American educator, YouTuber, and activist Ms Rachel, whose full name is Rachel Accurso, has reacted to the rising deaths by hanging of Black individuals in the Deep South, especially the recent one of Tasia Fortune, 29, in Jackson, Mississippi.“Listen to the Black community: Black people don’t hang themselves from trees,” Ms Rachel, 43, wrote on Threads 16 hours ago.Disclaimer: This article mentions suicide, racism, hate crime, lynching, slavery, and more sensitive topics. Discretion is advised.Her post comes amid backlash from conservatives for advocating left-leaning politics and reparations on her social media platforms. In fact, just last week, the children’s entertainer took to her Instagram and posted a quote about the need to make amends for the USA’s history of slavery.Ms Rachel reacts to black people dying by hanging. (Image via Threads)Exploring Ms Rachel’s latest advocacy and subsequent criticismOn August 10, Rachel Accurso posted a quote on her social media from Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2014 essay, “The Case for Reparations,” which states the need to “reckon” with the country’s history of slavery.“Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole,” the quote reads.Panelists on Fox News’ The Big Weekend Show condemned Ms Rachel for inserting herself into politics, warned parents about potential “indoctrination,” and urged them to monitor what their children are watching online, hinting at the children’s content creator.Earlier this month Ms Rachel endorsed Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed as well as former Missouri Representative Cori Bush, ahead of primary elections.Ms Rachel also advocated for justice for 18-year-old Nolan Wells who went missing after a Fourth of July boat trip with his friends in Horn Island, off the Mississippi Gulf Coast, before being found dead a few days later on the shoreline.“We know the investigation and everything that followed would have been different if Nolan Wells were White and his friends were Black. Nolan and his family deserve justice,” Rachel wrote.Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg took aim at the YouTuber and claimed she was once again “injecting division” like when she took sides in the Israel-Palestine conflict while speaking with Fox News Digital:“Ms Rachel is at it again. Whether it’s injecting division into domestic tragedies or spreading toxic, antisemitic rhetoric in her posts about the Middle East, she constantly pushes narrative over facts. We need real investigative transparency [in the Wells case], not popular children’s creators using tragic deaths and foreign policy to divide us.” View this post on Instagram Instagram PostAs of August, no foul play is suspected in Wells’ death and the local coroner ruled it as drowning. However, the family of the Southwest Mississippi Community College wide receiver has retained civil rights attorney Ben Crump to look into the matter and is demanding independent findings.As a probe into Nolan Wells’ disappearance and death continues, reports of several deaths by hanging of Black individuals have been circulating online and reigniting fear in the community. Many claim deaths of Black people under mysterious/suspicious circumstances are often not investigated properly.On August 3, authorities found Tasia Fortune hanging from a tree in the backyard of a vacant home in Jackson, Mississippi. The official cause or manner of death has yet to be determined. It remains unclear whether foul play is suspected. Meanwhile, the Jackson Police Department told ABC News that it is an “active death investigation.” Her mother, Christy Spivey, told the outlet:“This has just devastated us. Tasia was strong-minded; she was full of laughs and love, she had faith in God… She had so little and gave so much… She was better than I had seen her in a long time. She was at peace. She did not do this to herself. I know my daughter and she did not do this to herself.”Besides Tasia Fortune, other deaths by hanging of Black individuals this year alone include Juliana Nzita in Charlotte, North Carolina, Kyle Bassinga in Cobb County, Georgia, and Tonea Nicole Miller in Miami, Florida. Last year, deaths of Javio Magee in North Carolina and De’Martravion “Trey” Reed in Mississippi were also widely reported.Like Ms Rachel, other celebrities have also raised suspicion. For instance, earlier this week, Broadway actress-singer Audra McDonald reacted to a Threads post, writing “WTF is happening!!!!????” The original post by @jlgtwo’s read:“Exactly 24 Black bodies have reportedly been found hanging from trees in the Deep South between Mar. 2025 and Aug. 2026. Some found so high up that suicide is implausible. I’ve said it before: black people do not publicly lynch themselves.” View this post on Instagram Instagram PostLast week, life coach, keynote speaker, and activist Barrett Pall also reacted to a mississippifreepress.org article titled,“Black Woman Found Hanging in Tree Behind Vacant Home in Jackson, But Details Are Sparse.”Pall, who is also an actor, digital creator, podcaster, and writer, wrote on Threads:“BLACK PEOPLE DO NOT HANG THEMSELVES FROM TREES. ANOTHER WOMAN WAS FOUND MONDAY.”As Ms Rachel mentioned, Center for Disease Control and National Center for Health Statistics data also suggest that Black people are the “least likely demographic group” to commit suicide by hanging/suffocation, which is perhaps rooted in the history of slavery, lynching, racism, and hate crime.Meanwhile, Black Lives Matter organizations are protesting the “rush to judgment” by local coroners and ruling most of the deaths by hanging of Black individuals as suicides within 72 hours.