A Box of Spiders
An Opinion piece by Shade Burgs
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Let’s talk about a of a box of spiders.
A lot of people are trying to encourage forgiveness and acceptance for those who now regret voting for Emperor Peach Palpatine. Others are wondering why Black people are sitting comfortably, watching the chaos unfold under the newly elected Turd Reich.
I’ll explain it a little with this:
If someone walks into a room full of people where there’s a box full of spiders, and everyone in the room says, “Hey, don’t open that box—it’s full of spiders,” and they respond with:
“Well, they might not be poisonous.”
Then all the Black people in the room explain in great detail exactly what spiders are in the box, how poisonous they are, and the person replies:
“Well, you don’t know what you’re talking about because you’re Black, so you’re just scared they’ll bite you.”
There’s also a big red sign on the box that reads:
“DO NOT OPEN — CONTAINS POISONOUS SPIDERS.”
But they proceed to open the box anyway—and they get bitten.
Now, everyone scrambles to help. Some people start actively killing spiders, risking getting bitten themselves. Others tend to the wounded, trying to make sure they don’t die. But ultimately, everyone has the same reaction:
“WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?”
Then, the person starts spinning every excuse imaginable for their actions:
“Spiders eat other bugs,” or they start flexing nonsensical Republican talking points that have no relevance to the situation, like “Technically, there are more spiders on Earth than people,” or even “I didn’t believe there were spiders in the box.”
They’ll say anything to deflect—from the absurd to the irrelevant—because the truth is, they didn’t believe the spiders would bite them, just everyone else.
This happens so often to the Black community and people of color in general that we’re tired of treating wounds and risking bites. We knew they would open the box anyway. It’s time to hold people accountable for their reckless behavior that affects all of us.
White people have continuously opened the box—then blamed everyone and everything else for the spiders they unleash into our lives. And somehow, they spin the consequences into being the responsibility of the very people who told them not to open the damn box in the first place.