#chairteenth

A few accounts across social media don’t like that I don’t have a profile picture, that I post about white history, and that I highlight current genocides.

So, to make it clear where I stand, I’m using John Brown as my profile picture.

Also, Happy Chairteenth!!

🙌🏾 Never Forget Aug 5, 2023 🙌🏾

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/JNV4MZBDVRB5JFX52UBWM4733M.jpg&w=1440&impolicy=high_res

Every culture has its symbols.

Some have flags. Some have monuments. Some have sacred texts.

And then... there’s Alabama’s folding chair.

On August 5, 2023, the Montgomery Riverfront became the stage for something far bigger than a brawl. What unfolded wasn’t just another viral video; it was a collision between history, power, race, and collective memory.

As ESSENCE so brilliantly captured the cultural weight of the day:

“August 5 is the day history took a seat... then picked up one.”

People who watched the footage weren’t simply reacting to punches being thrown. They were reacting to context.

A Black riverboat co-captain was doing his job, trying to maintain order, and was met with hostility, disrespect, and violence. For generations, Black people have been expected to absorb these moments quietly, to stay calm, wait their turn, and trust systems that rarely offer protection. Watching a person’s dignity being tested on that dock felt painfully familiar, exposing an old American story in real time.

And then... someone picked up a white folding chair.

Within seconds, an ordinary piece of plastic and metal became cultural folklore.

The chair became a symbol, not because of the object itself, but because of what millions of people immediately attached to it. It became a vessel for centuries of racial tension, collective exhaustion, and resistance colliding with the present. It represented the exact moment an everyday item transforms into a symbol of standing up in the public imagination.

Today, whether you call it “Happy Chair Day” or “Chairteenth,” it is less about a fight on a dock and more about remembering a cultural reckoning. It reminds us that history doesn’t always announce itself with a monument or a speech.

Sometimes history shows up on a riverfront… carrying a white folding chair.

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