Reggie Blogged

Image: Sean Krajacic via Getty Images On Friday, November 19th, Kyle Rittenhouse, who stood accused of shooting three people, killing two at a BLM protest last year in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was found not guilty on every charge against him. I would say I'm shocked but then I'd be lying. I was a kid when I first saw The Empire Strikes Back. Even in the days of the 1980s, the big revelation that Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker's father was no secret to me. I had a friend who blabbed much of the details of the trilogy. But the revelation was so wide spread that even at the time, it was so embedded in pop culture that it was more likely that far more people knew of the reveal than those that didn't. Still, hearing Darth Vader say "Luke, I am your father," was more of an eye raising moment for me than finding out that Rittenhouse would walk free after he murdered two people. Somehow, fiction manged, even in a spoiled form, to get more of a reaction out of me than reali

Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images The COVID-19 pandemic has often been compared to the 1918 flu pandemic. Despite the fact that more than one hundred years have passed between the two pandemics, they share frightening similarities. For both of these pandemics, misinformation has run as rampant as the virus of each respective era and stupidity of citizens runs just as much. On August 9th, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota kicked off. This 10 day annual event has been going on since 1938 and if you thought a deadly viral disease was gonna stop a swarm of people from attending en mass, buddy, you have not met human beings. In 2020, the rally went on as planned with thousands gathering, maskless in close proximity. To the surprise of no one, this ended up being a super spreader event because viruses love crowds.  I'd like to think we've come a long way in over one hundred years, but the sad reality of it is, people are gonna be people and this was the exact same case in 1918.

Getty Images. Over 633,000. That is the number of people in the United States of America that have died to COVID-19.  The quick vaccine roll out has provided Americans with hope and security. But the pandemic that has gone on for more than a year now is far from over. The new Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus has become the dominate strain and is far more infectious than the previous ones.  "What's in the vaccine?" "I guess the vaccine isn't working if people are still getting sick." As for what's in it, maaaaaan, I really don't care. If you're feeling sick and your doctor prescribes you with some meds, do you play twenty questions? I'm betting that's a no. But if you're still vaccine hesitant or don't want to get the jab at all, the least you can do is wear a mask. Masks not only protect others, they protect you as well. You probably don't think twice about half the stuff you put in your body. Vaccines are not a cure. Yes,

Image from Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images. The January 6th Committee hearings began this week on Tuesday. We heard testimonies from two Capitol Hill police officers, Officer Harry Dunn and Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, and two of D.C.'s police: Officers Daniel Hodge and Michael Fanone. These were but four of the many officers that put their lives on the line when white domestic terrorists stormed the United States Capitol building in a failed coup attempt incited by loser, former President orange face, Donald Chump Trump. Sgt. Gonell and Officers Dunn and Fanone have been making the rounds over the past several months, speaking on CNN multiple times.  In Officer Fanone's latest conversation with CNN's, the officer gave his remarks on the very vulgar, profane laced voicemail that was sent to him while he was testifying on Tuesday.  Because officer Fanone is a white person that is telling the truth about what happened on Jan 6, his fellow white people view him as a traitor. Sure he

Image via Getty Images. White folks love Martin Luther King Jr. Or rather, they love the white washed version of him. His iconic  I Have a Dream speech has a line that is a big favorite among white conservatives, a line that I'm sure you are all too familiar with, time and time again. I'm am of course referring to people being judged not by the color of their skin, but by the contents of their character. That line is often used by white conservatives to deny the systemic racism that has contaminated America from day one. It makes white people breathe a sigh of relief, keeps them from any type of self examination and lets them go back to their lovely white privileged world. That line is also often used out of context, which is exactly what House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) did in another GOP bash against Critical Race Theory. McCarthy took to Twitter to reiterate part of an interview he did. On the social media platform he wrote "Critical Race Theory goes agains

Image from Getty Images. Republicans have found a new target to make their supporters fear: Critical Race Theory or CRT for short.  Despite the nonsense you may have heard, it is  not being taught in schools grades K-12, but the mere thought  of it being taught to the youth of America has white folks up in arms. Gonna go out on a limb and say that the reason they don't feel so good is because a certain word is in CRT. Can you guess what word I'm talking abo--RACE. The word is race.  People fear what they don't understand. And you can bet the farm white folks and those that don't want CRT to be taught in schools don't understand a lick of it. To a lot of republicans and republican supporters, CRT is something new and as we all know, the GOP is totally against anything and everything new. In reality, CRT has been making the rounds for years now. What's also old is the republican's battle strategy. Fear mongering has long been a tool of the GOP. For years they

Image from the Boston Globe Opposing the President Joe Biden nomination Kiran Ahuja for director of Office of Personnel Management, Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) took to the floor of congress and like most members of his party does, proceeded to say some really stupid ish. Hawley said that the America he sees and knows is not systemically racist. I don't think I can find a single GIF that would properly convey the flat, blinking expression I have on my face as I look at the plate of nonsense he just served up.  Hawley is a white man. Of course he sees a different a America. He lives in an American that black people and other people of color do not. Because he is white, he gets to move through life and the country without experiencing the systemic racism that non-whites encounter on a regular basis. He doesn't have to fear that police are going to harm him over some trivial garbage like vaping on the sidewalk, or fear that his life may be in danger during a routine jog. He doesn

Image by MP&F Juneteenth, or June 19th. I'd never heard of it until the civil unrest that swept the country last year (and is still going on). There's been push for years to make it a federal holiday. On June 17th, 2021, Juneteenth was at long last made a federal holiday when President Joe Biden signed it into law. "So what is Juneteeth?" I hear those of you not in the know asking. Why, it commemorates the end of America's original sin, chattel slavery. Slavery was abolished in 1863 but despite the Emancipation Proclamation, word that slavery was over was withheld from those in confederate states, meaning many were not aware of the newfound freedom others were granted. On June 19th, 1865, in Galveston, Texas, Major General Gordon Granger came through on horseback to inform the remaining slaves in the state that they were free.  I'd like to say it was all sunshine and roses after that but that was not the case. And yeah, we still got a long ways to go becau

Photo by Ted Eytan via flickr 2020. A year to remember if ever there was one. Though the COVID virus that would sweep across the world and turn our lives upside down was discovered in late 2019, in early 2020 the pandemic ball really got rolling and in many ways, it shaped the course for what turned out to be an incredibly difficult year. Even during a global pandemic, life, under very unusual circumstances, went on. People worked remotely, kids did school from home, restaurants only did take out or door dash. As positive COVID cases grew, hospitals were overrun, taxing staff to their limits. Due to how gravely the pandemic had (has) affected the world and our very way of life, people turned to the news to stay updated. Naturally, COVID dominated the news hours but a once in a century pandemic was not gonna stop white people from killing black people.  Ahmaud Arbery was out for a jog while he was shot and killed by delusional, white supremacist clowns. Breonna Taylor had her life taken