As far as claims to fame go, "calling a 5-year-old the N-word" wouldn't be my first choice, but Rochester, Minnesota woman Shiloh Hendrix seems to be making it work for her. Hendrix, who formerly went by AngloSaxonWoman on Twitter, was captured hurling the slur at both an autistic 5-year-old child who was allegedly trying to steal from her diaper bag and a bystander who filmed the altercation. Normally, this would end at a single post and thousands of upvotes on r/PublicFreakout, but the online alt-right has rallied behind Hendrix and her right to call children the N-word with impunity.
Hendrix got to work capitalizing on her new fan club, and has thus far raised over $600,000 in donations to "protect her family" — although she doesn't quite say from what. Or who, as is more likely. According to her:
My name is Shiloh and I have been put into a very dire situation. I recently had a kid steal from my 18month old sons diaper bag at a park. I called the kid out for what he was. Another man, who we recently found out has had a history with law enforcement, proceeded to record me and follow me to my car. He then posted these videos online which has caused my family, and myself, great turmoil.
The language here is disgusting — both the way she steps around what she means by calling the kid out for "what he was" and the "great turmoil" she's experienced as a result of her own hideous actions. Not that this has stopped "concerned" white supremacists from pitching in for the cause, of course. Hendrix has become something of a figurehead, with many expressing their frustrations and so-called "Black fatigue" (yes, this is a real thing these people say) through her. Just take a look at some select donations, presented in no particular order:
Average White Man – $1488.00 USD
White Lives Matter – $1488.00 USD
Stone Choir Enjoyer – $1500.00 USD
White patience is over – $10.00 USD
Past my Breaking Point – $5.00 USD
Whites have rights – $5.00 USD
Had Enough of [N-word, plural] – $5.00 USD
I think that's enough to prove my point. The guy who was bold enough to type out the full racial slur only donated five dollars, though. These are all real, and just a sampler of the kind of virulent hate and far-right dogwhistles being spread through pithy usernames on the donxation site. If you have the stomach, take a scroll through the list (we aren't linking to it here) and you'll see literally hundreds more instances — the people propping Shiloh up are not shy. The fact that this kind of behavior can be rewarded — in the most literal sense — is quite frankly mind-boggling, and the campaign still being up is an obvious failing on the part of GiveSendGo.
There's no real moral to be gleaned here, besides the obvious "don't call people slurs" — or "be careful' as a certain subset of American culture is clearly feeling more emboldened with their favorite guy at the helm. There is, however, a bit of a silver lining in the fact that these people are so scared of stepping outside that they have to act out a race-war-by-proxy by throwing money at a woman who's never done anything remarkable in her life but use a bad word.
