William Monroe Trotter, born on this day in 1872, was a newspaper editor and civil rights activist based in Boston, Massachusetts who co-founded the Niagara Movement with WEB Du Bois.
Trotter was an early opponent of the accommodationist race policies of Booker T. Washington, and in 1901 founded the Boston Guardian, an independent African-American newspaper he used to express that opposition.
Trotter was a key founding member of the “Niagara Movement” with W.E.B. Du Bois and contributed to the formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), although he never participated in the group due to a bitter split with Du Bois.
“My vocation has been to wage a crusade against lynching, disenfranchisement, peonage, public segregation, injustice, denial of service in public places for color, in war time and peace.”
- William Monroe Trotter
https://trotter.umich.edu/article/timeline-william-monroe-trotters-life
I hope you nerds have a good month of April 
Remember no crackers
So a while ago, the leftist tabletop game club near me went under and was bought out by another owner. Shit happens and the founder was a bit of an anarkiddy who was terrible at doing leftwing praxis. And by “terrible,” I mean “Shouting at anyone who says something he doesn’t agree with instead of explaining why their opinion is reactionary.” He didn’t want to educate and organize, he wanted to be the smartest person in the room. Needless to say, the club space made people feel unwelcome and a lot of baby leftists decided not to come back. Anyone not explicitly leftist got banned. Now no one is supporting him enough to keep the lights on and the rent paid.
New owner and his spouse buy the club and rebuild how things are done from the ground up, such as hosting regular events, setting up a community art space, and so on. They’re both really friendly and welcoming. People who were wary of the previous owners come back and people from nearby cities are driving here to see what all the hullabaloo is about.
Despite this, I still felt something was off. I couldn’t put my finger on it. Why was this new owner making me feel uneasy? He’s not physically intimidating. He’s always smiles and cultivating a family-friendly atmosphere. He’s still maintained a lot of the same policies of no chud shit allowed. Why was I still bothered by him?
Then it hit me when I was looking at a wall. The BLM and Anti-fascist Action flags weren’t there anymore. The Pride one was still there. I understand taking down the antifa flag. ICE is operating around and some chud sent a notice to a corporation over some other bullshit, so why wouldn’t they also be willing to SWAT the place, too?
But the BLM flag? That tells me this guy sees skin color as “political” and “bad for business” (it’s neither). It tells me he has no convictions, he’d rather make racists feel welcome than take a hit to his bottom line. He will rat me out to ICE once they start going after anyone who isn’t white. He cannot be trusted. His leftism is performative.
I don’t have this problem at another game shop nearby who has never been anything close to leftwing. The most they’ve done is LGBTQ+ friendly nights for kids. What’s the difference? The owner of the shop is reliably in it for money. He doesn’t want racism in the shop because it’s leaving money on the table. He’s always catered to non-white game communities not because he’s anti-racist, but because it’s good for business.
Neither he nor his employees would rat people out because they know doing so would make people feel unsafe and not spend money there. The gaming club on the other hand? I know I can’t rely on them. Once scratched, fascists will bleed. They won’t help if anyone there needs to throw down with the cops or ICE or the military or whoever.
I should’ve known better because it’s always foxes and wolves with white people. I just couldn’t figure out what was bothering me until I realized they took down a flag.