RACIST MOM RAKES IN OVER $600K

Hitting the jackpot in the US is all too easy if you are a racist white person under the spotlight for hate speech, or worse.

Such is the case for Shiloh Hendricks, who unleashed a racist tirade, calling a 5-year-old Somali child and a Somali man the N-word on 28 April in Rochester, Minnesota. But instead of consequences, Hendricks is cashing in. Since starting a fundraiser on GiveSendGo, a Christian crowdfunding platform reportedly used by white nationalists and far-right extremists, she has rapidly raised more than $600,000, well on its way to her $1 million target. Hendricks claims her life and that of her family have been threatened since Sharmake Omar’s video went viral, sparking outrage from social media users. Omar, the man speaking in the video, is unrelated to the child in question.

Donors have also expressed solidarity with Hendricks, with one identifying himself as an ‘Average White Man,’ praising her for ‘bravery’ and hoping she will now afford to live in a ‘nicer neighbourhood, one free of these savages.’ Let that sink in: Racism against a Black child has become a profitable enterprise.

Another example of a white person using GiveSendGo to raise funds is Kyle Rittenhouse. He shot and k*lled two Black men and injured one person protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in 2020 in Wisconsin.

'N***er' is an offensive term used to describe a Black person, derived from the Latin 'niger,' meaning 'black.' Though it's usage started during US slavery, commercial rap music popularised the N-word in the late 20th century. It should not surprise anyone then that a 2015 YouGov survey for the BBC radio programme 'Newsbeat' found 27 per cent of 18- to 29-year-olds in the UK think it's acceptable to use the N-word in some circumstances and 22 per cent said they had used it amongst friends.

While Hendricks’ actions wouldn’t affect the child’s or Omar’s ability to obtain their basic needs in the United States, it reminds us that such utterances are a product of racial capitalism, an economic system whereby the ruling class sows division to keep a group of people oppressed so it can reap profits. Indeed, our people in the US have endured slavery, marginalisation and suppression going back four centuries.

Moreover, politicians' promises to bring about justice have gone unfulfilled as they serve the system, too.

Video credit: Sharmake Omar

Sources

https://www.aol.com/minnesota-mom-rakes-over-500k-171027251.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/video/video-shows-woman-using-racist-slur-on-playground-238830661724

https://www.givesendgo.com/ShilohHendrix

https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2024/06/15/racial-discrimination-shapes-how-black-americans-view-their-progress-and-u-s-institutions-2/#:~:text=to%20achieve%20success.-,Most%20Black%20adults%20say%20they%20experience%20racial%20discrimination,of%20their%20race%20(23%25).

https://www.mncompass.org/topics/demographics/cultural-communities/somali

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJPEZQAsLKc/?igsh=MWg5dTdoZ2lrdHExbg%3D%3D

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/08/joe-biden-racial-justice-voting-rights

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/karmelo-anthony-kyle-rittenhouse-givesendgo-fundraiser-b2744348.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/11/09/the-n-word-an-entrenched-racial-slur-now-more-prevalent-than-ever

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-32252405

https://naacp.org/resources/naacp-official-position-use-word-nigger-and-n-word

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/nigger