America is being purged in real time. They want silence. We answer with survival.

When Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt stood at the National Conservative Conference last month and said “not all men are created equal” and called equality a form of “woke liberalism,” he ripped the mask off. That was not a slip. That was an announcement. An elected U.S. senator told the country that human dignity is conditional. That some people are simply less human. And he said it with applause behind him.

This is not normal. This is not “just politics.” This is a predator announcing his hunt. Anyone who has studied history recognizes the pattern: redefine who counts as a full person, turn cruelty into spectacle, then codify it into law. It is the same playbook that underwrote slavery, pogroms, internment camps, and genocide. They are not shy about it anymore. They are telling you what they are going to do.

Look at what happens to Black women who speak up. Natasha Alford calls out racist imagery and immediately gets hit with a grotesque watermelon meme. Karen Attiah spoke out against hatred and violence in America and the Washington Post fired her. That’s not an accident. That’s the machinery of dehumanization at work. The goal is always the same: humiliate, intimidate, silence. Make you believe you are alone. Make you believe it’s harmless. Make you disappear from the conversation so they can finish what they started.

Memes are not harmless. They are the spoonful of sugar that helps fascism go down. JD Vance shrugs off a sombrero meme as “just a joke” while ICE raids break apart families and detention centers fill. The joke is the mask. Behind it is policy, cages, and state violence. This is how you normalize hate: you make it funny first. By the time it stops being funny, it’s already law.

And look at the top of the ticket. Trump’s shift from pretending not to know Project 2025 to bragging about mass firings is not a random change. It is the same show. Laugh at the cruelty, then implement it. Mock the victims, then purge them. He is literally taunting workers about losing their livelihoods on live TV, as though mass unemployment and intimidation are a punchline.

Too many people are waking up every morning and acting like this is normal. It is not. It is a purge. They are purging this nation, from our classrooms, our libraries, our newsrooms, our workplaces. They are trying to wipe out truth, dignity, and any future where we stand on equal ground. And they are counting on you being too scared, too tired, or too distracted to notice until it’s too late.

But predators rely on silence. Silence makes the kill easier. Stillness makes you easier to corner. And that is why Black journalists, immigrant voices, marginalized voices, and independent media are under attack, because our survival depends on making noise, telling the truth, and refusing to stay still.

I know we are tired. I know the weight feels endless. But understand this: our numbers are bigger than their numbers. Our ancestors survived worse with less. We carry their fire in our bodies. We will not be erased quietly. We will not be mocked into silence. We will not surrender the narrative of who belongs in this country to men who openly say some of us don’t count.

Support Black-owned, independent and movement-aligned media. Support truth-tellers. Fund independent journalism. Share the receipts. Name the names. This is not about left or right. This is about survival. This is about whether we will let a minority of extremists drag this country back to the days when equality was unthinkable, or whether we will make them face the full force of a people who refuse to disappear.

Natasha Alford was right. They would love nothing more than for us to go away and stay quiet. But we are not going anywhere. Not now. Not ever. Our voices are our inheritance. Our survival is our resistance. And our refusal to be silent is the loudest proof that their purge will fail.

We are not going quietly.

Tasha Monroe

Founder, Simply Edyn & Co. | Fight + Light

Writer & Editor, The Commons Dispatch

 

PS

This fight isn’t just about one voice or one newsroom. It’s about a network of truth-tellers — from TheGrio and The Root to Word In Black, Blavity, Prism, and Scalawag — holding the line when so many want us erased. Add to that the legacy and fire of Essence, Revolt, Democracy Now!, PBS, and Truthout and you see what they fear most: a living, breathing media ecosystem they cannot silence.