Just Because Something Bad Happens to Someone of Color Doesn't Automatically Mean It's a Racist Event
By LooeyVille
@LooeyVille (84)
United States
July 24, 2026 6:57am CST
I really am so very tired of "the race card" being played whenever a person of color experiences a negative outcome. Bad things happen.
The case in point is the unfortunate death of 18 year old Nolan Wells of Mississippi.
The teenager, who is Black, went to a party on a remote island off of Mississippi where several hundred young people attended what they're describing as a "huge raucous event" on the 4th of July. He went there with a couple of dozen friends who travelled in 3 separate boats.
At some point his closest group of friends in the boat he had traveled were having boat problems - a bilge pump or something - and were calling for help to leave but Nolan was talking with a girl and didn't want to leave, so the group left him there.
He never showed up again and was missing for two days when authorities found him dead on the island, wearing swim trunks, on July 6th. The initial assumption of cause of death was a drowning accident.
But the parents aren't believing any of it. They say their son wouldn't have stayed on the island. They're saying their don't didn't have his phone with him and that was out of character. They're saying he would never have separated from his group of friends. So they ordered a second independent autopsy which is inconclusive at this time. There's some talk about an injury or blood pooling on the back of his head.
The parents are saying his death is racially motivated. How they've come to that conclusion is unclear. They have retained famous Black Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump to represent them.
I know the parents are grieving and want definitive answers. I get that. But why immediately, without any evidence to suggest it, put it out there that they think his death was due to his race.
Bad things happen. It's a tragedy. But it doesn't mean it had anything to do with the young man being Black.
The family, as they always do, has started a GoFundMe page and already raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. Why do they need that much money? Several Black celebrities have offered to pay for the funeral expenses and the cost of an independent autopsy investigation.
Let the authorities do their job before making assumptions.
6 people like this
3 responses
@Marilynda1225 (91765)
• United States
24 Jul
From what I've seen on the news it just appears as a tragic accident.
2 people like this
@valherma00 (4785)
• Zagreb, Croatia (Hrvatska)
28 Jul
it feels like a tragic accident but people in grief can't see clearly, i think. i am always curious how people raise funds that fast through gofundme site.
1 person likes this
@snowy22315 (211407)
• United States
24 Jul
I agree with you. Bad things do indeed happen and several people have mentioned and I have read the current is bad there.However, wouldn't he have been found in the water, if at all if he drown? Maybe the tides washed him ashore..though it is certainly possible. I would curious to see what the first autopsy showed..Shouldn't they have tested him for water in his lungs? He could have been in the water and hit by a boat for all we know.
1 person likes this





