hey there, benji.

@benjaminfaye.bsky.social

Co-Host of the White Homework podcast. Exvangelical. Adoptee. Former educator. Writer. Musician. Speaker. Advocate. Philly born. ATL dwelling. @heytherebenji on IG & TikTok.

In 2013, I couldn’t work because of clerical errors from before I was born. I couldn’t afford to eat, so I sold my gear. I couldn’t gig for 12 years because of it…until now. Santa pulled up. And I’m excited. Meet Genevieve. My new bass.

The Trump administration has banned Americans from adopting babies from most countries in Africa as well as Cuba & Venezuela. I fully expect evangelicals to riot over this. After all, adoption is the answer to abortion, right? Or will they do nothing because they don’t really believe in anything?

Given that there has been more outrage over tax dollars paying for a poor mom’s Pepsi than tax dollars paying for bombs killing Palestinian people, it’s not surprising how much of internet discourse comes back to “I don’t know how to tell you to care about other people, and it hurts that I have to.”

I don’t know if I talked about this over here, but life update: I got ordained so I could perform marriage ceremonies! My heart was to be a resource to queer and low income people, but I am open to others as well! Huzzah!

BildBild

You race baiters! You only talk about racism to stir up dissent and anger.” Historically speaking, the only thing Black people have ever had to do to make white people angry is believe in ourselves out loud. We didn’t make you angry. You were already angry we exist because you don’t want us to.

Dear Tough Guys on the Internet, A quick question. How is it you’re strong enough to support a family but feel threatened by a man wearing nail polish? See, actual strong men know who they are. You’re looking at one. Y’all are children with deep voices. Have the day you deserve.

Bild

Cancel culture does not exist. Here’s what creators need to understand: none of us are owed an audience, especially not if we do something problematic. It’s not the responsibility of the public to lower its standards. It’s on creators to not be problematic. And it’s so easy to not be problematic.

Friendly reminder that being around an attractive person is NOT consent. An attractive person consenting to other people, no matter how many other people, does NOT mean they consent to you. If it’s not a confident yes, it’s no. The internet will have you thinking this is debatable. It is not.

The phrase “the wheels of justice roll slow” is supremely misleading. Truth is, nothing’s a problem in America until it’s a problem for affluent white people, for whom justice is based on. The second we demand equality from justice, everything stops because equality was never part of the design.

The only upside of AI is how it makes clear no industry is safe. For years, folks told service workers “a robot could do your job” while billionaires invested in robots that took over both industries & blamed it all on immigrants. GOP v Dem is a wasted war. The battle is worker v ruling class.

The people who voted to cut SNAP benefits are the same who worship a dude that fed 5000 with two fish & five loaves of bread. They don’t get the irony is because they don’t worship Jesus. They worship the exclusivity they think comes with him. Half the allure of heaven is leaving people behind.

Nothing makes me angrier at the state of the economy than watching House Hunters. “Hi, I’m Janet and this is my boyfriend Josey. He’s a professional internet bot and I study the mating patterns of artisanal cheeses. Our budget is $4 million, but we we’d like to stay closer to 3”

Here’s the thing. I hate capitalism. But what you don’t get to do is walk into a Black creator’s space, insult their intelligence, and then ask to be educated against that intelligence when you get called out. You wanna be educated? Pay me. You don’t lack this clarity with white people.

If white people worked as hard at fighting racism as they did trying to get me to ignore racist trolls on the internet, I would have to worry a lot less about racist trolls on the internet. The reason you don’t is because you’re hardwired to be police officers. It takes you work to be my friend.

Dear White People on the Internet, Just because you don’t understand racial power dynamics doesn’t mean the concept doesn’t make sense. It just means you don’t understand it. How is it that y’all set up a system that prioritizes your education & wealth but you still know less & can’t buy a clue?

I haven’t seen the Diddy doc yet, but the responses so far remind me of an eternal truth. Diddy was able to terrorize people for 30 years for the same reason Chris Brown still has a career. As long as we’re entertained enough, and as long as the beat is fire, we will overlook anything.

(Possible) Hot Take: “All I Want for Christmas” is the last truly great Christmas song that has been written. Everything after it has been a poor attempt at what this song came by honestly. At 30 years old, it’s both the youngest and last classic Christmas song we have.

I just saw a video of a music producer basically saying “Don’t fight AI. Sell out & use it.” As it is, we creatives wage war with algorithms, having to sacrifice earnestness for clicks. I’m a human. My output will always be human. We shouldn’t have to pay a price for not being a robot.

Friendly reminder that your Spotify Wrapped was built on the back of artists being paid fractions of a penny per song stream. They not only runs ICE ads and support AI, but they’ve worked actively for years to pay musicians less. Support human art. Support real music. Support real musicians.

The term “microaggression” is somewhat misleading. There’s nothing micro about microaggressions. It just seems small when held against 400 years of slavery. It’s not that microaggressions don’t cause macro harm. It’s that y’all are just really used to treating Black people as less than human.

There comes a point when “we need to separate the art from the artist” becomes code for “I don’t want to stop consuming art from harmful people because I like comfort more than I hate what they did/continue to do” and we need to just be honest about that.