About

The Only Thing The Establishment Truly Fears also known as I Got Your Back, Brother refers to an exploitable meme featuring a crude drawing of an armed white man wearing a Confederate shirt and an armed Black man with dreads and Malcolm X on his shirt fist bumping. The meme is often accompanied by text that reads, "The only thing the establishment truly fears" and "I got your back brother." The meme is often evoked ironically to joke about unity across political or social differences.

Origin

The earliest known post featuring a crudely drawn image of a white man wearing a Confederate shirt and a Black man wearing a shirt with Malcolm X on it was posted on August 18th, 2017 by Facebook^[1] user Sunbury Lee (seen below). The image was accompanied by text that read, "I Got Your Back, Brother."

The image is likely a reference to the older Goku And Vegeta Fist Bump meme.

Spread

On July 15th, 2019, Facebook^[2] page CentristChad posted a version of the meme that gathered over 500 reactions (seen below, left). An April 30th, 2021 post on Instagram^[3] page @psycho_bitch_memes showed the image with a packet of Newports inserted between the two men. The post gathered over 1,400 likes in two years (seen below, right).

On December 14th, 2021, Redditor^[4] /u/ -UNFLAIRED- posted a version of the meme to /r/politicalcompassmemes, gathering over 7,000 upvotes in two years (seen below, left). On August 26th, 2023, Instagram^[5] page @decelerateyourlife posted a version of the meme that gathered over 2,300 likes in two months (seen below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References