Where’s the beef?

By  Aswad Walker

We’re all guilty

With dystopian-level atrocities happening in The Congo, The Sudan, Haiti and Palestine, many celebrities moved forward business-as-usual-style and participated in the Met Gala. Turns out, thousands of people were outdone by their seeming indifference to these global injustices. Influencer Haley Kalil’s Met Gala TikTok video showed her lip-syncing the phrase “Let them eat cake,” the famous French Queen Marie Antoinette line that symbolized her indifference to France’s impoverished souls. It was the perfect metaphor for the seeming indifference of big-name stars regarding these global horrors. The result: several Met Gala attendees left with far fewer social media followers than they came with. Selena Gomez lost one million on Instagram and 100,000 on X. Zendaya lost 153,000 on Instagram and 40,000 on X. Kim Kardashian (780,000 Instagram), Kylie Jenner (540,000 Instagram; 53,000 X), Billie Eilish (1.1 million Instagram), Rihanna (110,000 X) and even Beyonce (689,000 Instagram) felt the wrath. But while folk are “casting the first stones” at these celebs, all of society has been mesmerized by the Kendrick/Drake “beef,” prioritizing it above seemingly everything else. So, we’d all do well to remember the words of the Mighty Mos Def’s classic “What’s Beef”: “Beef is not what Jay said to Nas; Beef is when workin’ nias can’t find jobs… Beef is not what famous nias do on the mic; Beef is what George Bush would do in a fight… Beef is oil prices and geopolitics; Beef is Iraq, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip… Some beef is big and some beef is small; But what y’all call beef is no beef at all.”

Declaration of “End-Dependents”

While we’ve been distracted by the Kendrick/Drake “beef,” folk who have real-life beef with Black people and see us as lazy dependents stealing money and opportunities from “hard-working” (read “white”) Americans, are saying the quiet parts out loud. GOP members from Washington State literally wrote a resolution dissing “majority rule,” saying, “We are devolving into a democracy, because congressmen and senators are elected by the same pool… We do not want to be a democracy.” That’s the same message being broadcast by Republicans’ Project 2025. For them, democracy was the closest thing to God when they were the majority. But now that the country is on a non-stop path to being a majority-Black-Hispanic-Asian nation, all of a sudden, those lily-white patriots are organizing to end democracy in favor of minority rule – as in rule by white, conservative, evangelical, racist, anti-everybody who’s not a wealthy, hetero-fronting, play “Christian” white male. Amazingly, some Blackfolk are still talking about not voting in November. If the GOP gets their way and wins in November, they’ll not only move to end our ability to vote, they’ll move to end us.

In defense of Amanda Seales

I’m not quite sure why so many people have issues with Amanda Seales. I don’t know the sister personally. I own no stock in the Amanda Seales empire, if there even is such a thing. I just know she rubs some Blackfolk the wrong way… And I don’t get it. All I know is, she’s constantly advocating for truth, Black people and humanity. Not too long ago on Instagram, Seales gave a breakdown of Affirmative Action and the history of why it’s needed that was so on point that any racist who tries to argue against what she laid down better just stay down. And for the last seven months, she’s provided a social media play-by-play of what’s happening in Palestine, Haiti, the Congo and the Sudan, putting all cable and local news outlets to shame in comparison. If y’all want to keep on hating on her, you do you. But everything I’ve seen from her – including a clip from her Club Shay Shay interview where her story of racism experienced during childhood was dismissed – says she should be celebrated and supported.