Shiloh Hendrix, White Christianity, and The Reward of Racism in America
Shiloh Hendrix, a white woman from Rochester, Minnesota, was caught on camera in a local park playground using the N-word toward a 5-year-old Black autistic boy who she claimed had taken her diaper bag.
In the video, as she is confronted by the man recording the video, Hendrix throws up a defiant middle finger and joyfully doubles down with a flurry of repetitions of the racist epithet, all while holding her own child under her arm.
She should have received universal condemnation.
Instead, she is being rewarded.
Instead of expressing contrition for her racist tirade, Hendrix took to the Christian fundraising platform GiveSendGo to declare herself the victim, and as of this writing, has raised $675,000 as a reward for her racism.
Hendrix stated on the fundraising page:
“I am asking for your help to assist in protecting my family. I fear that we must relocate. I have two small children who do not deserve this. We have been threatened to the extreme by people online.”
This is where America has found itself now, 250 years into its existence: so afflicted with white supremacy that the kind of repugnant behavior that should turn someone into a pariah, now transforms them into a supremacist’s martyr, a racist’s hero.
But this isn’t about Shiloh Hendrix, at least not primarily.
Her words and actions are completely vile and fully worthy of the vitriol they have generated against her.
But the real human tragedy here is that thousands of white Americans (nearly all of them professing to be followers of Jesus) saw in Shiloh Hendrix someone who spoke for them, who embodied the hatred they harbor in their hearts, someone who stood as a playground proxy, spewing the dehumanizing words that they only dream of using.
Much like with Donald Trump, Hendrix’s unapologetic display of racism toward a Black child is allowing self-identified Christian white supremacists all over this nation to hate vicariously through her, to feel power through her, to celebrate whiteness through her.
And just like Hendrix, those who chose to financially reward her for her racism also likely have children who are being shaped by the hateful hearts of those raising them. They, too, are being weaned on a supremacy that sees white people as both the victim and the hero. Many of Hendrix’s benefactors have children, nephews, and granddaughters, who may one day find themselves in a public park, restaurant, or church gathering, defiantly and joyfully broadcasting their racism, believing themselves as righteous, and expecting to be applauded for it.
America is too far into our history for this shit, friends. Racists shouldn’t be handed wealth. They shouldn’t be awarded public office.
As a white Christian in America, I’m embarrassed for our nation that tens of millions of us have learned nothing from our disgraceful history about the damage that dehumanization and bigotry do to those who practice it and those who absorb it.
I’m sick to my stomach that professed followers of Jesus can be so saturated with racism, that with their wallets and their votes, they elevate people like Shiloh Hendrix and Donald Trump, instead of condemning and rejecting them.
I’m grief-stricken to know that a Black mother can’t escape the unearned viciousness of White people in a public park, that her children are hounded by racism even on a playground.
But most of all, I’m outraged that so many white people who have children of their own, are so poisoned by the myth of their supremacy that they celebrate a stranger’s hatred because it reflects their own; that they don’t give a damn about racism’s cost because they are too busy contributing to its reward.
I read this with my gut in knots. Every line. Every truth. Every indictment of what we’ve become—and what we’re still becoming. I agree with all of it. Fully. Painfully. Furiously.
What happened in that park wasn’t just a racist outburst. It was a sermon. A sermon to white America, preached not in words but in dollars. Nearly $700,000 raised not in spite of her hatred—but because of it. That’s not just racism—that’s a reward system. That’s a message broadcast loud and clear: “You say what we wish we could say, and we’ll make you rich for it.”
Let’s not fool ourselves—this didn’t come from the fringe. These are everyday folks. Church folks. PTA folks. Neighbors. People who will sing hymns on Sunday morning and wire money to a woman who degraded a five-year-old Black autistic boy for sport. And they’ll sleep like babies after doing it. Because they don’t see hate—they see home team.
I’m a white man. I’ve served this country—twenty years in uniform. My father served. My grandfather. My granduncles. One of them never came home—buried in Belgium after fighting real fascists in World War II. And I am sick to my soul that this is what that service stands next to now. That in a country soaked in memorials to sacrifice, we lift up people like Shiloh Hendrix as if they’re the patriots.
The most damning truth here isn’t that she did it. It’s that she wasn’t disqualified by it.
In fact, she was elevated.
That’s the real indictment. Not the slur. Not the camera footage. But the response.
Because what this tells us—what we cannot pretend not to see—is that for millions of white Americans, racism is not a bug. It’s a beacon. A bonding ritual. A signal of shared grievance, righteous cruelty, and counterfeit victimhood.
And what do they teach their children?
That hatred gets you paid. That supremacy makes you a hero. That cruelty isn't just permissible—it's marketable.
We like to say "this isn't who we are." But the money says otherwise.
This is who we are—if we keep choosing it.
And over and over, we do.
Thank you for writing this. For refusing to look away. For naming what so many try to dress up or dilute.
I won’t be one of the silent.
Not now. Not ever.
This is ridiculous. She caused the problem, she used offensive language, she made accusatory remarks, she jumped to conclusions, and she ran and told anyone who would listen that SHE was wronged?? What in the world? She would have had a fit if someone reacted that way to her son.
Blonde, inappropriate behavior, blaming others for what she did…sound familiar?….Actions speak louder than words.