MAGA turns n-word-shouting woman into folk hero – and blames Texas stabbing case for outpouring of support
A Minnesota woman who called a five-year-old Black child the “n-word,” and then repeated that racial slur multiple times in a viral video while defending her actions, has raised over $700,000 as she has become a cultural folk-hero to much of the American far-right.
The crowdfunding campaign for Shiloh Hendrix, which she initially posted after she shot to infamy over her confrontation with a Somali-American man in a playground, has taken off after the online right viewed it as a form of backlash over the funds raised in support of Karmelo Anthony.
Anthony, a Black high school student, has been charged with first-degree murder over the stabbing death of white teenager Austin Metcalf at a track meet in Texas. The case has drawn attention in conservative circles, especially after Anthony’s legal defense raised over $500,000 on the crowdfunding app GiveSendGo.
Besides using the Hendrix incident as a way to exhibit their own form of “vice signaling” over the Anthony case, a large portion of the MAGA crowd has also seen their support of her as part of their fight against “anti-white racism” and the “cancel culture” mob.
“I’m glad she raised half a million dollars. I hope she raises half a million more,” Daily Wire podcaster Matt Walsh tweeted this week, sharing a video that featured a 20-minute monologue on why he backs Hendrix.
In the video, which was filmed by 30-year-old Sharmake Omar in a Minnesota public park, Hendrix admits that she called a young Somali boy the “n-word” because “he took my son’s stuff.” She then goes on to repeat the slur multiple times before seemingly justifying her actions during the filmed confrontation with Omar.
“If that’s what he’s going to act like,” Hendrix says when asked by Omar why she used the “n-word” to describe the child. Omar told NBC News that the child is on the autism spectrum and that the parents, whom he knows, have expressed support in filing charges against Hendrix, and a local chapter of the NAACP has raised more than $300,000 for the family since the video went viral. Local police, meanwhile, have said they completed an investigation of the incident.
“I called the kid out for what he was,” Hendrix wrote in her fundraising plea, adding that she’s been doxxed. “I am asking for your help to assist in protecting my family. I fear that we must relocate.”
“Like other viral-video incidents, a lot of the facts aren’t clear. The man who shot the video claimed the child Hendrix allegedly accosted is autistic. Some of Hendrix’s supporters, meanwhile, have suggested the child is actually quite older, comparing the child’s height with the height of some playground equipment,” The Bulwark’s Will Sommer wrote. “They argue that the child is roughly 10, which apparently would be a far more defensible age to call the boy a racial slur.”
Media critic Parker Molloy argued in her The Present Age newsletter that the right-wing wagon-circling around Hendrix was “the most grotesque example I’ve seen recently of what some people call ‘vice signaling’ — the conservative movement’s twisted mirror image of virtue signaling, where people donate money specifically to show support for reprehensible behavior.”
“We saw similar dynamics with Kyle Rittenhouse, Daniel Penny and others who’ve become right-wing causes célèbre,” she added. “The playbook is simple: do or say something awful, get rightfully called out for it, claim victimhood, and watch the money roll in from people who want to show their support for what you did while pretending it’s about ‘free speech’ or ‘fighting cancel culture.’”
Some of the most notorious voices on the right, such as white supremacist and Donald Trump dinner guest Nick Fuentes, have explicitly invoked the Anthony fundraiser while voicing their support for Hendrix. “Black people just raised $500,000 for a cold-blooded killer who stabbed a white teenager to death,” he posted. “So I don’t want to hear ONE WORD about the Shiloh Hendrix fundraiser. Either everybody gets to be tribal or nobody does.”
MAGA podcaster Tim Pool said that while calling children racial slurs is “crass and crude,” the support for Hendrix shows “white guilt” is over. “She’s making money,” he added. “This sends a message to other white people: Stop taking racial abuse.”
While other social media provocateurs sounded off and said they backed Hendrix “on principle” to fight “gay race communism,” Walsh – the creative voice and star behind the hit right-wing documentary Am I Racist? – provided Hendrix’s campaign a massive boost while delivering his audience a justification for supporting her.
