Black people, trauma, and laughter

Donald Trump is a joke, but a second Trump presidency is not

I love Black people.

As a whole, Black America is very unserious. No matter what the topic is, we will find a way to bring the funny out of it, and Saturday’s assassination attempt on Donald Trump is no exception. 

I know I don’t have to explain this to Black people, but since white people stay in our business monitoring everything we say and do, let me provide a clarification before I get all the way into the Black response to the attempt on Trump’s life over the weekend. 

Black people understand the seriousness of gun violence. We understand that someone died during Saturday’s incident. We understand that an attempt on someone’s life is very serious business.

But, nigga? We gonna get these fucking jokes off by any means necessary.

Call it an inherent survival mechanism that Black people have honed into a perfect craft after centuries of suffering at the hands of white Americans, white supremacy, and white privilege, but when something crazy happens in the world around us, we are triggered into trying to find the light and insert some levity into it because being Black is heavy enough in AmeriKKKa without us taking on the white man’s burdens. 

This isn’t to say that other racial and ethnic groups don’t do the same thing, but I’m not talking about them niggas; I’m talking about us and our immediate response to Saturday’s events, and honestly, I don’t care how the rest of y’all feel about it. I’m just noting that I understand that making jokes in uncomfortable situations is something that a lot of humans do.

I’m talking to and about Black people right now, and the way we can find the joke in the most serious shit should be studied because we have perfected that shit.

You can stay around and read this to gain some understanding, but your input is not required, and you will not be centered in this particular column.

The “you” in this case is white people and any other white-adjacent non-Black POC who might think they want to come over here and wag their finger at me for saying this.

Save your energy. I don’t care, baby.

I will be the first to admit that when news broke that someone had fired a shot at Donald Trump during one of his rallies, my immediate response was to call it a stunt. 

After all, who is more of a stunt queen than Donald J. Trump?

I wasn’t the only one. All over social media, my fellow skinfolk were saying the same thing. 

People said they had watched enough Scandal to know a scam and a hoax when they see one, and honestly, can you blame us for being suspicious and not believing what we were being fed?

We’ve been sold a pack of lies by this country for centuries on end, up to and including this present day when we are still expected to believe that everything in this country is “equal” and we are all the same.

There was a meme floating around where Donald Trump’s face was superimposed over Ricky’s body as he ran from the dude with the shotgun in Boyz n Tha Hood. 

The clip of Cam’Ron’s character telling Ace Boogie “Niggas get shot every day, B. You’ll be alright” from Paid In Full was circulating.

Black creators on TikTok made video reenactments of the shooting, and everyone had theories as to why this couldn’t possibly be real and at the very least was planned — by somebody.

With the way things are going in this country right now, it’s normal to be skeptical of everything. We don’t know which way is up, at this point. 

And while we can laugh at all the memes, TikTok videos, and funny tweets and posts, it’s important for us, as Black people, to remember that Donald Trump is still a very real threat to Black America.

This man is a 34-time convicted felon, a rapist, a festering sore on America’s conservative right ass cheek, and he’s still likely to be elected as president again. These people want him in office despite all the dirt on his name.

This shooting only helps to bolster him with his particular crowd of sycophants. That fist in the air with the blood from the teleprompter glass dripping down his face is the Trumpist version of Jesus on the cross. 

Just yesterday morning, Judge Aileen M. Cannon dismissed the classified documents case against Trump (and likely secured her spot on the Supreme Court if and when Alito or Thomas retire).

Fuck John Gotti. Donald Trump is the real “Teflon Don.”

He’s a threat, and while we can laugh and giggle at the memes and joking discourse around the events of this past weekend, Trump is a threat that’s not a joke.

It’s real life. 

It’s our lives. 

The very foundation of America is crumbling, and he’s stomping his feet and clapping his tiny-ass hands as it happens. 

The people who are going to suffer the most losses during a second Trump presidency are Black. 

They are already trying to roll back every piece of legislation that levels the playing field for Black people.

A second presidency for Donald Trump will be his revenge tour, and he’s not going to stop until he has done everything in his power to subjugate us further than we are already subjugated. 

Yes, he’s tried to distance himself from Project 2025, but do not be fooled; that shit is going to find its way into his agenda whether it happens in small pieces or all at once because as my friend and theGrio columnist Michael Harriot so eloquently explained, Trump’s “Agenda47” is the remedial Cliff’s Notes version of Project 2025 with some minor differences.  

We should all be very afraid. 

After we are done shaking our heads and laughing at the nonsense that America has become, we need to galvanize. We need to do everything in our power to stop him from coming into power. 

Donald Trump is a joke, but a Donald Trump presidency is not. 

another version of this post appeared on thegrio.com