This Week's Opening Thought: November 18, 2024

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This week's opening thought: Cowardly masked neo-nazis marched through Columbus, Ohio, this past Saturday, fully armed while spewing hateful rhetoric via megaphones and swinging swastika-adorned flags. This hate march came a week after another group of masked individuals were seen waving similar nazi flags outside a production of "The Diary of Anne Frank" in Howell, Michigan. In both cases, police were called by witnesses and citizens to intervene, but no charges were filed because, evidently, these incidents are not considered hate crimes.

To some of you - *cough* privileged people of pallor and those seeking approval from people of pallor *cough* - this may seem tame. You probably don't think of these kinds of things as hate crimes. But, to paraphrase Pepperidge Farms, most of the melanated folx in your community, workplace, and life, remember that this is how the hate train starts: little gestures to test the waters before the full-on wave of hate crimes erupts across the country.

Many of the melanated know what's on the horizon after an election that has emboldened hateful people of pallor to feel completely justified in their actions and immune to consequences. Their elected figurehead has made it clear time and again that he does not care about racism, hate crimes, and neo-nazi terrorism. Hell, their elected figurehead is planning to mobilize the military and declare a "state of emergency" on immigrants and naturalized citizens on his first day in office. And note that their elected figurehead ain't talkin' about immigrants of pallor.

It's clear where we are at and what's to come. We've been here before.

"It's just a flag."

"It's just words."

Right. Sure thing, buddy.

"It's just an election. We'll be OK. He won't do what he said he's going to do."

Yeah...no. Same energy as the other two statements.

Miss me with all of that, and KEEP missing me.

For many of us, we've been there, done that, and ain't trying to hear that this isn't the springboard for four-plus years of unrelenting hatred.

We're just getting ourselves ready to protect and defend ourselves, our communities, and our mental, physical, and emotional health from the likes of you and yours because it's either fight or perish.

And we don't perish easily.