The Imaginary Armageddon: Black America’s Meeting with a Fabricated Situation

On September 30, 2025, I found myself genuinely anxious for Black Americans—not due to systemic issues but because of a looming government shutdown. The Democratic rhetoric painted this scenario as a moment of extreme vulnerability, akin to antelopes sensing predators nearby. Furloughs, halted salaries, and disrupted food assistance loomed large, while fearmongering framed the president as a hostile figure bent on our downfall. My group chat should have exploded with concern, yet silence prevailed; no frantic messages or food supply check-ins. Morning dawned with no catastrophic headlines. To my surprise, life persisted! My loved ones were unharmed, and I was greeted with the mundane reality of daily existence rather than chaos. Contrary to the predictions of widespread disruption, normalcy prevailed—a testament to resilience rather than calamity. Throughout this fabricated crisis, the anticipated disaster failed to materialize, reinforcing the lesson that sometimes, despite fears, everything remains unchanged.