We Burned It First

By Talamieka Brice

They’re burning MAGA hats now.

The same people who once wore that red symbol with pride—who embraced it as a rallying cry and a warning—are suddenly setting it aflame in protest, claiming betrayal by the very movement they helped create.

But I remember when I burned it first.

In 2020, at the conclusion of my award-winning documentary FIVE, A Mother’s Journey, I held a MAGA hat in my hands and set it on fire. Not out of spectacle. Not out of shock. I burned it because I knew exactly what it represented: hatred, violence, and the normalization of an ideology that put families like mine in danger.

When that image went viral, I received death threats. I was labeled “angry” and “divisive.” The hate was so intense that I had to alert my children’s schools to protect them from people who claimed to love “freedom” but were willing to terrorize a mother for speaking her truth.

Now those same voices are burning the symbol they once clung to.

But let’s not mistake this for courage.
This isn’t justice.
It’s performative rage from people who only see the cracks when they’re the ones falling through them.

Black women have always been the first to see through the lie. To speak it aloud. To pay the price for telling the truth in a world that depends on our silence.

When I burned that hat, I wasn’t making a political statement. I was lighting a fire to protect my children and to remind myself—and the world—that sometimes you have to burn the lie to see the light.

We saw it first.
We carried the cost first.

And still—we rise.

Support the work:

• Stream FIVE, A Mother’s Journey and witness the story for yourself.

• Donate to Mississippi² to sustain truth-telling and healing in the Deep South: Mississippi2.com

• Own a piece of my art and carry this message forward: Talamieka.com

Sometimes you have to burn the lie to see the light.