When video surfaced of a white woman named Shiloh Hendrix allegedly calling a Black child the n-word—and then raising over $600,000 in donations on GiveSendGo—many were stunned. Others were outraged. But Atlanta-based entrepreneur and activist Kiandria Demone took action.
“Not only did you call the baby the N-word, you proceeded to monetize that,” Demone tells ESSENCE. “That was the moment when I was like, alright, enough is enough.”
Demone leveraged her background in web development to investigate the fundraiser, peeling back layers of the site’s code to find the payment processors connected to the donations. Her discovery? A breadcrumb trail leading to financial platforms like Stripe and Block (parent company of Square, Cash App and Afterpay). What began as a Twitter call-out quickly became a social media campaign to hold those platforms accountable.
“A payment processor or a bank, a financial institution, period, has laws that they have to abide by,” she explains, detailing how she traced the money and led online efforts to report the fundraiser. She urged her followers to file complaints and helped mobilize a wave of reports to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), calling for the suspension of funds for potential violations of anti-discrimination laws. “If they choose not to freeze her funds, the next step would be for them to face civil action,” she asserted.
Demone’s fight against Hendrix’s crowdfunding efforts shines a light on a larger issue: the role of financial and social platforms in amplifying hate.
For her, this case is part of a much broader pattern. She points to how social media and fundraising platforms often amplify hate or allow it to fester under the guise of free speech—while silencing voices like hers. “I do see how platforms allow so much space for hate,” she said. “And I’ll even go so far as to say these algorithms pick and choose which voices they want to give a platform to.”
Her critique is backed by data: Black Americans are three times more likely to experience online harassment, and fundraisers tied to hate-driven narratives are increasingly common on fringe fundraising platforms.
Demone is determined to shine a light on those patterns—and force the companies behind them to face consequences. “There are too many people who are complicit,” she stated. “So I was one of those people that just refused to be complicit. The platform that I had, I was using it to call people out, and people started to recognize me and know me for that.”
She’s quick to remind her followers that collective action—not singular heroics—is what makes the difference. “I want people to understand, not to just sit back and put all of this stock in me as a hero because I’m not Batman,” she emphasizes. “It will take a collective effort if we want to get things done.”
For Demone, it was never just about one woman and one fundraiser—it’s about the systems that allow racial hatred to go unchecked and, worse, be rewarded. It’s also about setting a precedent for accountability in the digital age. She sees platforms like GiveSendGo, Stripe and Block as enablers of harmful narratives, willing to profit from hate unless confronted.
“I just happened to find something that was useful. I’m just a person who saw wrong, and I decided to do something about it,” she tells ESSENCE.
Demone has no intention of slowing down. She says she will continue encouraging her community to report financial institutions to the FTC and pursue civil action if funds are disbursed to Hendrix. Her digital footprint is growing, and so is her resolve to push platforms to uphold their policies. However, she also wants to let everyone watching know that her power has bounds.
“I want to clarify the point on whether I was actually trying to take the site down myself,” she began, reiterating that she was not. “I think one important thing to note is the fact that I’m aware of who I am in this country. Not only do I not know how to do that, I am a Black woman. Anonymous may get away with stuff like that. But they would put me under the jail for less. We all know that.”
“I want us to look at the picture long term,” she said. “Regardless of who you believe, now we know how to find them. I have started a dialogue and we have a way to hold them accountable moving forward.”
Her message is clear: the fight isn’t about going viral. It’s about making real, systemic change. “We don’t have to take it. If we work together, we can get things done.”