Melina Abdullah, the co-founder of a Black Lives Matter (BLM) chapter in Los Angeles, has spent the past two weeks on high alert on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, striking out against what she perceived as racism from billionaire pop music star and President Joe Biden supporter Taylor Swift — and football fans — in posts that conservatives on the platform found baffling.
Abdullah — a teacher of Pan-African Studies at Cal State University in Los Angeles — kicked off her odd tweetstorm about Swift on Super Bowl Sunday by suggesting her fans might be slightly racist.
“Why do I feel like it’s slightly racist to be a Taylor Swift fan?” Abdullah wrote.
Why do I feel like it’s slightly racist to be a Taylor Swift fan?
— Melina Abdullah (@DocMellyMel) February 11, 2024
“Literally everything is racist,” wrote an exasperated commenter. Another reply suggested the poster herself is racist, and that is the reason why the political activist would post a comment like that.
Meanwhile, someone who signed off, “Not a Swift fan at all btw,” politely asked: “Explain why you think that [please]. I’m honestly interested.”
The BLM co-founder responded that she was not making a statement about Swift based on her thoughts but her feelings. Furthermore, she went on to say that “too many American flags” around gives her a racist feeling.
“I said FEEL, not think. Kind of like that feeling I get when there are too many American flags,” she responded.
I said FEEL, not think.
Kind of like that feeling I get when there are too many American flags.— Melina Abdullah (@DocMellyMel) February 13, 2024
Then, after the Kansas City Chiefs won the Superbowl, the leftwing political activist wrote in a post using tense and anxious punctuation, “Why do I feel like this was some right-wing, white-supremacist conspiracy?!?! Booooooo!!!!”
Why do I feel like this was some right-wing, white-supremacist conspiracy?!?!
Booooooo!!!!#SuperBowl— Melina Abdullah (@DocMellyMel) February 12, 2024
Acting as if she were living in the 1950s instead of today — years after America elected an African American president — twice — and an Indian/South Asian vice president — Abdullah concluded her odd tweetstorm by writing: “Folks think they’re attacking me by asking for why I think everything is racist… I’m not offended. Virtually everything is racist.”
Folks think they’re attacking me by asking for why I think everything is racist…
I’m not offended.
Virtually everything is racist.— Melina Abdullah (@DocMellyMel) February 13, 2024