Neesha started it. She is white. Not just caramel brown with kinky blonde hair. Full hillbilly white—straight blonde hair, blue eyes, 115lbs, 5’3″ . . . bra size? You sick bastard. Hips? Don’t, just don’t. You misogynist, evil sycophant of the patriarchy! Neesha identifies as black and you are racist for believing otherwise. She’s a woman, right? I mean, she’s a Mom, so . . . and for that you are also transphobic.
She is from Norton, VA. Neesha is kin to coal miners. Her family owned a general store until Walmart opened in town. Her Dad was close to retirement when Walmart announced they were going to build a store. Walmart is racist. The building sat idle for a while until Family Dollar leased it from her Dad. That lease saved her Mom & Dad. Cars had been repossessed, the house was in foreclosure, no electricity, no water, or trash, internet was off. Family Dollar sucks but the lease doesn’t suck. Her Dad is good now.
So what was up with all that drama in Richmond Public Housing? If she comes from good kin and was raised right, what’s the deal? Not everybody sticks to the plan. Some of us insist on playing the left hand on two and four. And some of us can’t stick to the beat for very long. We are bedeviled by nature and nurture that torments us. It’s a daily battle to maintain sufficient equilibrium. Neesha and I share this about ourselves.
Nobody Cares About Racism
Then . . . the Woke True Folk. They insist that we all must be the same. Also that we are divided into bougie and downtrodden. Neesha’s kin are bougie enough to be deemed evil. Owning a successful business and a home that is paid for are mortal sins for the WTF.
Or it was until the shouting about racism fell on deaf ears. The emotional charge someone could get by sustaining outrage at racism faded. We needed a new thrill to feed our addiction to outrage. So now the battle is on over gender and gender identity. We can’t be men and women. Everyone has to be gender-fluid.
So . . . Neesha. She’s a pleaser. She wants to fit in. Neesha also needs a man. Gender-fluid is stupid, says she. Now . . . non-conforming is more her truth. Neesha identifies as gender non-conforming.
You were racist until 2021. Now you are racist and transphobic. Yes, Neesha is a mom. But now she dresses butch. What’s her Snapchat? @nonyabizness. That’s so transphobic and toxic.
You Are Transphobic
Yes, there is a story. I made you wait, sorry. This one starts with a flyer. It announced that in honor of Pride Month K-12 schools in Richmond Public Schools would host Drag Queen Story Hour at the school Neesha’s son attends. Neesha may be gender non-conforming but she is still an Appalachian Mom. There are some things you don’t do. Men dressed in drag suggesting that kids should get with them is one of them.
So it’s that day. Neesha sat with her son at a too-small table. She still lives in Gilpin Court because Ophie’s farm is being renovated. Acid Beaty starts reading, “The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish Swish Swish”. “The Wheels on the Bus Go Round Round Round” is a happy memory for Neesha. She sang it with her son and daughter when they were younger. This day she wore men’s Wrangler Jeans, a white tank top, and Converse All Stars. Her hair was purple and pink in honor of pride month.
Beaty starts singing and encouraging the kids to sing along. Crickets. The teacher steps in, “Kids, let’s sing with Ms. Beaty!” Her son giggles. Something about “beaty” has his imagination. So the teacher starts singing with Ms. Beaty and we learn that they can’t hold a tune. One kid starts singing along and gets hard stares from her classmates. “Jerry, stop singing,” says another. It’s getting awkward.
Truth Hurts
Beaty looks at Neesha, “Hey girl! I just want to affirm your gender choice. It’s good to see healthy role models for transgender kids.” Nothing triggering in that, right? One theory about anger is that we have an emotional bucket that gets full and can’t contain more so it spills. Neesha’s bucket was full of tannerite. It just needed an ignition source. She stared at Beaty, “you a little bitch, you pervert.”
“Excuse me!?”
“You heard me, bitch.”
“That’s a little inappropriate, miss.”
“No, what’s inappropriate is your fake ass reading perverted books to kids.”
That was enough for the teacher, “Ms. Pepper, please let Ms. Beaty continue.”
“I ain’t letting that little bitch do shit.”
“Ms. Pepper. That is very inappropriate. If you want to stay in the classroom I have to ask you to be respectful of Ms. Beaty”
“I ain’t leaving. Ms. Beaty Bitch better leave before I teach her some hill country manners.”
Oh boy. Here it comes, “Who you calling a little bitch, you country cunt!” There were no SRO’s on campus. Why? The Defund the Police Projects of 2020. In their place were DeEscalation Facilitators. These DEF’s routinely got assaulted. The job had a high turnover rate. “Use your words” became a joke. Teachers were left to fend for themselves.
Ms. Beaty, “You better take that back before I show you what a ghetto beat-down is.”
“Ms. Beaty, threats cannot be tolerated in our school,” the teacher pressed a panic button.
“Do it, bitch.”
Beaty Finished It
It was three feet between Beaty’s seat and Neesha’s seat in the front row. Both women dead stared the way a cat does when it is calculating the pounce. Beaty pounced first. The first thing to fly was Beaty’s wig. Neesha’s wig went next. The next two minutes were a blur of legs, arms, and torn clothing. Classroom furniture and kids went flying. Neesha got Beaty into a clinch. S/he broke free, swung a haymaker, and connected. Neesha went down in a heap.
A large male teacher entered the fray. He popped open a nightstick and pulled pepper spray from his belt with the other hand, “Y’all quit it before I hurt you worse!” Nothing like the roar of an angry baritone. Beaty got sprayed, broke out of the arm lock, and punched the male teacher. The classroom teacher pulled Neesha to one side of the classroom.
“Mom! Stop!” That was Neesha’s son. Neesha came around and was dazed. She took off the stocking cap to let her natural hair fall. Left alone it is sandy blonde with a nice soft curl.
Swinging Ms. Beaty
“Ms. Pepper, please take a seat. I have to call the police and make a report”
“Whatever. Just as long as the fake bitch leaves.”
Ms. Beaty broke free of the hold the baritone had on her and covered the twelve feet distance between s/him in a blink, “I ain’t no fake bich, cunt!” and slapped Neesha, drawing blood. The baritone regained control of Ms. Beaty and began wrangling her towards the door.
“Mom, are you ok?”
“Yeah, baby, I’m good. Sorry about the drama.”
“It’s ok. I don’t want you to go to jail, ok?”
“Ok. He hit me so I think I’m good.”
The cops came. Ms. Beaty was taken into custody. Caesar Roman, aka Ms. Beaty, had outstanding warrants for violating parole. Basically, Drag Queen Story Hour was off-limits to him. BTW–Caesar Roman used to be Fr. Caesar Roman, a Catholic priest. As for Neesha, there was enough blame to throw around that the ADA decided he didn’t really have a case. It didn’t hurt that Neesha said she was a friend of Ophie.
All Woman All Day
I ran across Neesha at the Hanover Farmer’s Market. She was picking up some produce for a Sunday Supper at Ophie’s place. Her daughter was with her in a stroller. From what was in the basket cucumber onion salad was on deck. Both girls were dressed in seersucker sundresses, straw fedoras, and crocs, “Neesha!”
“Hey.”
“You doing ok?”
“Yeah.”
“Is your son going back to the same school this fall?”
“No. We are moving to Goochland.”
“You look nice. What happened to the tank tops and jeans?”
“I still got them.”
“Dresses today.”
“Yeah, I felt like it.”
I was nearing rude territory. Felt that and chose different words, “Nice day.”
“Yeah. Take it easy.”
“You too” I put my earbuds in and went back to listening to a Tuba Skinny playlist.
Beaty was a viral darling when the story of his attack on Neesha. Racist white woman abusing a black trans-woman for no reason. Neesha was Enyo. Nothing less than a public hanging would be enough. Until stories were published about Caesar Roman (Beaty)’s colored past. He isn’t black, he’s Greek. Beaty is on probation for impersonating a building inspector. The hustle was to claim he had a warrant to inspect the HVAC system in the house because it was too cold. Beaty was there to heat things up. From there he’d grope the young women inside. Beaty is suspected of rape in some of these cases.
Beaty’s viral moment collapsed. He disappeared from Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram. There was one story in the Richmond Free Press that said he was awaiting trial in Goochland Jail. No trial date has been announced. One last thing, you are racist and transphobic. Neesha has spoken.