Atlanta, GA | April 3, 2025
Nicole Russell,
Spare me and other Black women your entitled whining and tears. As the saying goes, “When you are accustomed to privilege, equality (for others) feels like oppression.”
So, you’re “tired” of being mocked and hated because you are a conservative woman? As an African American woman, I, too, am tired – tired of being oppressed, objectified and rendered invisible. I was born in 1957, into an America that did not even pretend to value my humanity—and in many ways, still does not. That same year, staunch segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond stood alone in the well of the U.S. Senate, filibustering for 24 hours and 18 minutes to block the Civil Rights Act of 1957—legislation meant to ensure Black Americans the basic right to vote. I cannot count the number of times my parents went to vote and would be met with resistance, not knowing whether or not their votes were counted, the polling places moved without notice, or another cross burned on the gravel road where we lived during Jim Crow in rural Mississippi.
On Tuesday, April 1st, African American Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) made history and broke Thurmond’s 68-year record of hate and exclusion by speaking for 25 hours straight—not to deny justice, but to call this nation to its better angels. His words were a plea against the cruelty and ineptitude of President Donald Trump’s administration—a moment of moral clarity in contrast to a legacy of chaos, corruption, obstruction, and moral failure.
Nicole, you represent the very policies I’ve spent my life resisting—policies that harm the vulnerable and protect the powerful. But that doesn’t mean I hate you. Hate would give you too much space in my spirit. Aside from the fact that we’re both women and mothers, we likely share nothing else. Our values, our visions, and the roads we walk could not be further apart.
Growing up, I did not have the luxury of sharing “highs and lows” around the dinner table. I grew up in an unjust, unequal America, struggling just to survive. My mother cleaned the homes of racist, hateful, disrespectful white folks in the Mississippi Delta and came home bone-tired, barely paid for her long days of hard work and dared not to speak up for fear of losing her life. My father labored with his bare hands until they were calloused and cracked —working for neo-confederates on America’s stolen land. We did not sit around discussing the Bill of Rights—we were too busy fighting for our human rights that we were supposedly guaranteed after the Civil War. A war that, truth be told, has never ended—not for angry white people, and certainly not for Black people.
It was not a war about heritage, it was about hate and maintaining slavery. As “conservatives” attempt to erase and rewrite African American History, I have some readings I strongly recommend. Suggested reading: Cornerstone Speech by Alexander Hamilton Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy, who is very clear about the purpose of the war.
I live in Georgia—a state burdened with the disgrace of hosting the world’s largest monument to white supremacy. Towering over Stone Mountain Park, located at 1000 Robert E. Lee Boulevard, Stone Mountain, Georgia, the mountain’s granite face bears the likenesses of Confederate leaders who fought to uphold slavery and white domination. Marketed as a family-friendly attraction, this monument is, in truth, a state-funded altar to treason—a monument to domestic terrorists who waged war against the United States to preserve a racial hierarchy. It stands atop land violently stolen from the Muscogee Creek Nation, layered with the blood of colonization, murder, and forced displacement. And Georgia doesn’t just tolerate it—it subsidizes it, pouring tens of millions of taxpayer dollars into maintaining this shrine to hate. I live in a state where shame is scarce and humanity even scarcer—a reality shared by far too many Americans.
For generations, this mountain has been used to intimidate Black people, glorify traitors, and whitewash the truth. It looms not just over Georgia’s landscape, but over its lack of a conscience—casting a long, dark shadow of hatred, fear, and domination. So no, it’s no mystery why you and your cadre of Trump supporters feel a fierce urgency to stand with Trump in his efforts to erase America’s true history. Because if this country ever fully reckons with its past, monuments like Stone Mountain would fall—and so would the lies they were built to uphold.
Tomorrow, April 4th, I will turn 68. And still, after all these years, no birthday stands out more than my 11th. It was April 4, 1968—the day Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. That day didn’t just violently steal a man’s life and our decided leader from us—it tried to bury a movement. I knew—even then—that Dr. King’s murder was a message: that the hopes and dignity of my people were meant to die with him. It was to invoke fear. The same fear that marched under white hoods and sheets. The same fear that lit crosses, burned and bombed Black churches, turned fire hoses and dogs on children. The same fear that put ropes around Black necks and called all of it justice, with no accountability.
And now, you and your “conservatives” scream Make America Great Again (MAGA)!—as if we’re too blind to see the past you’re pining for. Every time I hear that chant; I don’t just shake my head in disgust—I want America to vomit. Vomit up the centuries of systemic and structural racism this country has tried to hide under flags and slogans. Vomit up the kakistocracy—rule by the cruelest and most incompetent. Vomit up the misogyny, the white supremacy, the seething hatred for anyone who doesn’t look, pray, or love like you do.
If you were a pure patriot, you would want America to heal its wounds by understanding our long-suffering pain in this country. I seriously doubt that you do, but by chance there lies a slight semblance of humanity and consideration for others not like you, start by reading Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Frederick Douglass’ ” What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” But don’t just read them. Sit with it. Let the truth shame you. Let the words stretch you. Let them reveal to you that true patriotism is not about protecting your comfort and convenience – it is about fighting for someone else’s humanity.
I am not a “woke” liberal, not by any stretch of the imagination. To sleep on people like you, especially so-called “conservative” white women, would be at my peril. You prove time and again that you cannot be trusted to consistently do the right thing. To me the word “conservative” that you all so freely throw around and call yourselves is simply an interchangeable euphemism for racist. I would be willing to proclaim I am more conservative in its purest form of the word than all of you combined.
And here you are—you and your chorus of Trump-devoted women—the modern echo of centuries-old delusion, dragging the hard-won rights of women back toward the stone age, still peddling the same worn-out persecution narrative, now dressed in lipstick, pearls, and Sunday-morning sanctimony masquerading as faith. And let’s not forget in 2016 and 2024, more than 50 percent of white “conservative” women sent a resounding message to their daughters and little girls everywhere—you can only become president of the United States if you play one on TV or in the movies.
In the 2018 episode of television series, Elementary, titled “Once You’ve Ruled Out God,” Sherlock Holmes, played by Jonny Lee Miller, and Dr. Joan Watson, portrayed by Lucy Liu, reflect on the absurdity of a white supremacist rising to power. Watson wonders aloud how someone with most of his life a rap sheet ends up in charge of anything. Holmes responds:
“Well, you only have to be the brightest bulb of a dim lot. Racist ideology mostly attracts failures and reprobates. It gives them a sense of elevation they cannot otherwise justify.”
That line? It defines the Trump Era in a nutshell. A government fueled by grievance, staffed by opportunists, and propped up by those who see cruelty as strength and wear ignorance as a badge of honor. This is not about greatness—it’s about entitlement. It is not about faith—it is about fear. And no amount of makeup, scripture quotes, or MAGA slogans can mask the moral rot at its core. It feels as though every day America is living in a never-ending episode of Law & Order: SVU (Special Victims Unit) – with 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and 1 East Capitol Street in Washington, D.C. are the ongoing crime scenes, and the American people as the victims.
Donald Trump’s presidency isn’t an anomaly—it’s the culmination of a brutal legacy. It’s George Wallace’s segregationist stump speeches rewritten with an orange spray tan and social media accounts. It’s Bull Connor’s fire hoses and attack dogs reincarnated as border walls and riot gear. It’s the racist playbook of the Jim Crow South, dusted off and broadcast in HD. Trump didn’t invent your America—he just gave your ilk amplified permission to stop pretending. He is the spiritual successor to a long line of white supremacist demagogues: George Wallace, who stood in the schoolhouse door to block Black children from entering. Commissioner of Public Safety Bull Connor, who unleashed violence on peaceful protesters in Birmingham. Strom Thurmond, who filibustered the Civil Rights Act for over 24 hours and 18 minutes to denounce the Civil Rights Act in an effort to preserve segregation, but had no problem impregnating a 16-year old Black girl who worked as a domestic at his home. Lester Maddox, who chased Black customers out of his restaurant with an axe handle and was later rewarded with the Georgia governor’s mansion. Jesse Helms, who spent decades trying to silence Black voters and fought against honoring Dr. King with a holiday.
These men didn’t disappear. They morphed. They traded white robes for red hats. They swapped burning crosses for voter suppression laws. They no longer shout, “segregation now, segregation forever”—now they speak about “election integrity,” “law and order,” and “taking our country back” and, presenting themselves as fake electors in 2020 to overturn our presidential election, without going to prison. In fact, fake elector, Burt Jones, became Lieutenant Governor of Georgia. Trump is not the start of something new—he’s the manifestation of something very old. And African Americans have seen this movie before, it’s been in syndication since 1619.
I have both seen, heard, and met white women like you all my life. For me, you all represent: America’s Carolyn Bryants—who lied on Emmett Till and got him murdered to receive attention from psychopathic husbands, white women spitting on little Black and Brown children as they integrated white public schools, the ones who packed picnic lunches for the family to go watch Black people lynched by domestic terrorists in the town square like it was regular Sunday entertainment, the ones who lied about being raped so their husbands could go out and slaughter poor Black men to defend an honor most of you never possessed. You are the women who could live with and bring life into the world by racist policemen who kill unarmed Black men, women and children, the Eva Brauns who could lie next to a murderous Adolph Hitler while he committed genocide on the Jews. Suggested reading: Letters of a Nation: A Collection of Extraordinary American Letters, Edited by Andrew Carroll.
In the words of Aibileen Clark (played by Viola Davis) in the movie, The Help, to Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard), the racist white woman she worked for, “All you do is scare and lie to try and get what you want. You are a godless woman. Ain’t you tired, Miss Hilly, ain’t you tired?” These lines capture not just Aibileen’s weariness, but the soul-deep exhaustion of Black women in the Jim Crow South and the New Jim Crow today—women who bore and still bears the weight of white cruelty with unbroken spirits, enduring daily indignities in a world built to deny our humanity.
And now? You and yours won’t stop—trying to steal my vote here in Fulton County, Georgia. Trying to erase my voice. You’re coming after our duly elected district attorney, Fani Willis, because she had the courage to hold your beloved criminal and felon-in-chief, Donald Trump, accountable. And now with Georgia Senate Bill 244, domestic terrorists at the Georgia Capitol have the gall to try to make my county pay Trump’s legal bills? He is as guilty as Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Benjamin Atkins, John Wayne Gacy and others. He checks many pages in the DSM – Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. And you all are his accomplices. That is not just shameless. This is pure evil dressed up in your god and politics. When I disagree with your politics, I don’t want to kill you. I protest. When your band of MAGA converts and convicts disagree with people who espouse different “progressive” beliefs, they want us dead. Suggested reading: The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump by Brandy Lee, M.D., M.Div.
On the one hand, “Christian conservatives” love to preach that there is only one God and we are all God’s children. But your actions speak otherwise. Your “love” is selective. Your compassion has a color code. And your idea of justice always seems to come with loopholes—made up just for you to benefit. Perhaps you can revisit the Beatitudes, especially the one that says, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
You say you’re mocked and hated for being a conservative? Let me be clear: Black people—especially Black women—are exhausted from surviving the damage your brand of conservatism has inflicted for generations. You’re not despised because you call yourself “conservative.” You’re despised because of your soulless actions—because you champion policies that dehumanize, exclude, and silence in the name of tradition and making America great, again. Let’s ask the millions of Africans who were kidnapped, brutalized and brought to this country in chains to be your slaves, the Native Americans you massacred and broke every treaty with as you stole their land, the Japanese who were put in internment camps, as well as the Jews and many other non-whites. If I were you I would try to erase this history, too.
This year, 2025, marks 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Yet somehow, you and your MAGA loyalists still see no shame in the fact that in America we’re still beginning sentences with “the first woman,” “the first African American,” “the first Native American” to be appointed to pivotal positions. You embrace this all while boasting and participating in sing-alongs that America is the greatest country in the world.
That is why you’re mocked. That is why you are sometimes despised. Not for your label—But for your legacy.
I suggest that when white women “conservatives” are in doubt, ask WWJSAD—What Would Jesus Say and Do? The real Christ. And make an effort of being genuine and humane, if possible. And while you’re at it, go back and reread the First Psalm—especially the part about not walking in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful. You say you are a Christian, then prove it. It is more than sitting at your kitchen table telling your children about Christ. Would Jesus lock up children in cages and separate them from their parents? That is akin to the slavery my people endured in America. Would He mock the disabled, brag about sexually assaulting women, or call white supremacists “very fine people?” Would He incite an insurrection, steal from the U.S. Treasury, or prop up billionaires while the poor starve? Would He sexually assault women and pay off a porn star? Will you be able to say to your children you supported such an ungodly administration?
In the King James 2000 Bible, Jesus doesn’t mince words when it comes to the mistreatment of children. And notice He did not say this is just for little white children. Matthew 18:6 says: “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him (her) that a millstone were hanged about his (her) neck, and that he (she) were drowned in the depth of the sea.” Let me put it plain: Make way, whales—there’s a wave of so-called conservative Christians who have earned their spot at the bottom of the sea.
My personal truth: in nearly 68 years of living, I can count the number of white women I’ve considered true friends on one hand—and I still have fingers left over. Because too many times, when it mattered most, you all chose your whiteness over sisterhood. Power over people. Silence over solidarity, and the transactional ability to go shopping rather than protest injustice.
Women like you are exhausting and drain the soul. And though every bone in my body aches to hate you, I cannot—because I really do believe in a loving God, who loves without conditions. My faith forbids it and will not allow me to sink to that space. So instead of hatred, I offer you something colder: pity. The gap between your professed faith and your embraced actions is wider than any ocean. You quote Scripture—I live it. I could never accept harm done to any man, woman, or child, regardless of their race or birthplace. But you’re fine with an administration that uproots families and rips children from their parents’ arms. That tells me everything I need to know about you. My guiding principle has always been simple: if it’s not good enough for my child, it’s not good enough for any child. Would I want someone to take my child? Never. Yet your ancestors stole this land and kidnapped my people—and now you have the audacity to tell others – always people of color, to “go back to their country.” Why don’t you all go back to the places your ancestors hailed from? I am more than certain you are not Native Americans.
You’re not tired, Nicole. You’re just complicit and entitled and that is not the same thing. Again, you are not mocked and hated because you claim to be a conservative, it is because you are void of a moral compass and you are for sale for 15 minutes of fame for center stage and less than 30 pieces of silver to keep the Civil War and domestic terrorism alive.
I am a daughter of the Mississippi Delta—born of red clay, raised in resistance. I’ve walked through fire that tried to consume me, I’ve endured suffocating poverty, deep-rooted racism, dehumanizing sexism, and grief so heavy it threatened to silence my soul. I’ve buried loved ones far too soon. Still, I am not broken. I rise with purpose, with power, with a love for my people that refuses to quit.
Justice and equality for all isn’t just a dream—it’s my endgame. My focus is unwavering, cut from the same cloth as fellow Mississippians and freedom fighters Ida B. Wells and Fannie Lou Hamer. And like Fannie, I, too, am “sick and tired of being sick and tired” of your pretense as a patriot and deserving of outrage. Recommended reading and listening: Fannie Lou Hamer Testimony before the Credentials Committee at the Democratic National Convention, August 1964. This happened in my lifetime, not a century ago.
So no, Nicole, I will not be silent while you paint yourself as a victim of your own choices as the Republican party keeps reenacting the Civil War at the expense of my people. I won’t let you weaponize your whiteness and your womanhood to both erase and rewrite our truth.
Bring it, game on!
A Black woman who has had enough – Justice-bred. Still standing. Still fighting. Still wide awake, not woke.
Editor’s Note:
The author of this piece is identified “A Black woman who has had enough” to protect their privacy. Due to the sensitive nature of the subject and potential personal or professional repercussions, we have agreed to withhold their full name. The views expressed are their own and reflect firsthand experience and insight.
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