What Do Shaboozy and Jeffrey Epstein Have in Common? A Lesson on Settler Colonial Logic

The lesson isn’t about the pages. It’s about the silence that follows. The file is closed. Over a million pages detailing the most prolific elite child trafficking and abuse network in modern memory have been dumped into the public domain. The outcry was immediate, the furor was intense, and… absolutely nothing, no fundamental changes or structural responses.We wanted a reckoning and accountability. What we got was a receipt.A receipt proving a system’s most important feature: its ability to absorb shock, to metabolize outrage, and to continue. The greatest “conspiracy” wasn’t what Epstein did; it’s that his entire network of power, after being exposed, could look at a million pages of its own indictment and calmly conclude, This changes nothing.The Real “Furniture” ConspiracyRemember the “Wayfair conspiracy”? The one from the darker corners of the internet about kids being trafficked in furniture containers? We dismissed it as the ramblings of QAnon, a fringe fantasy.Ahh, combing through the Epstein files, I found something that made my blood run cold. We weren’t looking at the right furniture company, truth really can be stranger than fiction. The financial footprints lead to Ashley Furniture—hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions. Old articles, ones I remember from my college days about this very conspiracy, have been scrubbed from the web. The evidence isn’t in a Reddit thread; it’s in Jeffrey Epstein’s own bank statements.It makes you wonder: Was the “furniture” talk a sick inside joke? Or, more disturbingly, was the entire online conspiracy theory seeded and amplified early on to make the very concept of “elite child trafficking” seem like a lunatic fringe idea? To discredit anyone who might later speak the truth by associating it with baby-eating cabals? They manufacture the narrative of insanity to protect the reality of the crime.Protecting Which Children?This is the part that makes my ass itch.For the past five years, I’ve taken immense heat and smoke from folks for my advocacy around trans visibility and LGBTQ+ humanity. The pushback always came cloaked in the language of “protecting the children.” Letting kids be kids. Causing hysteria over the “potentiality” of abuse in queer spaces.Now look. Look at the political aisle that has fought hardest to protect Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirators. It is the same political aisle that has pushed over 500 pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in 2023 alone, all in the name of “child welfare.”They pointed their fingers at drag queens and trans folks, screaming about predators. All the while, the real predators—rich, connected, overwhelmingly white men—were flying to private islands. The moral panic was never about safety. It was a weapon. A tool of social control to target marginalized communities while providing cover for the actual abusers operating at the highest levels of their own political power structure.The call, as I’ve said, was always coming from inside the house.Shaboozy, Settlers, and the Four Pillars of AmericaThis brings me to a different, but deeply connected, conversation.When Shaboozy won his Grammy and said “immigrants built this country,” I celebrated his win but knew his statement was a historical misnomer. In the heat of a beautiful Black History Month moment, his intent was to honor his Nigerian immigrant parents. I get that. The pathway to hell, as my grandfather said, is paved with good intentions.As a scholar and a descendant of African enslaved in America, I have to deal in material history, not inspirational ideals. To say “immigrants built this country” is structurally ahistorical. It erases the brutal, foundational truth of this colonial project.America was not built. It was constructed through four distinct, unequal subject positions:* The Settler: Who came to take the land, displace the indigenous, and establish a new colonial order.* The Immigrant: Who later came, voluntarily, for opportunity within the system the settlers established.* The Indigenous: Who was already here, and who faced genocide and displacement.* The Enslaved: Who was forcibly brought here as capital, not as people, to provide the labor that built the economic foundation.My ancestors didn’t immigrate. They were cargo. To conflate the immigrant experience with the enslaved experience is to erase the specific, foundational violence that made “America” possible. This isn’t about division; it’s about precision. Our analysis must be as sharp as the history is brutal.We can celebrate Shaboozy’s achievement—the first Black man to win Best Country Duo is undeniable Black history—while also insisting on historical clarity. He has since apologized, and I accept it. The moment is a teachable one about the power of our words and the weight of our lineages.Education is elevation. If this analysis provides value, please consider voting for me for the NAACP Image Award for Digital Content Creator. It directly supports this kind of independent work. [VOTING LINK] LINK HERE AGAINThank you Tyronda, Tamibetcha, Leia's Blaster, CicifromCincy, Jessica Rolon-Banker, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. 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