Stop Making Racism Profitable
This article is an opinion piece and reflects the personal views and experiences of the author. It does not necessarily represent the opinions of Baller Alert, its staff, or affiliates. All individuals are encouraged to form their own perspectives and engage in respectful dialogue.A young Black woman went viral on X this week for saying what a lot of us have been thinking but struggling to articulate. Her point wasn’t polished. It wasn’t polite. It was raw, Southern, and frustrated. And underneath all of that, it was painfully accurate.
Her message was simple. Recording racist abuse and blasting it online is no longer the deterrent we think it is. In too many cases, it has become a reward system.
We keep telling ourselves that pulling out our phones is power. That documentation equals justice. That exposure leads to consequences. But the pattern is clear now. A racist moment happens. A video goes viral. The person loses a low-wage job. Then comes the GoFundMe. Then come the donations. Then come the right-wing platforms, podcasts, and “free speech” circuits. In a single day, some of these people make more money being openly racist than they ever did working an honest shift.
Racism has become monetizable content.
We have seen this play out over and over. The Dunkin’ Donuts incident. The woman who raised tens of thousands after being recorded using racial slurs toward a Black child. Each time, the same cycle repeats. Public outrage on one side. Financial windfall on the other. The humiliation of Black people circulates endlessly while the aggressor walks away funded, defended, and platformed.
Yes, I understand why people record. We live in a world where police reports get twisted, where victims get blamed, where evidence matters. Video can protect you from lies. It can be the difference between being believed and being dismissed.
But posting is a choice. And posting publicly, immediately, to feed an algorithm is not the same as preserving evidence.
There are laws that already address much of what we see in these videos. Spitting on someone is assault in many states. Threats, harassment, and disorderly conduct are prosecutable offenses. Hate speech itself is often protected under the First Amendment in the United States, but behavior is not. The law draws a line between speech and action, and many of these incidents cross it. If the goal is accountability, sending footage to the police, to a lawyer, or to civil rights organizations does far more than turning it into viral entertainment.
What we are doing now often serves everyone except the person harmed.
And the hypocrisy is impossible to ignore. When a Black teenager raised funds for legal defense after a fatal school fight he said was self-defense, the outrage was immediate and vicious. Suddenly, crowdfunding was immoral. Suddenly, context mattered. Suddenly, people demanded restraint and patience with the legal process. But when racists are funded for humiliation campaigns against Black people, the same voices call it “free speech” and “cancel culture backlash.”
That double standard tells us everything we need to know.
We also need to retire the phrase “we are not our ancestors.” Not because our ancestors weren’t brave, organized, or fierce, but because invoking them as a threat misses the point. Our ancestors used the tools available to them. So should we. Violence is not strategy. Community protection, legal pressure, economic consequences, and refusing to fuel racist profit cycles are.
The woman in that video wasn’t calling for chaos. She was calling out a system where racism pays and dignity goes viral only as spectacle. She was asking why we keep playing a role that benefits everyone but us.
Maybe the question isn’t whether to record at all.
Maybe the question is who we’re recording for.
And whether we’re finally ready to stop turning our own pain into somebody else’s payday.
Put Them Phones Down & Meet Racism With Real Consequences . Thoughts 💭 ⁉️ pic.twitter.com/33vmE8HD8b
— BLACK FLAG 💨🏴🇺🇸 (@FlagBlack007) December 12, 2025
