Beyond the Master's Tools: How Black Thought Exposes the Hypocrisy of Democracy

Thank you Lynette, Pamela R. Daniels, Carol Phipps, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.I posted a video this week. It was a simple flex, really—highlighting some of my college policy debate accolades. My partner and I were the first two Black people to go undefeated at the NDT exhibition rounds. We were ranked in the top 20 in the country. It was a celebration of Black excellence in a space we were told we didn’t belong.And like clockwork, it brought out the roaches.The lights came on, and the insecure white men scattered, desperate to prove themselves. Not to me, but to themselves. They had to conquer, to dominate, to engage. This isn’t an accident. It’s a pattern. It is what I call white men and intellectual pathology.This pathology isn’t just about being rude on the internet. It’s a structural logic. It’s the same logic that has criminalized Black thought since the moment this country was founded. When Black people learned to read, the plantation trembled. When we produce knowledge, when we refuse to be dictated to, those in power see a threat that must be neutralized. From Reagan to Trump to Wilson, the fear is the same: a Black man who can say what he means and mean what he says.This is my mini-lecture, my case study. We’re going to look at a man named Cam Higby—a perfect illustration of this pathology—and use him as a jumping-off point to talk about settler colonialism, the manufactured consent for genocide, and the delusion that white men have been conditioned to call “rationality.”We have a world structured around the comfort and development of mediocre white men. They make up 30% of the country but dominate every industry and level of government. When they see a Black man articulate, they feel insecure. And because the world has conditioned them to be entitled little pricks, they feel they have the right to challenge, to conquer, and to define the terms of reality.Let’s get into it.The Case Study: Cam Higby and the Settler’s Move to InnocenceI posted my accolades. I talked about being a top speaker. In response, we see these rage-baiters, these white men who manufacture Black folks being pissed off to farm engagement. But the real pathology is in the content of their arguments.I came across one of Higby’s old videos, a “response” to a point I made about Israel-Palestine. And it’s a masterclass in how this logic works.He starts by manipulating time, using a concept created in the 1800s (Zionism) to justify a retelling of history back to Roman times. He argues about the “legitimacy” of laws, claiming that under the Ottoman Empire, there was “no distinct Palestinian people.” He says they were just a sector of a larger empire, like the “Rocky Mountain region in America.”This is the settler’s move to innocence. It’s a narrative framework described by scholars Tuck and Yang. It’s the attempt by settlers and their descendants to erase the violence of their existence by claiming the land was empty, lawless, or ungoverned. It’s the same logic used against Indigenous peoples here: “They didn’t have a legal system; they were savages; so we aren’t breaking any laws by taking it.”He says there was no Palestinian state, so it was just a region. But this argument falls apart when you look at history. He conveniently forgets that the British government lied to the Palestinians during World War I, promising them sovereignty if they fought against the Ottomans. So either A) his claim that there was no legal framework is b******t, or B) it never actually mattered because the colonizer can change the rules whenever it suits them.This is the hypocrisy. It’s the intellectual pathology that allows for the creation of a state like Israel—an ethno-religious state founded on the principle of a “right to exist”—while ignoring that the people living there (Palestinians) had their rights erased from the start.And let’s be clear: Zionism is the Middle East version of Manifest Destiny. God always comes down and tells people of European descent it’s their right to own some land. But when a Black or Indigenous person says God gave them their land, suddenly God’s will is overridden by a “closer claim.”Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The Material Reality vs. The Idealistic DemocracyRight now, we are fighting a war with Iran. We are sending American tax dollars—your cousin, your nephew, your brother—to die in the name of protecting Israel’s political and economic interests. They just raised the recruitment age to 42 and said they don’t care about marijuana convictions anymore. But it wasn’t too long ago that those same convictions were used to deny Black people resources and opportunities.This is the interconvergence theory at work. It ain’t good for Black folks unless it’s good for white folks first.And this brings me to the biggest lie we’re fed: Democracy.We are told democracy is the highest form of government, the protector of humanity. We look at the idealism of it—the vote, the rights, the utopia—while ignoring the material reality.From its inception in Athens, democracy was built on the subjugation of women and the exclusion of slaves. It was never about “everybody.” And today, when we go into Iraq or Iran or Nicaragua to “spread democracy,” we leave behind destruction, fire, and bodies paid for by our tax dollars. The visual is the same in Baghdad in 2003 and Tehran in 2026: U.S. bombs.Everything Black people have gained in this country—the right to vote, to sit on a bus, to take a s**t next to white folks—we gained in spite of democracy, not because of it. We had to fight for it, bleed for it, die for it. The “unalienable rights” weren’t alienable to us until we forced the issue.So when I hear “protecting democracy,” I have to ask: protecting what? Protecting the system that gave us Trump? A man who broke the law more times than I can count, who installed unqualified loyalists (Jared Kushner, Linda McMahon) in positions of power while telling us that Black people are the unqualified ones?Donald Trump is not an aberration. Trump is a product of democracy. He used the tools of democracy to amass wealth, power, and legitimacy. And the “checks and balances” we were taught would save us? They aren’t stopping him from being tyrannical.This is white intellectual pathology. It is the ability to permute logic one way for yourself and a different way for everyone else. It is the delusion that your emotion—your fear, your rage—is a rational reason to mobilize the military, while everyone else’s emotion is just “being emotional.”Thanks for reading Education Is Elevation! This post is public so feel free to share it.A Rhetorical Question That Exposes EverythingI want to end this with a clip that says everything I’m trying to say. It’s from Matthew Cook, a white man who flipped the script so perfectly, I had to give him his props.He asked the question we’ve all been trained to ask: “Does Israel have a right to exist?”His answer? “No, of course not. People have rights. The concept of a state’s right to exist is a little rhetorical trick designed to make the rights of certain people disappear.”He breaks it down. Nationalism is a brand-new religion, invented less than 250 years ago. It’s a story—an imaginary group identity based on a cartoonish version of history—used to control populations. It glorifies conquerors as saints, turns political texts into holy scrolls, and real estate into holy land.It’s a tool to deny universal human rights.Albert Einstein called it a disease. Hannah Arendt said the expansion of European power into non-European territory was the beginning of totalitarianism. They all saw it.And here we are in 2026, in the third apex of nationalism in less than 100 years, living under oppressive regimes, with record-breaking inequality, watching people reshape their personalities to reflect their cult leaders.They are lost in the sauce. They believe they are defending democracy by destroying it. They believe they are fighting for God while ignoring the atheist who started Zionism. They believe they are qualified because of their skin, while calling us unqualified for the positions we earned.This is the intellectual pathology we have to name, define, and dismantle. Because once you can name the phenomenon, you can navigate it. You can see it for what it is: a delusion being inscribed on the world through violence.And we, as Black thinkers, as producers of knowledge, are the biggest threat to that delusion. That’s why they fear us. That’s why they try to erase us. And that’s why we must keep building, keep reading, and keep saying what we mean.5 Key Takeaways* Intellectual Pathology is a Structural Logic: The reaction to Black intellect is not random. It is a systemic response rooted in the history of slavery and settler colonialism, where Black thought is criminalized because it poses a threat to the established hierarchy of domination.* “Settler Moves to Innocence” are Narrative Weapons: The arguments used to justify the genocide in Palestine (e.g., “no distinct people,” “lawless land”) are the exact same arguments used to justify the colonization of Indigenous lands in North America. They are deliberate attempts to erase history and manufacture a moral high ground.* Democracy is an Ideology of Domination: The material reality of democracy—from its origins in Athens to its modern manifestation in US foreign policy—is defined by expansion, subjugation, and war. The rights Black people have were won in spite of this system, not because of its inherent goodness.* White Male Mediocrity is a Privileged Delusion: The American power structure is currently dominated by unqualified white men who are propped up by a system that rewards their projection and insecurity as “rationality” while punishing Black excellence as a “threat.” This is not a bug; it’s a feature of white supremacist patriarchy.* Nationalism is a Cult: Nationalism is a manufactured religion designed to divide people and concentrate power. We must reject the question “does a state have a right to exist?” and instead focus on the universal human rights of people, which transcend the violent borders created by colonial powers.Explicit Ask to Become a Paid SubscriberI’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education and corporate media. I document and teach the histories, legal frameworks, and cultural knowledge that are being systematically erased or distorted. With no corporate backing or wealthy sponsors, this work depends entirely on readers like you. As a Black educator and researcher, my work depends entirely on a community of readers, not corporate sponsors.If everyone reading this became a paid subscriber, we could build a full-time digital sanctuary: a new, independent source of PBS-depth reporting and curriculum, centered on Black expertise. But right now, less than 1% of my followers are paid subscribers.If you value this work—the mini-lectures, the bibliographies, the analysis that cuts through the propaganda—please consider becoming a paid subscriber today. It’s the only way to ensure this work continues and grows. Click the button below to join the community and help build the independent, Black-led media space we deserve.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Related Readings (Bibliography)* Tuck, Eve, and K. Wayne Yang. “Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, vol. 1, no. 1, 2012.* For the framework on “settler moves to innocence” and how the academy and society commodify indigeneity.* Arendt, Hannah. The Origins of Totalitarianism. Harcourt Brace & Co., 1951.* For the analysis of how European expansion laid the groundwork for totalitarian movements and the critique of nationalism.* Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. Grove Press, 1961.* For the foundational understanding of colonial violence, the psychology of the colonized and colonizer, and the necessity of decolonization.* Kelley, Robin D.G. Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. Beacon Press, 2002.* For the history of Black radical thought, creative imagination, and the fight to build new worlds in spite of systemic erasure.* Derrida, Jacques. “The ‘World’ of the Enlightenment to Come (Exception, Calculation, and Sovereignty).” *Negotiations: Interventions and Interviews, 1971-2001*, Stanford University Press, 2002.* For the philosophical deconstruction of sovereignty and the “right” of a state to exist.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theconsciouslee.substack.com/subscribe