On Messiahs, Deities, and Identities

Image description: At the top of the frame is a picture of Abraham Lincoln, JFK, MLK, a depiction of Jesus Christ, and Charlie Kirk standing above the sentence, "All because of words." Below that image is a smattering of confused faces trying to process the contents of the image.

It's intriguing to me how much so many people of pallor desperately want, or even need, a modern-day figurehead for their whiteness. So many people of pallor want that one person to look up to, to follow, to be an identity for their beliefs, and it's been mind-bogglingly dangerous to watch unfold.

There are so many people of pallor who really want their own Martin Luther King, Jr., which is ironic, seeing how they hated that man with every fiber of their being for being a voice of unity and non-violence and the people they earmark to be their version of MLK are, well, the complete opposite of that.

They desperately long for the person they can position as their next coming of Jesus, to the point where there's a whole MAGA Christian sect that view y'all's president as the messiah.

(Side note: if you're not familiar with the MAGA Christians and their "prophets," it's wilder than you may think it is. I would say, "Don't Google 'em," but you're probably already doing it, so good luck.)

And now, a white supremacist bigot, racist, xenophobe, transphobe, and misogynist is being deified by people of pallor across the United States for being a "civil rights activist" and "voice of the people."

But here's the thing, people of pallor: you wouldn't have to be constantly searching for an identity if your ancestors didn't make it their mission to remove your identities, homogenize you, and vilify the identities of others to make your homogenization feel superior in your heads.

You wouldn't always be on the hunt for a new messiah if you didn't feel your current belief set was sufficient enough to support your hate and white supremacy.

You wouldn't always fall for snake oil salesmen sellin' y'all soda water and tonics as the cure for all of your ills if so many of y'all weren't so desperate to be loved and lied to by these "prophets"and grifters who only care about your money and adulation.

And deep down inside, most people of pallor know this.

But a lot of y'all ain't ready for that kind of conversation. And the way so many of y'all act like lemmings?

You'll probably never be.

Enjoy walking off the cliff, following your idols - just stop trying to take the rest of us with you on the way down.

[Image description: At the top of the frame is a picture of Abraham Lincoln, JFK, MLK, a depiction of Jesus Christ, and Charlie Kirk standing above the sentence, "All because of words." Below that image is a smattering of confused faces trying to process the contents of the image.]

On Trey Reed and Strange Fruit

TW: Anti-black violence, harm, black body trauma, murder.

A 21-year-old student named Trey Reed from Grenada, Mississippi, was found hanging from a tree this morning on the campus of Delta State University at 7:00 a.m.

Authorities closed the campus after discovering Trey's body, but made sure to emphasize that no lockdown was put in place and that there is no danger to the campus.

The local authorities and the Delta State University administration do not believe there was any foul play. They're all expecting things to "get back to normal" in the next day or so.

And, to top it off, the local authorities said nothing about Trey's death to the public until this afternoon. THE AFTERNOON.

And that all leads me to a whole lot of "don't believes":

I don't believe for one minute that Trey hung himself from a tree and completed suicide. Black people do not hang themselves from trees.

I don't believe for one minute that Delta State University's campus is not a current and present danger to students, staff, and faculty, especially the Black and Brown folx attending classes or working there.

I don't believe Delta State will address the matter if it is found not to be a suicide. Nor will local law enforcement.

I don't believe that there will be any kind of resolution to this horrible situation that will not cosign the ongoing understanding that Black people live with every day: that in the United States, strange fruit still hangs from the poplar tree.

I don’t believe we'll ever have a clear answer to any of this.

I so hope in my soul that Trey and his family find justice in this, but I live in the United States, so I don't expect anything but disappointment and trauma.

I'm so sorry, Trey. Whatever happened, you did not deserve this kind of pain.

On 33 hours of Prayer, Xenophobia, Bigotry, and the Cool-Down Period

"You know, this bad stuff happens...and for 33 hours, I was praying that if this had to happen here, that it wouldn't be one of us. That somebody drove from another state, somebody came from another country. Sadly, that prayer was not answered that way. I hoped for it, just because I thought it would make it easier on us if we could just say, hey - we don't do that here."

- Utah Governor Spencer Cox, sharing his disappointment that the person who killed Charlie Kirk wasn't from a race or culture they could easily scapegoat, villainize, and politicize at the press conference announcing the capture of Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old cishet white male suspected of the murder.

Prayed for 33 hours, eh?

Cool story, bro. 😑

It's interesting how fervent people of pallor have been over the past few days about seeking "justice for Charlie." It's interesting how many cishet males of pallor have been online threatening violence toward "liberals" and trans folx, and how many bomb and mass shooting threats were called in to HBCUs and DNC offices.

It's also interesting watching that fever pitch of white supremacy and bigotry slowly decline and become more and more about "togetherness" and us "hearing each other" and agreeing to disagree around bigotry and hate as it became crystal clear that the murder suspect was not an "illegal" immigrant, melanated person, non-Christian, or trans person, but one of their own: a young cishet male of pallor from a conservative family, a family who has always supported y’all’s president.

Interesting, ain't it?

Sorry your prayers didn't get answered, Spencer. Maybe the line was busy?

On Blackness as a Scapegoat For White Supremacy

It took hateful, emboldened people of pallor less than 24 hours to blame Black people for the murder of one of their hate idols, even though all the evidence points to a shooter of pallor.

Less than 24 hours to begin threatening violence at HBCUs across the country, forcing them to lock down their campuses or outright cancel classes to ensure their Black students, who had NOTHING TO DO with yesterday’s violence, don’t become casualties of anti-Black hate and terrorism.

Less than 24 hours to see Black bodies as their perfect scapegoats for the violence they feel justified to inflict on their ”enemies.”

I swear racism and white supremacy have had the same playbook for 400+ years.

On 9/11, Islamophobia, and Being United in Hate

TW: Mentions of September 11, harm, islamophobia.

I remember the events of September 11, 2001, vividly.

I was at work, sitting in the break room, about to eat lunch when I looked up at the television and witnessed one of the most horrific events of my lifetime. Everyone in the break room stopped what they were doing. No one knew what to say, what to do. We all felt powerless, small, insignificant, and scared.

Scared of the reality we were now living in.

Scared of what this means for us as citizens.

Scared of the unknown.

So people were driven to come together, to face the unknown. And on paper, that kind of mutual support and solidarity sounds great. In reality, though?

It was far from great.

Some people view 9/11 as a dark moment in U.S. history that "united us all as [U.S.] Americans." And it did unite a lot of U.S. Americans. We came together. But it also united some folx in some other ways.

It united them in a campaign of hate against their fellow citizens.

What unfolded in the years that followed was a level of islamophobia and hate that still shakes me to my core because it's still happening every day. I have so many friends and colleagues who still fear for their lives and safety because the level of "national sentiment" and "U.S. pride" that flooded this country after 9/11 fed into the casual, everyday racism and xenophobia that the United States was built on in such a way that it has never truly petered out or died down. I have witnessed "good people" and "patriots" harass folx and resort to violence without thinking just because they believe they've pegged someone as a "terorist" or "not a 'real' American."

And I've witnessed this in 2025.

Truth is, the United States is a country built on hate and too many of its citizens are more than willing to participate in said hate. We could be better but it's much easier for many of us not to be.

If you decide to sit and reflect on September 11, 2001, I want you to also reflect on how complicit you were in getting caught up in the wave of "American pride" that swept this country. I want you to reflect on how much of this you still prescribe to. And I want you to realize one thing:

Pride in one's home or way of life does not, and never has had to, represent harming others.

I wish more U.S. Americans understood that, but their ancestors and forefathers didn't get it either, so...

Love and strength to all of those personally impacted by the tragedies of September 11. May today provide you peace and healing.