Rage Relief Kit #2: I Made You Pancakes! Plus: Franchesca Ramsey Eats Your Face for Fun!

They used to say "stay woke." But nowadays it feels like "stay mad."

Unemployment is climbing, the stock market is falling, eggs are $16, cuts are coming to any semblance of healthy food in kids' school lunches, tariffs are on, then off, then on again, and somebody's president won't confirm or deny the looming deep recession that will pop off if we stay this course of delusion and confusion.

At Rage Relief Kit, we encourage you to be as upset as you'd like over the current state of the world, we simply suggest that you channel that anger into something positive and productive.

Last week, we called Congress Critters and cussed. This week? Content creator, actor, and graphic designer Franchesca Ramsey talks about what happens when your career is blowing up while the world is crashing down. I throw a weekend brunch where my most dazzling and loquacious guests don't leave until well after dinner time. And, at the end of this post, I'm going to reveal my family pancake recipe to all 3,000+ of my IG followers who have watched me post nothing but pictures of my perfect pancakes for years.

Let's gooooooo!

How to Feed the Leopards with Franchesca Ramsey

It's the end of the world as we know it, but Franchesca Ramsey's career as a content creator is doing fine.

At 41, the West Palm Beach, Fla. native first emerged on the scene with her viral YouTube video "Shit White Girls Say ... to Black Girls" nearly 13 years ago, and has TV shows like MTV Decoded, NBC's Superstore, and countless hours of viral content under her belt. Now in Los Angeles for the past five years, she's experiencing her own personal renaissance at the same time the country is sliding into fascism. Which will happen first? Ramsey's personal ascent to the top of the creator mountain, fueled by her hit, ironic "I Never Thought the Leopards Would Eat My Face" series — or the end of Democracy?

"It’s so weird that my videos are going viral and I’m getting more followers and selling all this merch," Ramsey said. "At the same time every day is ripping the fabric of our country apart every day. It's very disorienting."

It's a race against time, as Ramsey works on new content, a show in development, and tries to build upon her "Leopards" empire on TikTok, calling out right-wing hypocrisy with wit and humor. A talented graphic artist by trade, Ramsey has her own leopards merch for the sing-songy hit, which has origins in an online joke about the "Leopards Eating People's Faces Party."

"I never thought leopards would eat MY face," sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party.

Meant to point out the absurdity of people who vote or support cruel policies with the hope that they'll only impact people they don't like, when, in fact, the policy affects them too. Case in point: Anything involving government workers who voted for the current administration only for that administration to lay them off and leave them scrambling for work in an already volatile and oversaturated job market. To wit: You thought it was just gonna get us "DEIs," huh?

But while the leopards continue to eat (now in Español!) — Ramsey is contemplating her next phase, while at the same time navigating the weirdness that comes when people recognize you, but your bank account still reflects that of a working creative in Los Angeles.

"The weirdest thing about it, I feel like I’m the same person but the way people perceive me has changed," Ramsey said when we spoke over video chat last week. "I’ll meet someone at a party and I’ll hit it off or casually talk to them, but if they look me up and see my social media they get weird. Or get clingy."

It's a familiar feeling. Back in 2009, two years after I launched my old pop culture and politics blog, The Black Snob, I started to attract people similar to the ones Ramsey is now dealing with — your new "best friends," whether you want them or not, who act like complete weirdos because they think you're famous, or going to be really famous, and want to be part of the journey. Or just want to be weird about the journey, like by asking Ramsey if she'll use them in her content.

"I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to that," she said. "It’s really weird."

But if making friends when you're the "leopard's lady" gets weird, imagine dating! There's nothing like hitting it off with someone only to find out your prospective date follows you on social media, leaving Ramsey to question: "How much of that is a real connection and how much is that you know things about me?"

Ramsey muses she should be used to this, considering this happened early in her career too, but it's hard because while she may be big online, in real life, she still sees herself as just Franchesca.

"On the one hand I’m glad that it hasn’t turned me into a total hermit," she said. "I still just forget. I feel like a regular person. I don’t live the life of celebrity. Maybe if I was really rich I’d be in a different place, but I’m not. I do my own grocery shopping, I drive my own car."

The content creator started making YouTube videos in college, joining the site in 2006 while starting her career as a graphic designer. Originally, she made a lot of hair content and worked as a designer at Ann Taylor at their home office in Times Square, New York City. After her YouTube videos became popular, she made her way into the entertainment world, moving to Los Angeles to work on NBC's Superstore. After filming in California for three months, she decided she didn't want to return to New York and has been in L.A. ever since.

But while L.A. has been good for her career, her wallet is another story.

"Visibility does not equal wealth," Ramsey said.

A while back, a video of Ramsey's apartment rental and the graphic designs she made for her walls went viral, leading to several rude comments from followers, asking: "Why don’t you just buy a house?"

"I actually don’t have millions of subscribers and even if I did, millions of subscribers doesn’t equal a million dollars," she said.

Then, when the Writer's Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild went on strike, Ramsey was on strike too, meaning she went without work just like everyone else. Online critics shouted how actors were "asking for so much," not realizing "a guest star [role] on TV is $5,000."

But despite the popularity of "leopards" and her viral TikToks, Ramsey is trying to break up with the Internet. Why? "The inconsistency and unreliability of the funds." 

"There’s literally no work life balance if you are the content. I don’t make food or do fashion. Even if I did fashion, you’re putting yourself out there and it can feel like you're asked to work all the time," said Ramsey, adding that she'd just hired a social media manager to help with the load, but despite needing this help it "feels like I just gave my child away."

However, getting a social media manager was necessary for Ramsey's mental health. So much of her work was staying up on what's trending online, consuming lots of content, and reading what people are saying about her.

"It's a lot," Ramsey said. "I’ve been harassed by someone and then suddenly that turns into a spectacle and everyone is weighing in ... I’m way too sensitive. I’m so sensitive, but I think that makes me good at what I do. If I could just turn off my emotions I would. I would stop letting this get to me, but I can’t. I’m human."

How does Ramsey — who describes herself as an ambivert — relax and re-center herself from the cacophony of critics on the Internet? Well, she likes to work out, loves massages, is really into art, and is a proud pothead.

"I smoke a lot of weed," she said. "I’ve been a pothead for a really long time and honestly, I’ve only felt comfortable in recent years admitting that. There’s such a stigma around pot. Not for white people. Not for men. [But] there’s no Black female equivalent of Seth Rogan."

Ramsey defies stereotype of a pot smoker — "I’m so type A, very organized, not a slacker, and I work out. I don’t present as the type that smokes weed."

And when she's not decompressing with art, massages, and marijuana (some at the same time), she's getting energized by face time with friends. If you're going to be in the digital mines all day, you need some in real life homies to keep you centered.

"The offline community is just as important as your online community," she said. "I have so many friends, and whenever I say that [some say] there’s no way you have a lot of friends. But I really do. And they’re not all my best friends.

"Your friends are your night sky with all these different stars. They all shine, but they shine brighter at different times, but they’re all part of your orbit," said Ramsey. "You have your North Star, your best friend you talk to all the time. Others you see a few times a year, but when you see them, you have a four-hour conversation."

Like her friends, at ANTISOCIAL, we hope Ramsey continues to shine bright in the constellation of content creators, making us think and laugh at the same time.

If you love Ramsey's work, or want to learn more, you can follow her on TikTok or find her online here.

I Knew You Were Coming So I Made Pancakes!

This past Sunday, I hosted a brunch in my home where not a crumb of food survived. (Some of my guests, who arrived between 1:30 and 3 p.m., stayed past 8 p.m., so I think it was a hit.) The menu was simple: buttermilk fried chicken, berry salad, and my crowd-pleaser pancakes.

One of the main features of my brunch (or really, any breakfast in a Belton family household) is pancakes — as in "the Belton Pancake."

My father, David Belton, who learned how to cook from his mother, taught me how to make them, but he thinks I've overhyped our family's penchant for pancakes (he's modest, y'all), as it's just a basic pancake recipe. There is no special or surprise ingredient. But there is a clear technique we have that provides for near perfect pancakes every time. And while my pancakes are servicable and yummy (pictured below), my father's pancakes are so thick and perfect — they are a meal all by themselves.

So after years of saying no — I'm going to tell y'all how to make a proper pancake with a version of our family recipe.

Enjoy!

How to Make a Proper Belton Pancake

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar, optional
• 3 eggs
• 1-to-1½ cups milk
• ½-to-1 cup buttermilk (optional — just add more milk as needed of you don’t have buttermilk)
• 6 tbsp of a neutral oil (or vegetable oil)
• 1 tbsp of butter to melt in pan
• 1 room-temp stick of butter (for coating individual pancakes with 1 tbsp of butter after cooking it)

Instructions:

Mix wet (eggs first, then add oil, and milk/buttermilk) and dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar) separately and thoroughly in two large bowls. Once mixed, add the wet to the dry bowl and mix by hand until all is moist and there are no lumps. 

Let the bowl sit for a moment. Warm a large, non-stick skillet on the stove over medium-high heat. Grease the skillet with 1 tbsp butter, using a paper towel to coat it, but mop up any residual or excess butter.

As your skillet heats up, the batter should thicken a bit from the salt and baking powder activating. Check the consistency of the batter. Is it watery (bad) or thick (good)? Add more milk if necessary to get the right consistency. The batter should be thick, but still run smoothly and quickly when you pour it out. If the batter is watery and thin, you have too much milk and need more flour.

Turn down the skillet's heat to medium. Using a medium-sized soup ladle (this tool is critical to creating round pancakes), spoon a ladleful of batter into the skillet, pouring it in the center to create a perfectly round pancake. Let the pancake cook for about 2 to 3 minutes, until bubbles form and the edges start to crisp, then flip with a large spatula to cook the other side for 1 to 2 minutes.

After the pancake is done, transfer it to a plate and repeat the cooking process. While the next pancake is cooking, take your room-temperature butter and cut a 1-tbsp pat of butter with a butter knife to spread on the cooked pancake and melt into it. 

When you're done, you should have between 8 and 10 beautiful pancakes. Enjoy, beloveds!

Tip: The first pancake is always an experiment and never as pretty as the ones that will come after. It’s OK. I promise the ugly first pancake will taste as good as the subsequent, perfect pancakes!

Until next time!