People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants you to know that if you say things like “Don’t beat a dead horse,” it’s the exact same thing as calling a black person the n-word.

In the whitest, dumbest, most clueless and socially irresponsible tweet ever, PETA likened what they call “speciesism” or “anti-animal” language to using racist epithets like “nigger” or homophobic language like “faggot.”

“Words matter, and as our understanding of social justice evolves, our language evolves along with it. Here’s how to remove speciesism from your daily conversations,” the organization wrote.

The tweet was accompanied by a colorful chart that gave examples of what they consider to be anti-animal language, along with suggestions for substitutions people can make to remove “speciesism” from their lives.

They followed up with a second tweet that said, “Just as it became unacceptable to use racist, homophobic, or ableist language, phrases that trivialize cruelty to animals will vanish as more people begin to appreciate animals for who they are and start ‘bringing home the bagels’ instead of the bacon.”

OK, PETA.

I get it. You want us to stop eating bacon (we won’t). You want us to stop eating burgers (we won’t). You want to protect animals and sometimes you go to extremes to make your point.

This ain’t it.

How dare you even imply that “speciesism” is comparable to the racist language and its ties to racism? Are you saying you think being a meat eater is the same as being a racist? Are you fucking kidding?

It is utterly and egregiously offensive to make the comparison you have made. Racist language is inextricably tied to racism, racial terrorism and racial violence. No matter how you try to twist it, it is not the same thing as using animals in a turn of phrase or enjoying a BLT.

And as far as the so-called “evolution” of the meaning of “social justice,” please stop this. You don’t get to try to co-opt a phrase that represents movements across the globe to liberate, uplift, and free oppressed people and liken it to your crusade to stop people from eating carnitas tacos every Tuesday. That too is egregiously offensive.

I don’t know what is going on with you, PETA. The way you keep amplifying your hyperbole in defense of protecting animals is bordering on hysterical propaganda at this point.

Do better.

Just like you came up with this nifty little chart of other phrases people can use so as not to offend your delicate sensitivities, find another way to categorize your movement that doesn’t erase already marginalized people doing their own work to remove oppression.

I have linked a plethora of stories below so that you can understand what true social justice is. I suggest someone from your organization read them and learn something.

In the meantime, stop being ridiculous.

I know this is going to come as a shock to some of you, but the police be lying.

We’ve told y’all this before. More than once, in fact. It appears that no matter how many times we provide examples of how corrupt, inept, and just plain evil law enforcement (and those masquerading as law enforcement while wearing masks, driving unmarked cars without license plates, and kidnapping innocent people off of our city streets absolutely unchecked) can be, some will die on the hill of “back the blue” or “protect the blue” or “blue lives matter” or whatever other dumb slogan y’all come up with to show your undying allegiance to people who would shoot you too if you got on their bad side.

When it comes to police departments that need to be called out for their repeated acts of violence followed by corrupt coverups of said violence, the Chicago Police Department is high on the list of law enforcement agencies that can’t seem to get enough of corruption, extrajudicial violence, and murder.

In the “disappointed but not surprised” section of our news coverage today, we report that a recent CBS News Chicago investigation revealed that the city’s police officers have been going around stopping Black drivers for minor traffic offenses, asking them if they are carrying a gun, and when the Black drivers answered ‘yes’ and provided proof that they could legally carry the guns, the cops arrested them anyway and charged them with felonies for possessing the guns that they are legally allowed to have.

You read that correctly. People who were legally licensed to carry a firearm were arrested and charged with carrying the firearms, and according to a source within the Chicago Police Department, the officers are doing this for personal gain.

In CBS News Chicago’s initial investigation, they reported on Louis McWilliams, a Tinley Park resident and business owner, who was pulled over for a “missing front license plate.”

Police body camera video shows that after the police stopped him, the first thing he did was tell the officers he had a gun in the car.

According to Illinois state law, in order to legally carry a gun in your car, you need a Firearm Owner Identification (FOID) card and a concealed carry license (CCL). CBS News Chicago reviewed McWilliams’ firearm license and confirmed it was valid.

The arrest report also acknowledged he was in possession of his card at the time of the stop. McWilliams can even be seen handing it to the officer in the video, and he said he was expecting that to be enough.

But it wasn’t.

When an officer pulls over a driver, it’s standard practice to check a database operated by the Illinois State Police, called LEADS. If the driver has a gun on them, or in the car, it’s also common for officers to check LEADS to verify the FOID and CCL are valid. In McWilliams’ case, the officer told him the CCL didn’t appear on the database.

Police cited that as a justification for his arrest, and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office approved two felony charges: aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon, and unlawful use of a weapon.

McWilliams told CBS News, “This has been very traumatic for me. I feel like my rights were violated.”

A spokesperson for CPD told CBS News that if an officer is unable to verify a FOID or CCL in LEADS, “the officer should not take any law enforcement actions as it relates to a potential FOID/CCL violation.”

Translated, that means McWilliams never should have been arrested, but he was. So why?

According to an unidentified “decorated police veteran who rose through the ranks” and “came forward to offer a rare glimpse into what motivates some officers,” the officers who engage in this practice are doing it for personal gain, and Black drivers are targeted because they make for somewhat easier marks.

“You know, if I’m going to be honest, I think race is a big factor,” the source told CBS News. “Police might think folks on the North Side are more affluent, and they have more means to come back at you if you arrest them for situations like this.”

In other words, they target Black people because they count on Black people not knowing their rights, and even if they do know their rights, they may not have the time, education, or resources to fight back against a case like this.

More from CBS News:

But the inside source, who spoke with CBS News Chicago under the condition of anonymity, said there’s personal and financial gain to be had for some officers.

“Getting weapons off the street is one of the number one things politicians want you to do, mayors want you to do, superintendents want you to do, citizens want you to do. So, unfortunately, some cops get really aggressive,” the source said. “If you have really, really high numbers in terms of firearms recovered, then yeah, you will get the attention of supervisors. If you get promotions, you’re going to get more money. That’s just how it goes.”

Rep. Curtis Tarver is an Illinois state lawmaker who represents the 25th District, which includes Hyde Park, Kenwood, and South Shore, all historically Black neighborhoods. He was pulled over by police six years ago on Chicago’s South Side for a broken taillight.

The officers who stopped Tarver asked him if he had a concealed carry license.

More from CBS News:

“I’m thinking several things. One, I had just dropped my daughter off. I want to see her again, so I need to comply with whatever they ask me,” he said.

Without hesitation, Tarver gave up his gun and showed his FOID and CCL, which allow him to carry a firearm in his car in Illinois.

On police body camera video, the officer acknowledged Tarver’s license was valid. But he also told Tarver it showed as revoked when police searched in the state’s system, LEADS.

Tarver tried to explain he had recently renewed his CCL and called state police to confirm he was in good standing. He offered to call again, but police wouldn’t allow it, the video shows. Instead, they handcuffed and arrested him.

Tarver is an example of the harm caused by these unnecessary arrests.

“I was absolutely shocked that I was taken to the station,” Tarver told CBS News. “That they were proposing felony charges for something that was, at best, a clerical error.”

While Tarver wasn’t charged with a felony, he was charged with a misdemeanor. His mugshot was taken, and that mugshot remains in the system. The mugshot was used by a political opponent in messaging meant to paint Tarver as a criminal “even after his case was dismissed,” CBS reports.

In each of the stories CBS News highlighted, all those arrested did the right thing. They had legally obtained licenses to carry firearms, and they provided that information to law enforcement. Yet, it meant nothing when law enforcement had its own agenda that boiled Black people down to numbers and stats.

For every person who screams, “Why didn’t they just comply?” every time a story of police misconduct comes out, how do you explain this?

How do you justify an entire police department using Black people to pad stats simply because, in their minds, Black people make easier targets?

None of this is just. None of this is OK.

We should be making a louder stink about this.

The police be lying, y’all. They lie all the time.

This is just another example in a long history of police corruption.

Obama Doesn’t Owe This Country Shit

Barack Obama is not your Magical Negro. I know y’all want him to be, but you have to give the man a break. He just got out of one of the most abusive eight-year relationships imaginable. I’m sure he needs some time to decompress.

There is this thing white people do where they invoke Obama’s name and say he is the one who needs to come forward and speak out against Donald Trump. He is the one who needs to condemn the things Trump is doing. He is the one who needs to save us from a demise of our own making. Why?

The latest example of this phenomenon comes from Hamilton Nolan, a writer at Splinter.

Nolan contends that Obama “sucks as a post-president” because rather than jump immediately into saving the same Americans who demanded to see his birth certificate, called his wife an ape, used “Muslim” as a pejorative against him and questioned every policy decision he made, he’s gone on to quietly enjoy his funemployment, living his best life and not worrying about what you haters think.

Nolan thinks that Obama should be doing more. He starts off:

In the landscape of career opportunity, there is no more promising position than “immediate past president of the United States.” From that position you can do absolutely anything you want with the exception of “be president of the United States.” Imagination is the only limit.

I would contend that Obama is doing exactly what he wants, and there is nothing wrong with that. He spent eight years serving the will of the American people. Now he gets to do what Barack wants.

Alas, Nolan takes great issue with that:

For a president with true moral and political convictions, post-presidency is a chance to build upon and reinforce the projects he worked on while in office. It is a chance to tackle problems free of the constraints of Congress and polls and elections. It is a chance to use the most high profile public platform in the world to direct resources and money and attention to the places it most needs to be. It is a chance to do more meaningful work than you could accomplish in the White House.

I take issue with the phrase “true moral and political convictions.” Because he’s not doing what you want when you want him to do it, he lacks morals and convictions? By whose standards? And what is with this idea that he should continue to do the work for a job he was essentially kicked out of? He’s no longer president. He doesn’t have to keep being presidential.

Think of it this way: Obama had an eight-year contract to be the CEO of a large corporation. Said corporation has a rule that once CEO contracts are up, there are no extensions and no renewals. He can never be CEO again, so he leaves at the end of his contract, and they replace him with someone else. The new CEO is a bumbling idiot prone to childish outbursts on social media who is burning the company down to the ground. The corporation is now expecting Obama to come in and save the day. For free.

His old job is literally expecting him to come back and fix the fuckups of his replacement for free, just because he used to work there. Sir, please.

Then there’s this:

It is, in a very real way, a chance to pay back America for its belief in you—to use the incredible gift you have been given to do the maximum amount of good that you can in the time you have left.

There is a level of entitlement here that is disturbing. There is this notion that Obama continues to owe the American people something above and beyond what he was elected to give them. There is a belief that simply because he was elected to an eight-year position, he somehow owes a lifetime of servitude gratitude labor.

It smacks of the kind of “We freed you gave you a job. You owe us” sense of entitlement that is born of white male privilege, and that is wrong.

Nolan invokes Jimmy Carter as an example of someone doing post-presidency the “right” way, but let’s be clear: Carter didn’t become the elder statesman he is today until many years after he had been out of office, so that is a false equivalence.

Then there is this passage, which seems to hold Obama to a standard that no other former president is being held to:

Obama was a far more popular president than Jimmy Carter. But in the year and a half he’s been out of office, he’s been a profound disappointment. First, and most important, his voice has been almost entirely absent. He has rarely spoken out directly about everything that Donald Trump is doing to undermine our democracy. (We don’t have to get into it all here, but it’s a lot!) One can understand his silence in the early days—it was at least worth trying to influence Trump quietly, behind the scenes, to guide him onto a more sustainable and presidential path. Clearly that didn’t happen. We can safely call that a failure. The behind the scenes approach didn’t work. It is more important that ever that Americans and the citizens of the rest of the world see a prominent example of someone who was able to hold the same office Trump does without going entirely off the narcissistic quasi-fascist rails. But Obama’s political work since he left office has been subdued and utterly pedestrian. (He did find time to derail Keith Ellison’s bid to head the DNC, though. Thanks.)

Why not call for Bill Clinton to fix it? Or Bush 43? Or Bush 41, for that matter? Why is the black man expected to be the one to step up and correct what’s wrong?

The most privileged and entitled part of the entire essay comes in its last line, when Nolan says, “Barack Obama: your life is not just about you. Get your fucking shit together man.”

I would beg to differ. His life is about him. We don’t own him. We aren’t entitled to him. You don’t own him. You aren’t entitled to him. The days of America benefiting off the free labor of black folks are long over.

Obama did his time. He put in his eight years of service in the White House. He endured the criticism. He withstood the abuse lobbed at his wife and daughters. He smiled and waved and hugged and kissed babies and was the picture of dignity the entire time he was in office. He did his time, and he moved on.

When he left, America voted in an ignorant, xenophobic, racist egomaniac who has spent his entire time in office doing everything in his power to tear down Obama’s legacy. And this country is sitting by and letting him do it.

Obama is supposed to care about this country? Man, fuck this country.

Obama doesn’t owe this country shit.

This won’t be long, because I am not going to belabor the point.

Much in the same way white people have weaponized the police against Black bodies, they have also adopted the language of those who protect and uplift whiteness and white supremacy—the police.

Historically, we’ve seen that the only thing a cop needs to say in order to get away with killing a Black person is “I feared for my life.”

Similarly, white people are using “I felt threatened” or that their life was in danger or that they thought someone had a gun, to get away with the extrajudicial killing of Black people.

When Amy Cooper encountered Christian Cooper in Central Park, she didn’t like it that a Black man asked her (no matter how politely) to leash her dog. Never mind that they were in an area of Central Park where dogs are required to be leashed; Amy decided this uppity-ass nigger wasn’t going to tell her what to do. Not tuh-day, honey.

So Amy went into white woman-mode, put on her best victim voice, and lied and told the police that Christian was threatening her and her dog. She made sure to mention that he was a) a man and b) Black, and she included the lie that he was threatening her because “Black man” and “threat” are a racist dog whistle to cops—especially cops who disregard Black lives and don’t mind taking them.

Her stupid-ass apology aside, Amy knew exactly what she was doing when she weaponized the cops against Christian, and she knew that in doing so, it could result in bodily harm coming to him. She wanted him put in his place and to see that she could make it happen.

It was a gross display of white supremacy, white woman victimhood and white privilege.

She knew whiteness would protect her, and she knew the police would land on the side of her whiteness.

Similarly, when George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin in 2012, he said he did so because he felt threatened. Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law had his back, making it possible for a grown-ass man to get away with killing the 17-year-old Black boy he chased and stalked against the advice of 911 dispatchers.

The thing is: when you feel threatened by someone or something, don’t you move away from it?

I am allergic to bees. When I see bees, I get the fuck out of the way. I don’t be bullshitting, either. We could be in the middle of a conversation, and if I see a bee—bitch, fuck whatever it was you were saying. I’m moving away from said bee, even if that means moving away from you right when you are (finally) getting to the juicy part of the story.

Similarly, when people are afraid of dogs, they don’t go running toward them. They run away from them.

All that said, make this make sense:

A Florida man (lol) was caught on video losing his shit in the middle of Costco after a nice elderly woman asked him to please wear a mask.

When Mr. Roid Rage became aggressive with the woman who asked, a kind bystander stepped in to defend her. Said bystander also started filming with their phone.

Wearing a red T-shirt with the words “Running the world since 1776” (the irony is making me constipated), Roid Rage charges toward the person filming. He first yells, “You’re harassing me,” and when he is told that he is not being harassed, he begins advancing menacingly toward the person filming and yells, “I feel threatened! Back off! Threaten me again! Back the fuck off and put your fucking phone down!”

From the way the video is shot, you can tell that as Roid Rage advances, the person behind the camera keeps trying to retreat from him.

How are you being threatened by someone who is running away from you?

That is a question for every cop, and I suppose now it will become one for everyday regular degular white people, too.

While I was working for The Root in 2018, I received a tip from a contact I had on the ground that Sacramento police had killed an unarmed young Black man.

The young man was Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old who was standing in the backyard of his grandparents’ house, holding his cellphone and trying to get someone inside to open the door and let him in.

Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet were responding to a call about vandalism to vehicles in a residential area. They ended up in the backyard, saw Stephon Clark, and, believing his cellphone was a gun, yelled for him to drop it and immediately began firing their weapons before he ever had a chance to respond to them or their commands.

Stephon Clark died from his wounds. The people of Sacramento protested. They shut down freeways and stood outside the office of the Sacramento District Attorney on a daily basis, demanding justice.

Mercadal and Robinet never faced charges for killing Stephon Clark.

The people resisting faced significant criticism for their actions, and one incident drew widespread attention.

Terrence Mercadal was having dinner with friends to celebrate his upcoming wedding. People associated with Black Lives Matter Sacramento found out about the event and showed up to question him about his role in the death of an unarmed Black man.

There were people who felt showing up at an event such as this was “inappropriate” and “not the right time,” but when is the best time for protest?

Thinking about that made me write this piece.

I think about this piece all the time now because people seem to think those resisting the ICE and their actions are more of a problem than the deputized Klan members running around anonymously violating people’s civil rights.

It’s ridiculous that, in 2025, people still think being polite will bring about social change.

It won’t, but since people still want to beat that drum, on this Throwback Thursday, I present to you “Protest Is Not Supposed to Make You Feel Comfortable.”

Over the weekend, activists allied with Black Lives Matter Sacramento showed up at a wedding event for Officer Terrence Mercadal, one of the two officers who shot and killed 22-year-old Stephon Clark as he stood in the backyard of his grandparents’ home, holding a cellphone.

The Sacramento Police Department has not released the identity of either officer involved in the shooting, citing concerns for the officers’ safety as their reasoning, but their identities were revealed in March by a representative from the office of Bay Area civil rights attorney John Burris.

As Mercadal—who is black—sat at a table eating a meal with friends, an activist burst in and asked him if he planned his wedding before or after he shot Stephon Clark.

They brought it to him where he lives and made him think about his actions. In the unedited version of the video—which can be seen in its entirety on the Black Lives Matter Sacramento Facebook page—Mercadal and his dinner companions are completely caught off guard and presumably stunned into silence. Mercandal then turns his face away from the camera, and as his guests stare on, he asks one of those in attendance to get rid of the activists.

As the gentleman gets up to ask the activists to leave—which they do—the other guests continue to stare and say nothing.

Shock and awe are exactly how protests are supposed to work, yet there are many questioning whether or not these activists “took it too far.”

Here is a newsflash for those of you who seem to be confused about this: protest is not supposed to make you feel comfortable. It is not supposed to be convenient. It is not supposed to occur on a schedule that is pre-approved by those being protested against.

Protest should make you feel uncomfortable so that you are forced to think about the thing being protested against.

How uncomfortable do you think Stephon Clark’s children, fiancee and family are—nearly five months after his death no answers as to whether or not Mercadal and his partner Jared Robinet will be charged?

When the Montgomery Bus Boycott began in December 1955, they didn’t wait until it was convenient for the city, the bus drivers and bus company. They staged a 13-month protest that led to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling segregation on public buses unconstitutional.

Similarly, when 1,300 sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn., decided to go on strike to protest their working conditions, they didn’t wait to make sure someone else was going to pick up the garbage in their stead; they did what they had to do to make a statement.

The same can be said for the activists who stand regularly outside the office of Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert—activists who have clearly made her so uncomfortable that she had a fence erected around her office to prevent them from getting close to the door of her building.

Activism and protest is not silent. No one has fostered or effected changed by quietly begging their oppressor to work with them.

Activism and protest are meant to get your attention. They are meant to get you to listen. They are meant to make people take notice.

They are not meant to make you feel comfortable.

The next time you find yourself asking whether or not activists are “taking it too far,” ask yourself if the thing they are protesting was a step too far.

Is the shooting of unarmed black people too much?

Is the disenfranchisement of marginalized communities too much?

Are the daily microaggressions faced by black people at the hands of white people too much?

Is living under a presidential administration that seems to enable white nationalism and white supremacy too much?

If your answers to any of those questions were “yes,” then the protests that follow will never be too much.

footnotes:

• Someone should let the White House know that just because you put “Fact” in front of a lie doesn’t make it true.

• When they say “criminal illegal aliens,” they are referring to people who they claim are in this country with undocumented status. In other words, these people have no paperwork authorizing them to be in the country. If they have paperwork, that means they have no Social Security number.

  • You can’t get Medicaid without a Social Security number, so how exactly are “criminal illegal aliens” receiving these benefits if they aren’t even in the system in the first place?

• These people don’t even know how to connect the dots on their own lies. They are out here just making it up as they go along.

Kamala Harris is not your magical negress.

She’s not your mammy. She’s not your auntie. She’s not your savior. She’s not your “clean-up woman.”

She ran for president against Donald Trump, and in the end, he was elected.

And now that he has spent his first week in office showing his entire ass, people like want to call on Kamala to speak out against it.

A lot of Black women across social media have been saying “Don’t ask me for shit” since the election results were announced, and maybe people weren’t taking that seriously, but it’s very real, baby.

So this idea that Kamala — who is no longer a government employee or elected official of any type —should be the face of calling Donald Trump out is absurd.

This isn’t the first time y’all have called on a Black person to fix a problem white people created; I’ve written about this before.

They wanted Obama to fix it too.

A little more than a year after Donald Trump took office, wrote an essay titled “Obama Sucks as a Post-President” for Splinter. In it, he ‘called out’ Obama for not speaking out directly “about everything Donald Trump is doing to undermine our democracy.”

I found it funny it was Obama who he thought wasn’t doing a good job of being a post-president in that regard.

I addressed that when I responded to him with “Obama Doesn’t Owe This Country Shit”:

Why not call for Bill Clinton to fix it? Or Bush 43? Or Bush 41, for that matter? Why is the black man expected to be the one to step up and correct what’s wrong?

The most privileged and entitled part of the entire essay comes in its last line, when Nolan says, “Barack Obama: your life is not just about you. Get your fucking shit together man.”

Nolan was not the only person at that time calling for Obama to fix it, and although my response was directed to him specifically, it could apply to everyone who was sending out that message:

Obama did his time. He put in his eight years of service in the White House. He endured the criticism. He withstood the abuse lobbed at his wife and daughters. He smiled and waved and hugged and kissed babies and was the picture of dignity the entire time he was in office. He did his time, and he moved on.

When he left, America voted in an ignorant, xenophobic, racist egomaniac who has spent his entire time in office doing everything in his power to tear down Obama’s legacy. And this country is sitting by and letting him do it.

Here we are in a second Trump presidency, and here we are again with people asking the Black person to fix it.

In “Harris was Right: We Need to Hear From Her,” Rubin writes:

Now, less than a week into the Trump orgy of unconstitutional power grabs, preposterous declarations (renaming the Gulf of Mexico might be the stupidest of the bunch) and the release of the Jan. 6 felons (some of whom were convicted of violent crimes), I sure would like to hear the voice of the other woman nominated to run for president. Many of us would welcome the clear, compelling voice of former Vice President Kamala Harris.

She argues that Harris “was the last administration’s most compelling advocate on a range of legal and public-safety issues, from the reversal of Roe v. Wade to the dangers of untrammeled executive power to anti-immigrant incitement” and that she “showed Democrats how to be tough on the border without being cruel, reckless, and contemptuous of the Constitution.”

As true as all of that may be, why is the onus on Kamala to come forward and do something about it? Why are you not calling out all those people who are still elected officials? Why not anyone other than the one person who tried to stop a second Trump term before it even got started?

“Though she certainly deserves a break, whenever she is prepared, given our political vacuum, no one is better positioned to summon democracy defenders to stand up to a lawless president than Kamala Harris,” Rubin writes.

The ‘but’ was loud and silent at the same damn time.

Get to work, Black girl. Fix these white people problems just like you been doing since the days your people were enslaved.

Listen, I am not part of the KHive. I am not Kamala’s biggest fan. I have my critiques of her, not the least of which is the way she waffled on the topic of the Gaza genocide.

I do, however, recognize when a Black woman is being asked to do the labor that should be done by other people, and I can’t stand idly by and watch that. I won’t stand idly by and watch that. I won’t stand by and watch it because this is a macro version of what happens to Black women every single day of our Black-ass lives.

I have friends in corporate America who have shared experiences that are not at all dissimilar to the thing I am describing right now. They are called in to clean up a mess the white person before them made.

Enough is enough.

It’s not up to Kamala Harris — or any other Black woman, man, or child — to undo centuries of systemic racism and white supremacy.

That’s white people’s job, and the sooner y’all realize that the sooner you can get to work on that.

During the four months Kamala Harris campaigned as a presidential candidate, we all saw the racism and misogyny thrown at her. We watched them pretend they couldn’t say her name properly. We watched them pretend she didn’t have the resume to back up what she was trying to do — a more impressive resume, I should say, than the person who got the job instead.

In 2020, Donald Trump was essentially fired from his job. He tried to keep it, but the hiring committee said no, and they went with another candidate – Joe Biden.

When Biden’s four-year contract expired, Donald Trump applied for the job again. Biden initially sought to keep his job, but in the end, he realized he shouldn’t even be running to answer the front door, let alone another term in office, so he stepped out of consideration, and Kamala Harris decided to try for the role instead.

Harris and Trump interviewed for the same position, and Trump was given the job.

It would appear that now, the hiring committee is asking the candidate who didn’t get the job to come and tell everyone what the person who did get the job is doing wrong. Loudly.

They want her to be the face of his meeting with HR as he either gets put on a performance improvement plan or gets fired. They want her to deliver the bad news.

Asking her to do this is asking her to place a target on her back and become the object of his ire. They want her to be the proverbial scapegoat so they can sit back and watch her take the beating for saying the things they are too afraid to say on their own.

If you can’t see how problematic this is, then you are being willfully obtuse.

You cannot lay the burden of undoing 400 years of American policy and practice at the foot of a Black woman.

It’s time for y’all to get loud, vocal, and sassy for yourselves. Stop expecting a Black woman to perform in that role for you.

This isn’t a quirky sitcom; this is real life, and it is a reality that we as Black people did not create; it is a reality that can only be deconstructed by those who hold the tools that built it and keep it working.

In case I’m not being clear enough, that’s you, white people.

Kamala Harris doesn’t owe you shit.

Repeat that to yourselves over and over again.

Then get to fucking work.

things you should read

With legacy media contorting themselves into all kinds of uncomfortable shapes simply to avoid calling a thing a thing, I wrote the thing that we all know to be true: Elon Musk gave a Nazi salute.

A discussion needs to be had about how legacy media is failing us, and I don’t think it’s unrelated to how our country’s political system is failing us. They are working in concert.

Once we have that conversation, we have to decide what we are going to do about it — then we need to do it.

For DAME (independent journalism that you can support for $5 a month), Max Burns wrote “Trump’s Egregious Executive Orders Won’t Lower The Price of Eggs.”

He hit all of the high notes.

There were two Trumps on display in the Oval Office on Monday. One was Trump the president. The other was Trump the television producer, dutifully instructing photographers and newscasters from the world’s media outlets on which angles would play best with their audiences. The moment was Trump at his most gruesomely honest, inflicting immense suffering on whole swaths of the people he dislikes while leading the media around by the nose. It was one of the few times Trump has ever looked genuinely happy.

And

Executive orders are especially sticky legal entities. They exist in a gray area that makes them especially appealing to presidents who want to evade Congress. Most orders can’t even be reviewed by the federal courts, so they offer a seductive tool for operating without oversight or appeal. That makes executive orders feel almost immutable once signed — which is exactly what presidents are counting on.

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