Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 11h

If it surprises you in the slightest that Israel violated the ceasefire, you haven’t been paying attention.

This isn’t the first violation of a ceasefire. They’re using all of this as a justification for ethnic cleansing, and we keep giving it to them every time we refuse reality.

1 1 12

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 12h

“I’m not racist! I have Black friends!”

If this is your response to being called out, you don’t have friendships with Black people. You have proximity to Black people, and those are not the same thing.

Friends don’t use friends as deflection from responsibility for being harmful.

Do better.

1 2 15

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 12h

MAGA would never have happened if the “good white people” held their own accountable. Instead, y’all let the marginalized fend for ourselves, and now people like me are being called “monkey” in several languages.

After 400 years, it’s not a few rotten apples. It’s the whole fucking orchard.

Mary @glmary.bsky.social · 12h

That's maga whiteness. There are rotten apples in every race.

1 6 23

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 12h

Europeans started wars in Africa to put pressure on localized versions of slavery to fuel the transatlantic slave trade.

Therefore, any attempt to conflate this version of slavery with another is disingenuous. It’s meant to take the heat off white people for having to reckon with their heritage.

2 15

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 12h

“Black people sold their own into slavery”

Many ethnic groups had a version of slavery that amounted to indentured servitude.

Chattel slavery, the treatment of Africans as livestock & transporting them to a no less stolen land, was entirely different & created by Europeans.

6 15 72

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 19h

I need white folks to understand that just because they are unfamiliar with a racial conversation doesn’t mean the conversation isn’t happening.

Just because you don’t see racism doesn’t mean I don’t experience it.

You tend to miss things when you assume any & all conversation revolves around you.

1 5 33

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 20h

For those suggesting Taylor Swift is bigger than Michael Jackson, please go watch the Dangerous Tour from 1992.

Nearly the entire footage of the show has b-roll of security carrying out concertgoers who’d fainted at the sight of him.

No one will be bigger than Michael Jackson.

Stop the madness.

1 1 16

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 20h

The reason people said things like “you don’t have the whole context” when talking about Charlie Kirk’s views is because there is a context for them in which it is acceptable to assume the worst of Black people.

They insist you are the problem because they assume everyone is as racist as they are.

3 8 23

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 21h

It’s wild how much whiteness wants credit for putting out fires it started.

Black people are told to be thankful to white people for “saving” us from slavery they created.

US presidents boast about ceasefire deals for conflicts they funded with tax money.

Whiteness isn’t water. It’s Kerosene.

24 110 430

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 21h

“Capitalism gives everyone a chance to succeed!”

Capitalism is impossible without inequity.

It’s “free market, free enterprise” until you try to raise the minimum wage. Then it’s about “merit.”

Capitalism doesn’t work because it doesn’t work for everyone, by design.

Someone is always left out.

3 17

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 1d

My favorite Bible story is the one where Jesus asks the five thousand if they finished job training before feeding them.

The other is when He asked the townspeople if they had Aetna or Blue Cross before healing them to see if He was in network.

After all, America is a Christian nation…right?

2 9 66

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 1d

The thing about the debate of whether the Bible does or doesn’t condone slavery is that it kinda doesn’t matter.

Ultimately, if you need an invisible deity to tell you that the buying, selling, or ownership of other humans is wrong, you have much bigger fish to fry than the errancy of the Bible.

6 49

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 1d

I am not old enough to understand why they gave a holiday to someone as evil as Christopher Columbus. But I am old enough to remember when sports teams held a moment of silence for Charlie Kirk, and I kinda feel like both happened for the same reason.

1 7 23

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 1d

Celebrating a holiday is great.

Giving people their land back would definitely be better, though.

The people who were here first deserve so much better.

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day.

8 25

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 1d

A friendly reminder that no matter what the church tells you, celebrating Halloween is not demonic nor does it open a portal to hell.

However, if that portal existed, honoring white supremacists & platforming pastors with allegations would get you much closer to opening it than trick or treating.

1 8 29

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 2d

Right now, there are men who are posing as ICE agents in order to abduct women.

In other words, these men are doing everything right wingers tell people trans women do, but I don’t see any Republican governors signing bills to keep ICE out of society.

I’ll let you figure out why that is.

14 38

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 2d

No matter what, I could have argued this a lot better and didn’t. I led more with emotion and exhaustion from the tired talking point that I messed up the details to a point where it could have harmed good faith discourse, and that’s on me. I can and will be better about that.

13

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 2d

The other issue? White people voting for Trump, in particular WW. 53% of them pulled for him.

I think non voters are an easy target. But it’s not enough to not be Trump. And to beat Trump, you have to beat everything that created him. Dems were not prepared for the moment. That’s why they lost.

1 1 11

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 2d

They supported Israel and pushed lies early on after 10/7. They were signing bombs (Josh Shapiro, in particular). They ran on “the most lethal military in the world” as if there weren’t Palestinians in their voter base. It seems like they thought not being Trump was good enough.

1 1 11

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 2d

The Democrats saw huge dip in voter turnout this year. The idea is that groups were trying to get people to not vote for Kamala. While possibly true on a small scale, it wasn’t the fault of third party votes as they accounted for maybe 2% of the overall vote.

The main issue was the Dem platform.

1 11

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 2d

I was attempting to react to my biggest issue in the discourse, which is the assertion that Democrats lost because of the left.

I kept hearing that the reason not to support third parties was that they weren’t powerful enough electorally, but somehow they can tank an election? Which one is it?

1 1 7

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 2d

The Uncommitted movement was uncommitted to Biden in the primaries, not Kamala. That was my biggest error in accuracy. However, they did make attempts to push Kamala Harris left on Gaza in the days following Biden dropping out.

I wanna own my shit here & say I let my anger get ahead of me.

1 1 6

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 2d

Quick retraction: earlier I posted commentary on Kamala Harris yelling at protesters on her book tour and tied it to the Uncommitted movement.

In the interest of accuracy, good faith, and simply owning when I’m wrong, I need to correct the details of my analysis as my wording was very incorrect.

1 1 20

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 2d

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this! Made a world of difference!!!

Tori Williams Douglass @toriglass.bsky.social · 4d

Hey y’all it is Black Friday aka Reparations Friday aka @benjaminfaye.bsky.social birthday! He just bought a car and it would be cool if we could help him cover some expenses. If you got paid today and you are able to, chip in $5-10 for Benji

cash $toriglass
ven @tori_douglass
paypal.me/toriglass

Pay Victoria Douglass using PayPal.Me

Go to paypal.me/toriglass and type in the amount. Since it’s PayPal, it's easy and secure. Don’t have a PayPal account? No worries.

paypal.me

2 4

hey there, benji. @benjaminfaye.bsky.social · 2d

“I’m glad Kamala is screaming back at protesters! They told people not to vote for her”

The Uncommitted movement didn’t vote for Kamala DURING THE PRIMARY to try to shift her stance on Gaza. They voted for her in the general election.

If you don’t want to be protested, don’t support genocide.

1 2 9