Nashville stand-up comedian Joshua “Josh Black” Lipscomb is walking down the aisle. Known for a viral 2021 TikTok in which a “Karen” accuses him of illegal activity in his apartment complex, the influencer announced his engagement to Kristen Crute on social media.
The May 21 post is an Instagram carousel of pictures from the momentous occasion, including a photo of Black kneeling with a ring in front of an excited Crute opposite an evening Chicago cityscape. “Sorry I took so long. I love you til death do us part,” Black wrote as the caption.
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Crute reposted the photos on her own account, writing, “Wow! I said YES to the most perfect man, who thought about every detail to make this one of most perfect moments of my life. My best friend. We gettin married y’all!” There is currently little information available on Black’s fiancé. However, her Instagram bio notes that she is a “Michael Scott enthusiast,” an “athlete,” and possibly works for or has a health and wellness website.
The engagement is a welcome spot of news for the comic, who is embroiled in a lawsuit with the Nashville Fire Department (NFD). Black sued them in April for violating his freedom of speech after the NFD suspended him twice for violating internal rules related to off-duty conduct, reported WPLN News.
However, Black calls those policies”vague and overbroad” in his lawsuit against the department. As alleged in the complaint, the three-member panel that determines what “reflects poorly on the department” did not show him the evidence cited in his disciplinary hearings.
Black was suspended that month for criticizing the Metro Council’s license plate readers, saying they would result in over-policing Black and Brown communities. A disciplinary panel member expressed concern about his tweet’s wording, in which he called Metro Council members “white supremacists” while urging millennials to vote.
It is against the NFD’s departmental policy for firefighters to “unjustly” criticize anyone inside the Metro government. In addition to compensation for nearly a month’s lost pay, he is seeking a declaration that the NFD’s policies are unconstitutional.
Black was then suspended for 11 days in May for taking sick leave without a doctor’s note. According to the department’s charge letter, Black hosted an event while out sick and awaiting a negative COVID test. In an amended complaint, Black alleged it was further retaliation.
The following month, Twitter suspended him for reportedly “photoshopping a confederate flag into the photo of a Nashville reporter and passing it off as authentic to support his claim of racism.” It is unknown whether the suspension is temporary or permanent.
In a 2021 cover story for The East Nashvillian, Black discussed how he became more politically active, getting involved with the local chapter of Democratic Socialists of America and the Nashville chapter of Communist Party USA, both of which are multi-racial. “Around the time Trump got elected, I also dove deep into politics and history,” he said.
“I pretty much gave up when he got elected. It felt like America didn’t give a f– about Black people, so where was the solution? I started studying the Black Panthers, and that led me to the history of socialism and revolutionary thought and theory.”
“It made me understand that capitalism, and even hip-hop culture because of capitalism, was telling me if you’re working class, you’re kind of a bozo and clearly lazy because you didn’t work hard enough — like the rich guys,” said Black.
“Socialism taught me the real hard workers are the working class — that’s the backbone of the country. It gave me a greater respect for my family, my neighborhood, and myself. It also gave me hope for white people because they’re being manipulated too — capitalism needs racism to survive.”
