of supervised release for his violent actions, a sentence that will likely never be served due to time served. Also, never forget that this recommendation was pushed forward by the chief of the Justice Department's civil rights unit.

Yep, you read that right.

The Justice Department's civil rights unit is pushing for a violent man of pallor to get a slap on the wrist for his contribution to the murder of a Black woman whose home was invaded and riddled with bullets.

And who was the person tasked with the responsibility of submitting this request to the Louisville courts?

Harmeet K. Dhillon, an Indian woman who has led a privileged life defending people of pallor's "civil liberties" through private practice and her legal nonprofit, the Center for American Liberty. What kind of "civil liberties" are Harmeet and her team fighting for?

Harmeet was the main leader of the legal fight against California’s stay-at-home order during COVID. Harmeet has also supported such wonderful people as a group of "non-transitioners," people who feel that they made a mistake during their transitions who now want to stop everyone from seeking gender-affirming care, a young male of pallor in Texas who claims he was racially discriminated against in school due to showing up every day in his MAGA hat while espousing MAGA talking points, and multitudes of "concerned" parents of pallor who believe their children are being indoctrinated with DEI and LGBTQIA+ "ideologies."

The truth is, Harmeet could care less about actual civil rights but, evidently, her "tireless" work defending and supporting people who want to harm other people because they think it's their right to do so - and fragile people of pallor in general - made her y'all's president's top choice to lead the Justice Department's civil rights division.

And why does Brett Hankinson deserve such a non-sentence? According to Harmeet, Brett's life has been ruined and he's already paid enough for his actions so why punish him more? Because, you know, Breonna Taylor's life is worth a day in prison and some supervision.

Breonna deserved better.

Breonna's family deserves better.

Black women deserve better.

But we live in the United States of America, so none of us should be shocked that a man like Brett's "suffering" matters more than the life of a young Black woman whose life was taken due to hateful action from violent police officers.

This Week's Opening Thought: July 14, 2025

Trigger warning: brief mentions of sexual abuse, pedophilia, and human trafficking.

This week's opening thought: It is wild to me that after everything we've all collectively had to endure with y'all's president and his administration, not to mention the things they've done that have targeted the most impoverished and vulnerable communities in our country, that the one thing y'all's president's fanbase is angry with him about isn't his "big, beautiful bill," tariffs, constant warmongering, and the upcoming widespread harm to their lives, medical care access, and financial situations but the DAMN JEFFREY EPSTEIN FILES.

Like, I'm not against outing pedophiles, abusers, and wealthy creatures who have engaged in assault and human trafficking. Far from it. Get 'em all, regardless of their political affiliations. But MAGA folx, y'all's president gaslighting y'all about the Epstein evidence and documentation we've all known has existed for some time is the one thing that was somehow the final straw? I mean, he's been gaslighting y'all MAGA folx for years now and doing harm to you and your families for 10 years, but this was somehow all that y'all could stand and y'couldn't stand no more? Y'all are burning your MAGA hats and posting TikTok diatribes with tears in your eyes over this situation when he's been dogwalkin' y'all for a decade and telling you to your face that you're better off with him as y'all's president when you weren't? And you've been defending y'all's president and his billionaire buddies for years because he told y'all to, even when it was obvious they were doing heinous things he was protecting them from having to atone for, but NOW you're enraged?

I ... don't even know how to begin to unpack that.

That's gotta be some damn good Kool-Aid for y'all to keep drinking it this long. What did he do, swap out the sugar for Sweet'n Low?

White supremacy is wild, y'all.

On An Election and A Country's True Identity

I'm not surprised. I'm saddened, but I’m not surprised.

I'm unsurprised that 59% of men of pallor and 52% of women of pallor voted the way they did. I'm sadly not surprised that after everything he said and will do to immigrants when he takes office, he still got 54% of the masculine-identifying and 37% of the feminine-identifying Latine and Hispanic vote.

I'm saddened, but I’m not surprised.

I am disheartened but unsurprised.

I didn’t need a reminder, but for those who did, this election was a firm reminder that the United States is precisely what it has always been: a country steeped in individualism and fear of moving forward, unwilling to be progressive and care for all its citizens, and legitimately uninterested in trying to be the country it likes to claim it is.

He won this election, and it wasn't even close in the popular or electoral vote. A party with a platform of hate, oppression, and regression will be in complete control of the Government come January 2025, and it wasn't even a fight.

And I know so many of y'all voted for this man and this party while playin’ in the faces of the people in your life who you know their policies and governance will do extreme harm to. Most of y'all are quick to bust out a Black Lives Matter sign or bring up trans and reproductive rights just to have a smoke screen to vote against everyone’s best interests.

I loathe that most of y'all won’t own your hatred and fear of losing what you think is exclusively yours - rights, privileges, and safety from tyranny.

I loathe that most of y'all won’t own who you are in front of those your choices impact.

I loathe that most of y’all will be shocked when the people you elected do the exact things you hired them to do and you find yourself and your families adversely impacted and in physical, mental, emotional, and economic distress.

But I’m not surprised.

You're Americans! That's what Americans do, right?

I'm saddened. I'm disheartened. I'm not surprised, though.

This is the American way, y'all.

Note: This poll data is from a subsection of the voter base from 10 states.

This Week's Opening Thought: June 3, 2024

This week's opening thought for senior leaders in organizations: Your homophobic, biphobic, transphobic workplace should probably not be celebrating Pride Month.

Ain't nobody got time for all of that performative nonsense. Real sh-- is going on all around us to the point where we're tired enough without having to put up with a month of performative shenanigans that are nothing more than another weapon to harm folx who work for you while you pat yourselves on the back.

We need more than a shout-out to Pride in a company email or team meeting. We need more than a performative PR stunt.

We need y'all to take the actionable steps to bounce the homophobes and transphobes from your organization's roster.

We need y'all to stand on business and call in and out those who do LGBTQIAA+ communities harm while representing you in these streets.

We need y'all to check yourselves and hold yourselves accountable for contributing to harm to queer and trans folx and looking the other way when your queer-identifying colleagues are hurt so you can stay in good standing with the oppressors you consider the in-crowd at work.

We need y'all to hold your human resources department accountable for allowing homophobia and transphobia to be shoulder-shrug moments and not actionable offenses.

Trinkets and hollow platitudes mean nothing when your workplace reflects the world outside of it in the worst possible ways.

There's a list of things that do not look good with a rainbow motif.

Your company logo is at the top of that list.

Stand on something or let the month pass you by.

On Being Called the "Whisperer"

Hey, people of pallor with power and privilege and those who seek to curry the favor of white supremacists and "societal norms!" Here's your Wednesday reminder that a person being melanated and sharing their experiences navigating white supremacy in your workplace does not mean that person wants to be your "racism whisperer." The same goes for queer-identifying folx not wanting to be your "LGBTQIAA+ whisperer" and people with disabilities not wanting to be your "disability whisperer."

We didn't sign up for that.

We want to do our jobs well enough to be proud of our work and keep our jobs while dodging your ever-increasing scrutiny of our work due to your unwillingness to unpack your sh-- and then go home. If we share an experience we've had with you in the workplace, it was likely shared to educate you to the point that you will hopefully quit doing us and people like us ongoing harm.

You will never pay us enough to be a "whisperer" about anything in your white supremacist workplace environments. No money can ever supplant that sick feeling we often get in our guts when we have to be around you, listen to you say hateful and ignorant things, and mull over when is the right time to educate you instead of telling you where to go and how to get there. No money will ever aid our nervous systems in not feeling like the moment we put ourselves out there to gently call you in or teach you that our livelihoods are in danger. No money will ever make us feel OK with being tokenized by you, pushed to share our stories repeatedly with you, or make the number of boundaries we must have while in your workplace to exist and not be harmed by you feel any less burdensome.

Leave us be and digest what we shared with you. Own your actions instead of commodifying human beings.