Coding was all it took for web developer Kiandria Demone to discover that the payment processor Stripe is behind a Christian crowdfunding site enabling hate speech against a Black child.
Shiloh Hendrix is a white woman who is profiting off of calling a five-year-old Black boy the N-word on a platform called GiveSendGo. The platform is also involved in crowdfunding for Kyle Rittenhouse. So far, Hendrix has raised $700K, claiming she’s being bullied online.
Demone is making sure Hendrix doesn’t see a single cent of the money. Demone did what no one else thought to do: she asked, “How can I find that funding source,” and used her skills to crack the code.
“I right-clicked to inspect, and then the code was open in front of me,” Demone said. “I scrolled it [the source code] line by line.”
Her findings sparked a national conversation about crowdfunding weaponization, compelling payment processors like Stripe, Square and Block Inc. to respond. It also highlights the U.S.’s resurgence of hidden racism.
Who is Kiandria Demone?
Demone is more than a web developer—she’s a mother, entrepreneur, and founder of both an ad agency and a clothing brand.
Known for using tech to uplift her community, she’s clear about what she is—and what she’s not. “People keep calling me a hacker. I’m not,” she told The Black Wall Street Times. “I’m just someone who paid attention.”
Demone said it wasn’t about being a genius—it was about refusing to look away. “I’m not Batman. I just knew where to look.” Her digital literacy became a tool for resistance when no one else stepped up.
What Demone found and how it works
While inspecting GiveSendGo’s website to stop the fundraiser, Demone right-clicked to view the HTML source code, and what she found shocked her.
“I scrolled it line by line, and I had keywords that I was looking for,” Demone told the Black Wall Street Times. “I was looking for anything that would indicate who a payment processor was, any names that sounded familiar.”
Then she saw the word Block. She recognized it and discovered Square is a product of Block Inc, the company that runs the point of sale for CashApp.
“So I posted that I saw Block in the code and followed that breadcrumb,” Demone said. “That’s how Square got involved.”
On a viral TikTok earlier this month, Demone revealed that GiveSendGo’s payment processor was Square. Initially, Square acknowledged their involvement in Hendrix’s campaign after Demone called for a boycott, but GiveSendGo then switched to Stripe.
“At some point, someone reached out to say, “I saw Block Inc., but now I see Stripe,” Demone said. “I said, “Okay, let’s not get bogged down, let’s talk to Stripe now.”
It’s likely that GiveSendGo changed their processor due to Square’s response to Demone.
Following the release of this article, we received the following statement from Square:
“Block and our brands – including Square and Cash App – have never been the payment processor for GiveSendGo and have not conducted any payment processing whatsoever for this fundraiser. Any claim or statement to the contrary is simply false. At one time, Cash App Pay was a form of payment (like a credit or debit card) on GiveSendGo, which is the reason some related code exists. Cash App Pay on GiveSendGo was disabled in 2023 and has not been a payment option on the platform since then,” said Square’s communications team.
Stripe’s response
Embedded in Shiloh Hendrix’s GiveSendGo checkout code was a breadcrumb: Stripe, the largest payment processor, facilitated donations that enabled racism. Stripe’s customers include Airbnb, Amazon, Microsoft, Uber, OpenAI, and it also processes payments for Substack.
According to Stripe’s Developer Code of Conduct, harassment includes hate or violence against individuals based on race. Stripe has stated that racism contradicts its commitment to fair opportunity available to everyone. Therefore, using Stripe’s platform for hate speech or racist content violates its terms of service.
Despite this messaging, Stripe supports GiveSendGo, which has previously backed legal defense campaigns for Kyle Rittenhouse and other far-right figures.
“They can create their own policies,” Demone told The Black Wall Street Times. “But they don’t get to choose who it applies to. That’s not how fairness works.”
Her discovery revealed how hate speech is not just tolerated online—it’s a trend, it’s funded, coded, and moves through digital backdoors most users overlook.
Demone stated Stripe has not responded. “They’ve cut their comments off and their customer service flow, making it harder to file a general complaint.” The Black Wall Street Times reached out for a response, but they have not heard back.
What comes next for Stripe and other processors
Kiandria Demone’s work didn’t end with TikTok. She’s still in the fight—but now she’s calling on the rest of us to run the next play.
Her digital sleuthing pressured Square to withdraw from the fundraiser. However, the infrastructure remains. Stripe, the processor for donations to Shiloh Hendrix, has not responded, despite mounting evidence that the campaign violates its own rules against hate-fueled fundraising.
For Demone, stopping one pipeline isn’t the finish line. “This isn’t just about Shiloh,” she said. “It’s about who gets to raise money with impunity—and who gets shut down without warning.”
“I got the steal,” she added. “Now someone else needs to slam dunk it.”
What comes next stretches beyond code. It requires coordinated pressure—legal, journalistic, and grassroots. Demone told The Black Wall Street Times that civil rights attorneys are examining whether Stripe’s involvement could violate anti-discrimination protections or the developer code of conduct.
How you can help
Demone urges watchdogs to monitor all Stripe platforms, claiming GiveSendGo won’t be the last. She wants action from people, not just lawyers or news. “Start pulling your dollars. Period,” Demone said. “Boycott Stripe. Boycott brands using Stripe until they enforce their terms. Make it hurt financially. That’s the only language these companies speak.”
Demone also encourages Black entrepreneurs to consider alternative payment tools. “Look into alternatives,” she said. “You don’t have to use Stripe just because it’s big. Other ways exist to receive payments without supporting platforms that fund white supremacy.”
For those unfamiliar with coding, she advises not to self-exclude. “Maybe this is your sign to learn to inspect a webpage,” Demone said. “Start with the basics. I’m not special—I just took what I knew and used it.”
Demone particularly addresses young Black women and queer individuals in tech: “Stay rooted in your values. Don’t let people gaslight you into thinking you’re doing too much. You’re not. You’re doing what they refuse to,” she said.
