Community Loving Radical: A Short Narrative
Luke McGowan-Arnold is an African-American novelist from Rockford, Illinois. He is based in Philadelphia. He writes about Black people, American subject formation, subcultures (on and off the internet), and popular social movements.
My homeboy Anthony told me that I’m addicted to social media. He’s trippin’ though, I’m just organizing with the digital community. I wake up every morning, slam some RedBull, turn on Hasan's Twitch stream to discourse farm, and retweet three hundred different mutual aid requests. Now, I won't donate to any of them cause I need to preserve MY money especially in this economy but it's important to comment and repost for visibility. Ever since the election, I've increased my posting from seven and a half hours a day to twelve and a half. As an unfortunate result, I’ve begun to develop vision problems. However, I'll be able to get glasses once we institute fully automated luxury communism.
I should probably introduce myself. My name is Cory and I run Communist Cory, a blog on Substack where I post long articles about the necessity of reading Trotskyist theory from a decolonial lens. I have yet to read any Trotskyist theory myself but I've watched some very engaging TikToks about it. To be honest, the last time I read a book was my freshman year of high school because capitalism has degraded my literacy skills. And everyone makes it hard to read in community. As an example, I decided not to attend the New Afrikan anarchist reading group cause they said “no whites were allowed” and that meant I couldn't bring my white girlfriend.
My white girlfriend, although I prefer the term “partner” comes home from her job at the racial healing nonprofit where she works as a diversity coordinator. We met in a restorative justice circle for confused mulattos. She told me later that she was there because she “appreciates biracial culture”. It's nice to have someone validate my existence and more importantly support my lifestyle. My parents called me recently and asked if I'm ever going to re-apply for that MFA program. I told my folks I'm not interested in being a part of bourgeois institutions even if a fully funded program would mean I could finally stop living with 8 different roommates.
It's a Friday night, so me and the boo decide to hit the town. She invites some of her friends from the Racial healing non-profit. When we arrive, DJ TeslaTerrorist is playing a drill remix of Mariame Kaba's We Do This Till We Free Us audiobook. One of my boo’s friends is a Black woman named Alexandra who I’ve met before. Unfortunately, I always forget her face so we have to be re-introduced for the 62nd time. I spent the whole night telling her about why the feminism of the Combahee River Collective is superior to the feminism of Beyonce. I still don't understand why Black women love Beyonce so much. She asks me if I've dated a woman who wasn't white. I ignore that question and pivot to telling my girlfriend's other friend Agatha, a Wasian, about the necessity of multi-cultural revolutionary organizations. Agatha asks me if I've ever been a part of a revolutionary organization. I told her, “nah all of them just tryna cancel a Black man.” She nods with a deep comradely understanding.
We can’t take the subway home so my girlfriend called an Uber. As much as I support public transit, the young Black passengers always clown me for being with a white girl. After we get home, my girlfriend tells me she wants to have sex but I’m too busy debating prominent Black feminist YouTuber on Bluesky about why bell hooks was actually the worst. My girlfriend yells something about “this is why I’m poly” and leaves probably to go see Keith, the other Black man in her life. She’s been accused in the past of being a chocolate chaser but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with appreciating different cultures.
I haven't heard from my friend Anthony. He might be “on the lam” as some say. Well, it's a pretty privileged position to be hiding from state repression as some of us don't have the mental bandwidth or network of solidarity to engage in those types of emotionally evasive behaviors. That’s what I told the FBI when they knocked on my door to ask if I had seen Anthony recently. As they left, I took a video of the agents outside of my house which I used to raise two thousand dollars on instagram for emotional harm from state agencies. My girlfriend and I are going to go eat a couple of hundred dollar steaks tonight.
It is strange, though. It's been a few weeks since Anthony's arrest. More and more of my friends and acquaintances in the leftist community are disappearing. The anarchist reading group doesn't meet anymore. I think I saw one of the main brothas who told me that “Black nationalism was dope” was getting pulled into an unmarked van but I decided to mind my business. I had to pick up my custom embroidered “CAPITALISM MORE LIKE CRAPITALISM” t-shirt that afternoon, regardless.
My girlfriend lost her job because her nonprofit was investigated and sued for being DEI. I guess a lot of their money was from the Feds? Well, you know what they say…the revolution won’t be funded. Unfortunately, she was kinda funding my lifestyle so I need to figure out a new living situation soon. My Patreon cash is drying up after I got cancelled by that Black woman from Bluesky. Apparently she was some prominent journalist so a lot of my followers jumped on the hater bandwagon. So I decided to touch grass and hit up my old pal Anthony but then I remembered he’s locked up in an undisclosed location somewhere.
Well, it seems like it might be time for a career pivot! Being a leftist these days is a lot less popular. I saw that Turning Point USA pays well for former radicals to talk about their experiences with the deranged Far Left. I have been watching a lot of Amala Ekponobi, Thomas Sowell, and Candace Owens to prepare my talking points. They all go on long rants about how Black culture is toxic and well, I don’t completely disagree. Clarence Thomas got a white wife so I'm already halfway there. All I need now is a white billionaire to get me paid.
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Good stuff!