In 2016, a Black man named Larry Mitchell issued a challenge to the racist trolls who had been leaving "Go back to Africa" comments on social media posts.
"Put your money where your hate is," he told them on the GoFundMe page he set up to raise money for a trip to the African countries he was interested in visiting.
Unfortunately there are still plenty of trolls telling anyone who's not white to go back to where they came from (even if they were born in the USA), and telling anyone who wants to change America for the better that if they don't like it, they should leave. Now, thanks to the pandemic, there's a new troll epithet that comes up whenever anyone expresses dismay at the prospect of ending mask mandates: "if you don't like it, just stay home."
Just stay home? Don't threaten me with a good time. I have a beautiful home. Home is where my sewing machine, craft supplies, doll collection, and windowsill garden are. I would much rather spend my time there instead of struggling to find an elevator that I can take alone since most of the people who work in my office building don't wear masks anymore now that the city's mandate has been lifted. And do you think I enjoy eating my lunch outside, even when it's snowing or raining? I don't! But I also don't want to get COVID! And right now, despite however the CDC wants to spin it, the transmission rates are looking like this in Chicago:
When I've shared my concerns online, they have often gone unnoticed. The sudden ending of the mask mandate for public transportation didn't come out of nowhere. I saw an article about it at the end of March, but when I shared it on Twitter, nobody paid attention except for a troll:
And now that an incompetent, unqualified, Trump-appointed Florida judge has ruined any prospect of safety on the public transportation I rely on to get to work in a city where the cheapest parking by my job is $15 and gas costs almost $5 a gallon, at a time when misguided environmentalists are plotting to deflate SUV tires, I wish that I could have a grant so that I could be an artist-in-residence at home until the pandemic is over. So if my posts make you uncomfortable and you wish I would just shut up and go away and stop talking about the pandemic and the importance of wearing masks and just stay home, pay me and I will stay home. Here's my PayPal. $250,000 should be plenty.
