To all my friends and colleagues out there— stay strong. We will weather the storm. To those feeling a fiscal pinch and perservering, I see you. To those doing heavy lifting with emotional labor—thank you. The struggle is real, but we are resilient.

I worked at the improv during that impressionable 21-28 time frame. I am so grateful for that time. Night after night i got to watch masters hone their craft. Words, wit, and dynamic performance art... all at the same time. The relationships forged there— my friends, my own art, and with incredible artists... Wow. Please help if you can!

"I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Birmingham city jail

I think I'm the Andrew for my obtusely raciat side of the family.

I’m so grateful that i get this opportunity to share!

Because ive watched people make ad hominem attacks on my behalf in order to further their racist agenda, I’d like to share other logical fallacies that show up when arguing with ignorant or agenda’d populations.

The one occurring here, when drawing comparisons to George Flloyd, is an ad hominem attack— that’s when we attack the character of an individual instead of the subject matter at hand. When folks do that with George flloyd, that’s often a proxy for the black community. This is racist tell, friends. Of course, racism happens, and if you’re comitted to being anti racist, this won’t hurt your feelings. If you aren’t committed to being anti racist, then this might hurt your feelings.

When the comparison between this poor little boy and the comparison is to talking points associated with anti racist discussions, meaning someone else (“race” is a someone else, so that would be ad hominem on all black folk), it’s a classic red herring— meaning it’s meant to distract you from the true culprit.

So, this little boy is being used as either a proxy for all whites assaulted or killed by black folks (something i take seriously, based on my history) using a dead black man with no correlation, or a total red herring, because these situations don’t have anything in common except media propagation.

I would ask what and why regarding the logic— and then what and why regarding the comparison.

For those that are “why aren’t we talking about this dead little boy? We’re talking about this dead black man” I would encourage deeper reflection about why you think that comparison is apt.

For those that are like “this poor little boy was killed by a black man” I would ask what you want from this conversation and why.