This Week's Opening Thought: January 26, 2026

TW: mentions of murder, white supremacy, violence.

This week's opening thought, for people of pallor: With everything that has transpired in Minneapolis, Minnesota, it is clear to me that people of pallor are so deeply entrenched in systems of white supremacy and the privilege they receive from them that even their "activism" is swaddled in blankets of white supremacy.

Over the past few days, I've seen y'all saying things like, "This isn't what America stands for", and what's happening is "unprecedented" and that nothing like this has ever happened before. Some of y'all are out here saying wild things like you miss "regular" police brutality. Throngs of people of pallor are calling for Kristi Noem's impeachment and quoting and resharing things from every Black activist and scholar they can find to frame their "this is our moment" narrative and it's equal parts hilarious, infuriating, and banal because it's so obvious that y'all have no clue how to react when the systems that were built to elevate, protect, coddle, and gas you up are being utilized to oppress and kill you if you don't "comply" and get back to being docile.

Y'all are lost right now. Y'all don't know what to do with yourselves because you've grown accustomed to those you've oppressed saving and guiding you to a place where you can continue to feel safe in the cocoon of white supremacy while engaging in, at best, beginner-level activism against the system that has protected you most of your life. Y'all fully expected Black and Brown folx, Black women, Indigenous folx to save y'all and continue getting beaten and killed for your comfort and safety. But we're not stepping in to "lead" you right now because we're taking care of our own. And now y'all are left to figuring out how to mobilize and create plans of action on your own because y'all obviously have learned nothing from us over hundreds of years of us fighting for basic rights and survival and us writing books and teaching y'all how to fight. So now y'all are barely weeks and months into fighting the oppressors and I can see that most of y'all are already lost, already exhausted, and growing increasingly angry at us for leaving you to see how "fun" it is to dismantle YOUR systems of oppression with no collective assistance.

Here's some facts for you:

This is EXACTLY what (the United States of) America stands for.

This moment is only "unprecedented" for people of pallor. There's a few newer twists at play, but versions of this have been happening to Black, Brown, and Indigenous folx, and most communities of color, for centuries on this stolen land. The murder, the oppression, the gaslighting? It's been happening. It just wasn't happening to YOU.

And you only want to go back to "regular" police brutality because it allows you not to feel the inhumanity of the systems that support you when you "behave."

You want us to be fully in this moment with y'all and not focused on just protecting our own and working toward our own liberation and safety?

Then keep your "hot takes" to yourselves.

Save and channel your anger toward upending our mutual oppressors.

Get yourselves prepared for what melanated folx have been trying to get y'all to prepare for and get on board with for hundreds of years.

Show us something that compels us to believe that we should stand by your side against our common oppressors for the long and exhausting battles ahead.

Or put some seasoning on your face for the leopards and wait for them to come to a neighborhood near you.

The choice is yours.

Sad thing is, most of y'all have already made your choice.

Image description: a screenshot of a person of pallor saying, "Can we just go back to regular police brutality, please?" followed by a Black woman responding with "Ahh yes the kind only Black and Brown folx wsere subjected to, right? Girl, delete this."

[Image description: a screenshot of a person of pallor saying, "Can we just go back to regular police brutality, please?" followed by a Black woman responding with "Ahh yes the kind only Black and Brown folx wsere subjected to, right? Girl, delete this."]

This Week's Opening Thought: December 22, 2025

This week’s opening thought:

"In the United States of America, you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore.”

- J.D. Vance, vice president of the United States of America and blatant white supremacist.

People of pallor, I’ve gotta ask: Did I miss a memo that stated y’all had to apologize for not being sun-resistant?

Oh, wait - what we’re actually talking about is the centuries of harmful actions and systems you and your ancestors have benefited from.

Got it.

People of pallor and the outright refusal to atone or apologize for oppression, terroristic actions toward non-pallor cultures, colonization, genocide, and chattel slavery go back like spinal cords and car seats. Collectively, pallor has never been willing to atone or apologize for past and present harm. Hell, most of y’all are actin’ like your ancestors, grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, and even yourselves weren’t benefiting from - or aren't still benefiting from - participating in systems and championing and espousing beliefs that aren’t harmful or dangerous for Black and Brown communities and communities of color in general.

So like I said, did I miss a memo, newsletter, or something else about y’all being forced to apologize for being people of pallor?

Or is that the insecurities and fragility around what you represent and support talking?

This Week's Opening Thought: December 15, 2025

TW: Mentions of mass shootings, assault, murder, domestic terrorism.

This week's opening thought: how horrible does a person have to be for you to not back or support them?

How horrific does a person's words and actions need to be for you to not back or support them, even if you believe you'll receive some kind of benefit from backing and supporting them?

When does a person's words and actions become so vile, so repugnant, that you are unable to disregard, whitewash, or ignore their words and actions, even if ignoring their heinous behavior could lead to you getting some privilege or power you think you deserve?

What's your tipping point?

What is it that someone has to say or do that will make you decide it's something you can't ignore?

Is it when someone you've given your undying devotion to is willfully destroying employment opportunities in your town or city and making it harder to live? Is it when this person tells you that you saying that you're not able to afford to live, survive, and take care of yourself and your family with some comfort is propaganda, even though you know you're being gaslit?

Is it when the person you idolize goes out of their way to minimizie and disregard mass shootings, no matter how many people lose their lives?

Is it when the person you support relishes his ongoing, seemingly gleeful, pursuits of the mass kidnapping of hard-working citizens and their children?

Is it when your messiah openly uses language that empowers their most hateful and violent followers to unnecessarily terrorizing cities and immigrant communities?

Is it when your chosen leader constantly makes fun of people who have been attacked or murdered, especially those he believes are "deranged" for not being on board with his views, actions, and language?

Seriously - what's your tipping point?

And if you back the current president of the United States and you’ve witnessed everything he has said and done - not just in his life but over the past 11 months - and you haven't reached your tipping point yet?

Why does your tipping point have such a high bar?

This Week's Opening Thought: December 1, 2025

This week's opening thought: When it comes to racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, ableism, body-shaming, white supremacy, and oppresive language and behavior, way too many of y'all accept the bare minimum from the people in your lives.

Y'all be out here ready to celebrate people for getting someone's pronouns right 1 out of every 20 times they talk to them, saying things like, "I can really see that they're trying."

A whole bunch of y'all be out here inviting people to the cookout because someone taught them how to dougie and they've watched a couple of episodes of A Different World.

Too many of y'all be a little too proud of the toxic people in your life for only bodyshaming or mocking a friend or family member's body or disabilities every other time they see them.

Your acceptance of the bare minimum from the people in your life is aiding and abetting harm by finding every opportunity to not hold people accountable or remove them from your life if they show you time and again how unwilling they are to do better and be better. And guess what? That means you aren't meeting the bare minimum requirements of the allyship you love talkin' about.

Most of y'all ain't about that life. You're ficitional allies.

To paraphrase Kendrick Lamar, I'd cut my granny off, if she won′t see it how I see it.

You willing to do the same?

This Week's Opening Thought: November 17, 2025

This week’s opening thought, directed at people of pallor: Last Friday, I posted about how the current hubbub around that one particular Epstein e-mail was rooted in homophobia. By Sunday morning, I watched as hundreds of comments from an overwhelmingly large number of people of pallor called my queer self everything from a coward and a hetero mansplainer to homophobic for calling out casual homophobia and hoping we could all be just a little better than the 800 sexual innuendo memes floating across the internet right now. Most of them had profile bios touting their liberal views. Fun!

Meanwhile, a person of pallor I know posted a similar message to my own a day after my original post. The response they got? Nothing but kudos, atta boys, and agreements from other people of pallor.

Real talk?

I really need people of pallor, especially the “moderates” and the “allies,” to own why they hop online and attack Black and Brown folx, especially Black women and intersectional melanated folx, for having informed views and opinions that call you in or out for doing and saying harmful things then turn around and applaud people of pallor who damn near copy and paste what we already posted or said that irked you so much you couldn't contain your outrage towards us but could swallow hearing it from a plagiarizing skin-susceptible-to-the-sun virtue signaler.

I mean, we, the melanated masses, know why you do what you do. But I can't help but wonder if y'all ever have a moment in your day where you take a second to sit with your ingrained white supremacist values long enough to realize no matter how many rallies you attend, causes you swear you support, or books you read, you're still too thin-skinned to look yourselves in the mirror and process how angry Black and Brown folx, Black women, and melanated queer folx make you feel about how “good” as neighbors, co-workers, and community members y'all actually are