Education is Elevation

Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.May 8, 2024: The Day the Cory Booker Beef Got PersonalI want to take y’all back. All the way back. Because folks be acting like my critique of Cory Booker started yesterday, started when he climbed up on the Senate floor for 25 hours, started when the AIPAC numbers dropped, started when he was the lone Democrat to confirm Charles Kushner. Nah. My beef with Cory Booker has a birthday. May 8, 2024. Washington, D.C. A content creator and influencer summit where over a hundred of us got flown in to talk about advocacy and education in the current climate. That’s the day. That’s the room. That’s where it stopped being a policy disagreement and became personal. Let me explain why, and let me walk y’all through every step of the two years that followed, because Research over MeSearch is the standard and the receipts have been receipt-ing this whole time.Picture the scene. A senator who is a sitting United States senator, a man who has run for president once already and is clearly running again, gets invited to address a room full of content creators — the same content creators his caucus wants to mobilize, the same ones his administration’s pollsters told him he needs, the same ones who have been documenting genocide on a phone faster than the New York Times can edit a headline. And what does he do? He jumps up on a table. Tom Cruise on Oprah, you feel me. A whole ass move. Theatrical. Performative. The body language of a man who thinks he’s about to give a TED Talk to an audience that already knows the punchline.He starts talking about the significance of new media. He starts talking about how he was born and raised on grassroots movement organizing. He starts talking about how he comes from a background of social justice. The man who voted to ban TikTok stood on a table at a content creator conference and lectured us about new media. Let that marinate. The man who has taken over $700,000 from AIPAC stood in a room full of Black and Brown content creators who had spent the previous seven months documenting white phosphorus from Alabama raining on the children of Rafa, and he tried to tell us where new media came from. Shidd. We knew where new media came from. We were new media. The whole room was new media. We were what he was supposed to be listening to, and instead he was pissing on us telling us it was raining.Then came the questions. And this is where it got personal for me. Because the question that got asked — by a Black woman content creator who had read the bill, who had quoted the bill, who had named the specific provisions — was simple. Are you willing to call for a ceasefire? That was the question. Not a gotcha. Not a setup. A direct, material question about the position of a sitting United States senator on a sitting genocide. And what did Cory Booker do? He pulled out the tired playbook. He shucked and jobbed. He said, “I’m sorry you don’t understand the bill.”I’m sorry you don’t understand. To a Black woman. Who had read the bill. Who had cited the bill. Who knew more about the supplemental appropriation than half the senators on his committee.That right there is misogynoir wearing a Senate pin. That right there is what Moya Bailey told us this was going to look like in the era of Black women asking questions in rooms full of cameras. That right there is what Patricia Hill Collins called controlling images deployed as political technology. That right there is what Combahee told us in 1977 — that the convergence of race, gender, and class violence does not require a hood and a rope, that it shows up in a Senate office, that it shows up in a paternalistic dismissal at a content creator summit on May 8, 2024. And let me tell you, Indigenous and Black feminist thought reads that move the same way. White feminism has historically wanted to make this a story about a man being rude. Intersectional analysis tells us that the rudeness was the form, the content was the function — silencing a Black woman who had material expertise on a question of empire because the senator did not want to answer the question she asked.She didn’t fold. She named Rafa. She named the 600,000 children. She named the white phosphorus. She named the funding pipeline. And what she got back was, “you keep defending Hamas, you would literally just be representing them.” That move is also a technology, y’all. Equating a question about a ceasefire with defense of a terrorist organization. The same equation that got cooked up in the State Department and reheated on cable news and served back at her by a sitting United States senator at a Black creators conference. I’m sorry, that ain’t an answer. That’s a deflection wrapped in a smear.And then he tried to make Sudan a shield. He said he voted for the supplemental because of the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. Cory. My brother. Sudan, where 17.1 million women and girls need aid in 2026. Sudan, whose UNICEF appeal is funded at 16 percent. Sudan, where Black African Muslim women in Darfur are being raped as a deliberate tactic of war. You want to talk about Sudan? Where is the smoke for Sudan in your voting record? Where is the supplemental for Sudan? Where is the 25-hour speech for Sudan? Don’t weaponize Sudanese women’s suffering to dodge a question about Rafa. Black African lives matter when they are useful as a rhetorical shield, and that’s the whole problem with the way liberal politicians talk about Sudan. Liberalism is a hell of a drug.That was May 8, 2024. That was day one for me. Let me tell y’all what happened next.A MF THREAD: THE TWO-YEAR TIMELINEMay 8, 2024. D.C. Creator Summit. Booker climbs the table. Booker dismisses a Black woman creator. Booker says, “you don’t understand the bill.” Booker weaponizes Sudan. I leave that room knowing I am going to be on this man’s case for the rest of his political career. Day one.July 24, 2024. Booker is photographed with Benjamin Netanyahu during the prime minister’s address to a joint session of Congress. The ICC has already moved on arrest warrants. Booker poses anyway. The photo will haunt him for the next two years and he will spend every public appearance after that refusing to call Netanyahu a war criminal. The man literally cannot say the words out loud.August 2024. The Democratic National Convention. No Palestinian speaker. Booker goes on CNN’s State of the Union and defends the decision, says Kamala Harris is “anguished” over the conflict. Eight months into a documented genocide and the senator wants me to feel his vice president’s feelings. Liberalism is a hell of a drug.November 2024. Trump wins. The same supplemental Booker voted for, the same posture Booker held, the same equivocation Booker performed, contributes to the depressed Black, Arab, and young voter turnout that delivers the second Trump administration. The “lesser of two evils” math does not work when the lesser evil is also handing the keys to the greater one.January–February 2025. Trump cabinet confirmation votes. Booker votes to confirm Marco Rubio for Secretary of State. Booker votes to confirm John Ratcliffe for CIA Director. Booker votes to confirm Scott Bessent for Treasury. Booker votes to confirm Brooke Rollins for Agriculture. The man who would later filibuster for 25 hours had already handed Trump his cabinet.March 31 – April 1, 2025. The 25-hour Senate speech. Twenty-five hours and five minutes. Breaks Strom Thurmond’s segregationist filibuster record. Zero bills passed. Zero votes stopped. The same night the speech ends, Whitaker is confirmed 52-45. The standing ovation was for the performance. The legislation walked past him. I called it political theater on day one.May 20, 2025. Booker becomes the LONE Democratic yes on Charles Kushner as ambassador to France. The lone yes. Trump’s son-in-law’s daddy. The man Booker had spent 25 hours of empty floor time supposedly opposing. Where is the smoke? Yealp.June 2025. Booker votes to confirm David Perdue as ambassador to China. Mid-trade war. Mid-tariff chaos. Mid-China-hawk hysteria. Booker hands Trump his Beijing pick.Summer 2025. The Big Beautiful Bill — Trump’s signature legislative package — passes by one vote. Three Democrats had died in office before the vote. Their seats had gone to Republicans. The same Senate where Booker filibustered to nothing. Performance is not legislation, kinfolks.October 14, 2025. Booker on the “I’ve Had It” podcast. Jennifer Welch asks if he considers Netanyahu a war criminal. Booker refuses to answer. Pivots. Says he is “not going to be outside of the room screaming.” Brother, you spent 25 hours screaming inside the room and accomplished nothing. The screaming wasn’t the problem. The strategy was.October 16, 2025. Sludge breaks the story: Booker has taken his first-ever AIPAC PAC contributions despite a decade in the Senate. Total haul approaches $877,000 across the cycle when the receipts are added up. The man whose past leaked tapes had him “text messaging back and forth like teenagers” with the AIPAC president now claims a public posture of restraint while pocketing the largest single-issue check of his career.March 2026. Booker tells Meet the Press he is “definitely not ruling out” a 2028 run. He releases a memoir, Stand. He claims he will refuse single-issue PAC money going forward. The conversion narrative arrives right on time for the primary. Two things can be true: he was on the AIPAC payroll, and he is laundering that history in time for Iowa. I’m not lost in the sauce on this one.April–May 2026. I write the Booker pieces. I document the 25-hour speech and what it didn’t pass. I document the Kushner confirmation. I document the AIPAC pipeline. I document the Meet the Press conversion. And I tie every single one back to where this beef started: a Black woman in a room in D.C., a senator on a table, a question about Rafa, a deflection wrapped in Sudan.That’s the timeline. That is two years of receipts. Every accusation he’s made about me being unfair, every aide who has told my mutuals that I’m being too harsh, every “but he had a good speech though” comment — every one of those moments traces back to a single question I keep asking. Where is the smoke, Cory? Where is the smoke?The Black Liberal vs. The Black Leftist on This QuestionA lot of folks want to treat this like Black-on-Black conflict. It is not. This is a distinction the Black radical tradition has been making since SNCC, since Ella Baker, since the Southern Negro Youth Congress in Richmond in 1937, since Fannie Lou Hamer’s Freedom Farm Cooperative, since the Combahee River Collective. There is a difference between a Black liberal and a Black leftist. Cory Booker is a Black liberal. I am a Black leftist. The Black liberal believes the system can be reformed and that a seat at the table is the goal. The Black leftist believes the table itself is the problem. The Black liberal will jump up on the table at a content creator conference. The Black leftist asks whose table is it, who built it, who is being eaten on top of it.This is not a war. This is strategy. Cedric Robinson taught us that racial capitalism is not an aberration of an otherwise functional system — it is the engine of surplus value extraction itself. Frank Wilderson reminds us that gratuitous violence against Black flesh is constitutive, not incidental. Walter Rodney taught us how the same diplomatic posture that calls a ceasefire “antisemitic” abroad funds the police that occupy our neighborhoods at home. Angela Davis named Ferguson and Palestine in the same breath because the materials are the same — tear gas from the same companies, training from the same institutions, surveillance from the same vendors. The Black liberal will tell you these are separate fights. The Black leftist will show you the receipts proving they are one fight.And here is the thing about the South, which is where I come from and where I do my work — Booker’s brand of liberal politics tends to pathologize the South. The Black creators he was dismissing on May 8, 2024 included a lot of Southerners. A lot of folks from Houston, from Atlanta, from Memphis, from New Orleans, from Bryan TX. We come from the soil where Black radical organizing was born. Houston had a Black Panther chapter. So did Dallas. So did Memphis. So did NOLA. Black Workers for Justice came out of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, in 1982. The Southern Negro Youth Congress was a Richmond institution. Fannie Lou Hamer’s Freedom Farm was a Mississippi cooperative. Late MLK was a leftist. Huey Newton was from Monroe, Louisiana. When a coastal liberal walks into a room full of Southern content creators and tells us we don’t understand the bill, the disrespect lands on top of three generations of organizing that built the politics he is now performing. We are not lost in the sauce. We are the sauce.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Where We Go From HereSo here is what I’m asking. When the 2028 primary comes — and it is coming — I want y’all to remember May 8, 2024. I want y’all to remember the table. I want y’all to remember the Black woman who asked the question and the senator who told her she didn’t understand. I want y’all to remember the Kushner vote. I want y’all to remember the 25-hour speech that passed zero bills. I want y’all to remember the $877,000. I want y’all to remember that this is what political theater looks like when it costs us nothing to perform and costs the rest of the world everything to absorb.Research over MeSearch. The receipts are not vibes. The receipts are votes. And the votes are on the record. Education is elevation, kinfolks. This ain’t no threat, this is a promise — I will be on this man’s case until he is honest about it or out of the room. Shout out to Newark. Shout out to every Black woman content creator who was in that room on May 8, 2024 and held the line. We saw what they did. We never forgot.BECOME A PAID SUBSCRIBER Become a paid subscriber to Education Is ElevationI’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education 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.This Cory Booker timeline you just read is exactly the kind of work that does not exist anywhere else. Two years of receipts. Voting records cross-referenced with public statements. A Black radical tradition lens on a Black liberal senator who is about to ask for your vote in 2028. Cable news will not give you this. The Times will not give you this. I will. Become a paid subscriber and let’s keep building the room where the receipts live.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.5 KEY TAKEAWAYS* The beef has a birthday. May 8, 2024, at a D.C. content creator summit, Cory Booker climbed a table to praise new media after voting to ban TikTok, dismissed a Black woman creator with “I’m sorry you don’t understand the bill” when she asked about a Rafa ceasefire, and tried to weaponize Sudan as a humanitarian shield to dodge the question.* The Sudan deflection is a tell. Sudan is real. 17.1 million women and girls need aid. The UNICEF appeal is funded at 16 percent. Booker has done nothing material for Sudan. Naming Sudan to dodge a question about Rafa is using Black African suffering as a rhetorical prop, which is itself a form of the same colonial logic.* The 25-hour speech and the Kushner vote are the same record. Twenty-five hours of empty floor time passed zero bills. The lone Democratic yes on Charles Kushner happened weeks later. Performance and capitulation are not opposites — they are the same political product packaged for two different audiences.* The AIPAC pipeline is the structural story. $877,000 in single-issue PAC money across the cycle, including the senator’s first-ever AIPAC PAC contributions despite a decade in office, then a conversion narrative announced in time for a 2028 primary. The money explains the votes. The conversion explains the brand.* Black liberalism and Black leftism are not the same thing. A Black liberal will jump on the table. A Black leftist asks whose table it is. The distinction is not personal — it is strategic, historical, and rooted in a Southern Black radical tradition that Booker’s coastal liberalism keeps trying to erase.Thanks for reading Education Is Elevation! This post is public so feel free to share it.RELATED READINGS * Bailey, Moya. Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women’s Digital Resistance. NYU Press, 2021. — The foundational text on misogynoir as a specific analytic. Essential for reading the May 8, 2024 dismissal as political technology, not improvisation.* Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Routledge, 2000 (revised edition). — Controlling images and the matrix of domination. The framework for how “you don’t understand the bill” functions as a controlling image, not a remark.* Combahee River Collective. “The Combahee River Collective Statement.” 1977. — The founding text of Black feminist intersectional politics. Proof that not all Black feminism is liberal. Necessary for the Black liberal / Black leftist distinction.* Crenshaw, Kimberlé. “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color.” Stanford Law Review, 1991. — Intersectionality’s foundational legal-theoretical text. Frames why a Black woman creator’s question is structurally distinct from any other question in that room.* hooks, bell. Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism. South End Press, 1981. — Hooks’s foundational critique of how Black women’s political analysis is systematically dismissed. Direct line to the May 8 moment.* Davis, Angela Y. Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement. Haymarket Books, 2016. — The essential text linking Black liberation to Palestinian liberation. Direct framework for why Booker’s Rafa-to-Sudan pivot cannot stand.* Robinson, Cedric J. Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. University of North Carolina Press, 1983 (2000 reprint). — Racial capitalism as the engine, not the aberration. Frames the AIPAC pipeline as structural rather than personal.* Wilderson, Frank B. III. Red, White & Black: Cinema and the Structure of U.S. Antagonisms. Duke University Press, 2010. — Afropessimist analysis of gratuitous violence and the fungibility of Black flesh. Reads Booker’s deflection as constitutive, not exceptional.* Hartman, Saidiya V. Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America. Oxford University Press, 1997. — The genealogy of how Black suffering gets transmuted into political currency for others. Background for the Sudan-as-shield analysis.* Spillers, Hortense J. “Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe: An American Grammar Book.” Diacritics, 1987. — Foundational for the analysis of how Black women in that D.C. room were positioned to absorb the senator’s condescension.* Rodney, Walter. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Bogle-L’Ouverture Publications, 1972. — The Pan-Africanist economic history that exposes selective humanitarian rhetoric about African suffering.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

Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Y’all know I don’t be playing about Research Over MeSearch. So before anybody tries to make this about feelings, let me put the receipts on the table first.National Center for Education Statistics, 1997. Government data. Over 20,000 households surveyed. The finding? Kids in grades 6–12 whose fathers are highly involved in their schools have 46 percent higher odds of pulling mostly A’s compared to kids whose fathers are not involved. Moderate involvement? Still a 21 percent boost. Same study showed children whose fathers are involved are significantly less likely to ever repeat a grade. That is not a vibe. That is the federal government’s own numbers.Then fast forward to 2024. National Assessment of Educational Progress drops the latest Nation’s Report Card. Two-thirds of fourth graders cannot read at proficient level. A third of eighth graders cannot read at NAEP Basic — the largest percentage ever recorded. Reading scores have not recovered from the pandemic. Math is bleeding at the bottom. The Secretary of Education herself said nearly half of high school seniors test below basic in math and reading.Let that marinate for a second. The country is failing our babies academically at a historic level. And we have decades of data saying one of the cheapest, most powerful interventions is a daddy walking into the building and being seen. Not a check. Not a text. Physical presence.So when I tell y’all this post is for the dads who are actually present, I mean it. If you a sorry-ass daddy who not active in your kid’s life, this not for you. This for the kinfolks who showing up. And for the ones thinking about it who need that final push.Five Things That Happen When Dads Show Up at the Schoolhouse1. Higher Grades — and Not by a LittleThat 46 percent number from NCES? That ain’t a margin of error. That is a structural difference. Even after researchers controlled for income, parent education, family structure, and a gang of other variables, fathers’ school involvement remained a significant independent predictor of kids getting mostly A’s. Reading and math are where the biggest gains show up — which matters because reading is foundational to everything else.And here is the part the data nerds don’t always say out loud: this effect held across socioeconomic groups. White, Black, Native, Hispanic, rich, working class. Daddy showing up matters.2. Less Grade RepetitionStatistical simulations using Early Childhood Longitudinal Study data show that if low-income resident fathers were as involved in school as high-income fathers, the gap in grade repetition between high and low SES children would drop by 23 percent. Father residence alone is associated with a 23 percent lower likelihood of a child repeating a grade.Translation: daddies showing up moves the needle on whether your baby is on grade level. And in 2026 America, with reading scores at historic lows, you do not want your kid getting held back. That is a death sentence for confidence, social development, and long-term graduation odds. Research over MeSearch — the data is clear.3. Fewer Behavior Issues and Disciplinary ActionsActive fathers correlate with reduced classroom disruptions. The NCES data shows reduced odds of suspension and expulsion when parents are highly involved. And this matters extra for Black and Brown kids, who get suspended and expelled at rates 2 to 3 times their white peers for the same exact behaviors. When a daddy is a known face in that building, teachers and administrators think twice before pulling the disciplinary trigger. That is not a theory. That is how institutions work.And every accusation is a confession — the same school system that complains about Black male absence from school buildings is the same system that calls security when Black daddies do show up. Two things can be true.4. Greater Confidence and Stress ToleranceWatchDOGS — Dads of Great Students — is a program in over 8,800 schools nationwide. Started in 1998 in Springdale, Arkansas. Real teachers have reported that the mere presence of a WatchDOG dad dramatically reduces reports of bullying. The kids whose daddies show up build emotional resilience and higher self-esteem. And it ain’t just their kids. The whole classroom shifts.I lived this today. My second-grade son and fourth-grade daughter’s school had me come in as a WatchDOG. Every teacher I talked to said the same thing: the energy of the room changed when a dad was in there. Not just my kids. The whole classroom. That is the ripple. That is the thing the spreadsheet cannot fully capture.5. Stronger Cognitive SkillsResearch published in NCES studies and across multiple meta-analyses shows fathers tend to play a distinct role in cognitive stimulation — providing information, modeling problem-solving, expanding vocabulary through different conversational patterns than moms typically do. Researchers have hypothesized that maternal involvement may be most beneficial for the social and emotional adjustment of children to school, while paternal involvement may be most important for academic achievement. Not a hierarchy. A complement. Two things can be true.Now Let’s Talk About Black Daddies Specifically — Because the Lies Run DeepHere is where I gotta put on my Research Over MeSearch hat extra tight, because the narrative around Black fathers is one of the most successful propaganda campaigns in American history. And every accusation, like I always say, is a confession.The 2013 CDC National Health Statistics Report — federal government data, not a Black studies pamphlet — found that Black fathers who live with their children are MORE involved in daily caregiving than white or Hispanic fathers. Seventy percent of Black fathers in the home bathed, dressed, diapered, or helped their children use the toilet every day, compared to 60 percent of white fathers and 45 percent of Hispanic fathers. Black fathers in the home were more likely to help with homework every day — 41 percent, versus 28 percent for white fathers and 29 percent for Hispanic fathers.And here is the part that should make every “absent Black father” myth-peddler choke on their grits: even Black fathers who do not live with their children outperformed their white and Latino counterparts on multiple involvement measures. More than 50 percent of nonresident Black fathers talked to their school-age children about their day several times per week or more, compared to 34 percent of nonresident white dads and 23 percent of nonresident Latino fathers. Nonresident Black dads were more than twice as likely as their white counterparts to host story time every day.So where did the mythology come from? Cedric Robinson would tell you: racial capitalism needs a Black pathology story to justify itself. If the story is “Black families are broken from the inside,” then mass incarceration looks like a response instead of a cause. Then job market discrimination looks like a consequence instead of a driver. Then redlining and school underfunding look like accidents instead of policy. The absent Black father myth is not a description of reality. It is a political tool.Now, two things can be true. Black fathers are more likely to live apart from their children — 44 percent versus 21 percent for white fathers, per the CDC. But the data tells us why: mass incarceration disproportionately targets Black men, economic instability driven by structural racism limits cohabitation, and family court systems built in a Moynihan-era frame still treat Black fathers as suspects rather than parents. The brothers who are present are MORE present than their peers. The brothers who are not present are largely not present because the state has made it materially difficult to be. That is racial capitalism doing what racial capitalism does. Walter Rodney told us how this works. Saidiya Hartman told us how it feels.So for the Black daddies reading this — y’all already showing up at rates this country pretends you don’t. Now the work is doubling down. Going from the kitchen and the basketball court into the school building. Bringing the same energy you bring to homework at the table into the parent-teacher conference. Because the school system is not built for our babies, and your physical presence inside that building changes the calculation for every teacher, every administrator, every other kid watching.And for the dads who are not Black reading this — y’all gotta stop spreading the absent Black father narrative. Period. The CDC has been telling you for over a decade. The fact that the story persists is the confession. Now do better.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The 2026 Reality CheckLook at what we are working with. NAEP 2024 results, released in 2025: 33 percent of eighth graders read below NAEP Basic. Forty percent of fourth graders read below NAEP Basic — the highest since 2002. Forty-five percent of twelfth graders score below NAEP Basic in math — the highest ever. Thirty-two percent of twelfth graders score below NAEP Basic in reading — the highest ever. The Acting Commissioner of NCES literally said scores for our lowest-performing students are at historic lows.We are watching a generation get academically gutted in real time. And we have research from 1997 — almost 30 years old — that has been telling us the same simple thing: when daddies show up at school, kids do better. Not maybe. Not sometimes. Consistently. Across races. Across income levels. Across grade levels.So if you a present daddy reading this, the call is simple. Go to the school. Volunteer once a semester at minimum. Sign up for WatchDOGS if they have it. Show up to one parent-teacher conference per year, no excuses. Eat lunch with your kid one day. Read to a kindergarten class. Be the face the teachers know.Because consciousness precedes transformation. And the consciousness y’all gotta develop is that your kid’s school is a battlefield — for their literacy, for their confidence, for their future. And daddies on the battlefield is research-backed strategy. Not a feel-good talking point.Key TakeawaysFor the folks who scrolled to the bottom — the receipts in one frame.* 46% higher odds of A’s. Federal NCES data shows children in grades 6–12 with highly involved fathers have 46 percent higher adjusted odds of getting mostly A’s, even controlling for income, parent education, and family structure.* 23% drop in grade repetition gap. If low-SES resident fathers were as school-involved as high-SES fathers, the socioeconomic gap in grade repetition would shrink by 23 percent.* Reading crisis is real and historic. NAEP 2024: 40 percent of 4th graders read below NAEP Basic — highest since 2002. 33 percent of 8th graders below NAEP Basic — highest ever recorded.* Black fathers in the home are MORE involved. 2013 CDC data: 70 percent of resident Black fathers handle daily caregiving every day vs. 60 percent of white fathers and 45 percent of Hispanic fathers. The absent Black father narrative is propaganda.* Even nonresident Black fathers outperform. More than 50 percent of nonresident Black dads talk to their school-age kids about their day several times a week or more — vs. 34 percent of nonresident white dads.* WatchDOGS works. In 8,800+ schools nationally. Principals consistently report bullying drops just from a father figure being physically present in the building.* This is structural, not symbolic. The mass incarceration system, biased family courts, and structural unemployment make Black father physical separation a state-engineered outcome — not a cultural failing. Two things can be true.* The action is simple. If you a present daddy: one volunteer day per semester, one parent-teacher conference per year, one lunch visit. Consciousness precedes transformation.CITED SOURCES Nord, C. W., Brimhall, D., & West, J. (1997). Fathers’ Involvement in Their Children’s Schools. NCES 98-091. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics.The foundational federal study. Source of the “46% higher odds of mostly A’s” finding and the grade repetition data. Drew from the 1996 National Household Education Survey. Controlled for family structure, parent education, and socioeconomic factors. Still the most-cited federal study on father school involvement.Jones, J., & Mosher, W. D. (2013). Fathers’ Involvement With Their Children: United States, 2006–2010. National Health Statistics Reports, Number 71. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The CDC study that destroyed the absent Black father myth with federal data. Found resident Black fathers were the MOST involved in daily caregiving across all race groups. Also found nonresident Black fathers outperformed their nonresident white and Latino counterparts on multiple involvement measures. Every American who repeats the absent Black father narrative should be required to read this report first.National Center for Education Statistics. (2025). The Nation’s Report Card: 2024 NAEP Reading and Mathematics Assessments. Institute of Education Sciences.The 2024 NAEP data showing 33 percent of 8th graders below NAEP Basic in reading (largest ever), 40 percent of 4th graders below NAEP Basic in reading (highest since 2002), and 45 percent of 12th graders below NAEP Basic in math (highest ever). The crisis context this entireEXPLICIT ASK TO BECOME PAID SUBSCRIBERIf this piece moved you and you a paid subscriber on Education Is Elevation, the next section is for you. I drop a six-month, month-by-month action plan for daddies who wanna go from theoretical involvement to actual physical presence in their kid’s school building. Includes:* Month-by-month checklist (volunteering, conferences, events, advocacy)* The ‘Daddy Diplomacy’ framework for navigating teachers and administrators when the school system is biased against your kid* How to vet your kid’s school: ten questions every present father should be asking the principal* Black Daddy Specific: how to push back when school staff treat your presence as suspicious instead of supportive* 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

Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.I asked Dr. Dontá Morrison a question I knew was going to be uncomfortable. I told him it was uncomfortable on purpose. When somebody says “that’s gay as AIDS,” what is that? And he didn’t blink. He called it ignorance at its finest. He pointed out that half the people still using the phrase don’t even know what AIDS stands for — Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. He pointed out that if you’re still saying AIDS in 2026, you’re stuck in 1986. You equating a virus to a demographic of human beings. That’s the receipts on how shallow the thinking still is.The conversation I had with Dr. Morrison wasn’t really about a slur. It was about what that slur reveals — that we are operating with an archaic, decades-old understanding of HIV inside Black communities, while a federal administration is actively dismantling the funding that keeps Black folks alive. Two things are true at the same time, and both of them are killing us.HIV Is Not AIDS — And Knowing the Difference MattersBefore I go further, let me handle some basic education, because Dr. Morrison was right — folks don’t know. HIV is the human immunodeficiency virus. It’s a virus that attacks your immune system. AIDS, on the other hand, is the most advanced stage of HIV infection, a syndrome that develops only when HIV has gone untreated long enough to severely compromise the immune system. With consistent antiretroviral therapy, a person living with HIV today can suppress the virus to undetectable levels, live a full lifespan. Undetectable equals untransmittable — U=U is settled science.Saying “AIDS” the way folks said it in the eighties is not just rude. It’s wrong and stigmatizing and pathological It collapses a manageable chronic condition back into a death sentence in your mouth, and that linguistic time travel does material harm. It keeps people from testing. It keeps people from disclosing. It keeps Black women from asking their men hard questions. It keeps the church from doing the work. Education is elevation. Same pill Magic Johnson takes, regular folks take. You do not need Magic Johnson money to survive HIV-positive in 2026. Period.The Trump Cuts Are Not AbstractDr. Morrison is a public health doctor. He earned that degree. And last year, he woke up one morning to a phone call telling him his program had been cut overnight. The federal government, under this administration, signed away the funding for the work he had been doing for over twenty years — sexual health and HIV education in the Black community, with a particular focus on the Black church. One signature, no notice, gone. That’s not a hypothetical. That’s a brother who put in the work, doing the work without unemployment, watching his livelihood get dismantled in the name of America First.And the receipts on this are public. The Trump administration came into office in January 2025 and immediately froze foreign aid. The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — PEPFAR — got hit. The Office of Management and Budget released only about half of the $6 billion Congress appropriated for PEPFAR’s 2025 funding. Nearly 70,000 community healthcare workers were laid off in 2025 according to the PEPFAR data release, and many specialized outreach services were shut down. The number of PEPFAR-funded HIV tests declined by 14 million in 2025 compared to the year before — a 17 percent decrease. As of this week, the administration is now trying to divert another $2 billion in global health funding to pay for the shutdown of USAID itself.Let that marinate. They are taking money meant to keep people alive and using it to pay the legal bills for dismantling the agency that was keeping people alive. Every accusation is a confession. They told us they were going to gut foreign aid. They told us American leadership in global health was over. We just didn’t believe them because we were taught the United States was the leader. And here is where I have to give the receipts on what we are actually losing.The United States Was the Global Leader on HIV/AIDS — On PurposeI want y’all to understand something. The U.S. did not become the global leader in HIV/AIDS research and response by accident. It happened through deliberate, bipartisan policy across multiple administrations, and Black-led advocacy was central to forcing it to happen. The U.S. first provided funding to address the global HIV epidemic in 1986. In 1999, President Clinton announced the Leadership and Investment in Fighting an Epidemic Initiative to address HIV in 14 African countries and India. Then in 2003, President George W. Bush created PEPFAR.PEPFAR is not a small thing. As of August 2024, PEPFAR has provided cumulative funding of $120 billion for HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, and research, making it the largest commitment by any nation focused on a single disease in history. It is credited with saving more than 26 million lives over the past two decades and preventing millions of HIV infections, particularly in Africa. PEPFAR accounts for more than 90 percent of PrEP initiations globally. Translation: nine out of every ten people on the planet getting access to HIV prevention medicine were getting it through American funding.That is the program this administration is choking out. The administration’s FY 2026 budget request includes a $1.9 billion reduction for PEPFAR. As of February 2026, only 16 country agreements have been completed, and overall current pledges will result in a $4.5 billion decrease in U.S. funding for PEPFAR countries over a 5-year period. Notably, South Africa — the country with the highest HIV burden globally — has not been included. Read that again. The country where the most Black people in the world are dying of this disease is not at the table. That is not an accident. That is policy.The Global Becomes the Local — Because We Are the Same PeopleSome of y’all might be reading this thinking, “That’s overseas, that ain’t us.” Liberalism is a hell of a drug. Pan-Africanism is not a vibe — it’s an analysis. The same logic that pulls funding from clinics in Lagos and Kampala pulls funding from clinics in Atlanta and Jackson. The same administration that froze PEPFAR also went after Title X, also went after CDC HIV prevention budgets, also went after community-based programs serving Black queer folks here in the States. Dr. Morrison’s program was domestic. The brothers and sisters who lost their jobs were here. The Black women who are not getting the workshops, not getting the lunch and learns, not getting the pamphlets at their hair salons — they are here.And the disparities in this country are already brutal. Compared to White non-Hispanic heterosexually-active persons, Black heterosexually-active people have a 20-fold higher HIV diagnosis rate. A 20-fold higher rate. Two thousand percent. Among African American women, 92 percent of new HIV diagnoses were attributed to heterosexual contact. Dr. Morrison hammered this point and I want to drag it into the light: stop blaming the down low. Stop blaming gay men. There are cisgender heterosexual men contracting HIV and passing it to cisgender heterosexual women, and the gay community has nothing to do with that transmission chain. Two things can be true. Black gay men carry their own disproportionate burden. Black straight women are catching HIV from Black straight men. Both of these things are happening simultaneously, and both require funded, culturally specific intervention.The Faithful and the ForgottenThis is where Dr. Morrison’s work cuts deepest. He is the author of “Faithful and Forgotten: Navigating Race, Sexuality, and Belonging in the Black Church,” and the title alone tells you everything. The Black church is the most powerful institution we built ourselves. It was the only institution White society left relatively alone, which made it the staging ground for abolition, the civil rights movement, and Black social life as we know it. And that same church has, in too many corners, become a place where Black queer folks — particularly Black men who have sex with men — experience spiritual violence dressed up as scripture.Dr. Morrison made a point in our conversation that I’m still chewing on. He said a lot of folks are quietly rooting for Trump’s HIV cuts because they don’t like gay people, because they still associate HIV with homosexuality, and because they have a skewed approach to Christianity that supports white supremacy. Read that one more time. The same Black folks who claim they want liberation are clapping for the dismantling of the very programs that keep their cousins, their aunties, their nephews, their sisters alive — because they think God is anti-gay. That is theology imported from the same plantation logic that taught our ancestors that their humanity was conditional. Where is the smoke for that?Faithful and Forgotten is not an attack on the Black church. It’s a call for the Black church to do what it claims to do — to be the moral conscience of the community, to leave the ninety-nine and go after the one. You can’t preach Jesus and silently celebrate a policy that cuts off the antiretrovirals keeping your nephew alive. You can’t say you love Black people and only love the Black people whose sexuality you approve of. Two things can be true. The Black church is sacred. The Black church is also implicated. We grow by holding both.What Dr. Morrison Is Still Doing — Without the MoneyHere is the part that should hit every reader in the chest. Dr. Morrison lost his funding. He didn’t lose his calling. He compared himself to a TSA worker — pissed off, unpaid, but still showing up because lives are still at risk. He’s still hosting conversations. He’s still doing free interviews like the one we just did. He’s still writing books. He’s still showing up at churches and conferences and community spaces because he understands that without the money, all we got is word of mouth, and word of mouth is what built every Black liberation movement we have ever had.Word of mouth has a ceiling, and that ceiling is real. He told me directly: without the money, we can’t host the workshops, we can’t host the conferences, we can’t have the virtual lunch and learns, we ain’t got no raffle tickets, we ain’t got no Target gift cards. People show up to information sessions partly because there’s something tangible attached. Y’all who have done community organizing know exactly what he means. The defunding doesn’t just kill the big infrastructure. It kills the small incentives that get a sister in her sixties to walk through the door of a church basement and learn that HIV is not what she thought it was when she was twenty-five. That’s what’s been stolen.What This Moment Demands of UsDr. Morrison left me with a charge I want to pass directly to y’all. Black folks need to wake up and realize we are living in a country that is not for us. The performative outrage at one man — Trump — is a distraction. As Dr. Morrison said, this is not 100 percent about him; he is one person, but he is supported by individuals that think like him, and that group think is taking us all backwards. The folks rooting for these cuts because they think God is doing it through Trump need to be confronted, not coddled. Liberalism is a hell of a drug. So is bad theology.So here’s what I’m asking. Get tested. Get your people tested. Stop saying “AIDS” when you mean HIV. Stop saying “gay as AIDS,” period. Read “Faithful and Forgotten.” Talk to your church about HIV like it’s a community health issue, not a sin problem — because that’s what it is. Talk to the Black women in your life about how transmission actually works, because the data says they are catching it from cisgender heterosexual men, not from a phantom down-low boogeyman. Support the doctors and educators like Dr. Morrison who are doing the work without the funding. And the next time somebody tells you the federal government cutting global health funding doesn’t affect you, hand them this article.Same pill Magic Johnson takes, I take. Same pill regular folks take. The science exists. The medicine exists. What’s being dismantled is access. And access is the whole game.Learn more about Dr. Dontá Morrison’s work, his book Faithful and Forgotten: Navigating Race, Sexuality, and Belonging in the Black Church, and his ongoing HIV education and advocacy at www.dontamorrison.com Follow him on YouTube to learn more and follow Dr. Morrisons work. https://www.youtube.com/@dontamorrison5 Key Takeaways1. HIV is not AIDS, and using “AIDS” as a slur is decades-out-of-date misinformation that actively harms Black communities.HIV is a manageable chronic condition with treatment. AIDS is the advanced stage that develops only when HIV goes untreated. Undetectable equals untransmittable. The vocabulary you use shapes the testing, disclosure, and treatment behavior of everyone around you.2. The Trump administration’s dismantling of HIV funding is killing people — domestically and globally — and the data backs that up.PEPFAR-funded HIV testing dropped by 14 million in 2025, nearly 70,000 community healthcare workers were laid off, and OMB has slow-walked half of the $6 billion Congress appropriated. Domestic programs like Dr. Morrison’s were cut overnight. This is structural violence with a budget line.3. The United States became the global leader on HIV/AIDS through deliberate, bipartisan policy — and that leadership is being dismantled in real time.PEPFAR has provided $120 billion in cumulative funding since 2003, saved 26 million lives, and accounts for 90 percent of global PrEP initiations. The administration’s FY 2026 budget cuts it by $1.9 billion and excludes South Africa — the country with the highest HIV burden globally — from new agreements.4. Black women carry a disproportionate HIV burden, and the transmission story is being told wrong.92 percent of new HIV diagnoses among Black women come from heterosexual contact. Black heterosexually-active people have a 20-fold higher diagnosis rate than their White counterparts. The down-low narrative is a distraction from the actual transmission chain: cisgender heterosexual men passing HIV to cisgender heterosexual women.5. The Black church is both a critical resource and a site of harm — and Dr. Dontá Morrison’s “Faithful and Forgotten” demands we hold both at once.Eurocentric interpretations of Christianity have made the Black church a place of spiritual violence for Black queer folks, while simultaneously being one of the few institutions positioned to do mass HIV education. Two thingsEXPLICIT ASK TO BECOME PAID SUBSCRIBERLet me be transparent with y’all. The conversation you just read with Dr. Dontá Morrison happened because two independent Black workers — one a public health doctor, one a media educator — sat down to do work that used to be funded by federal dollars and is no longer funded by anybody. He lost his program. The corporate media is not covering Black HIV stigma with this level of cultural specificity. The federal government is actively defunding the prevention infrastructure. The void is real, and it is being filled by people like Dr. Morrison and people like me, out of pocket and on principle.If this piece taught you something, sharpened your analysis, or gave you ammunition to use in your own community, I’m asking you to convert that value into material supportEducation Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.CITED SOURCESMorrison, Dontá. Faithful and Forgotten: Navigating Race, Sexuality, and Belonging in the Black Church. 2025.U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy. “The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).” state.gov/pepfar.Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). “The Trump Administration’s Foreign Aid Review: Status of PEPFAR.” October 2025.CNN. “The Trump administration is trying to divert $2 billion in global health funding to pay for USAID shutdown.” May 2026.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “Health Disparities in Black or African American People” and “HIV Among African Americans” fact sheets.amfAR (Foundation for AIDS Research) and UNAIDS. Reports on PEPFAR Stop Work Order Impact, 2025–2026.The Leaflet. “How US Funding Cuts Created a Double Threat to HIV Progress in Africa.” April 2026.Thanks for reading Education Is Elevation! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. 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Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.On May 4, 2026, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos served as honorary co-chairs of the Met Gala. According to reporting, they put up at least $10 million to sponsor the event, with some sources citing the figure as high as $20 million. The night raised a record $42 million for the Costume Institute, the highest fundraising total in the gala’s history, with tech money powering most of it. This was the first year a tech figure served as lead sponsor, and the first year multiple major tech companies bought tables at the same event.Now I want y’all to sit with that. Sit with the choreography of it. A man whose company is named in lawsuits, congressional reports, and human rights investigations from Tel Aviv to Tukwila buys himself a seat at the table where the cultural elite gathers to celebrate themselves, and the press treats it like fashion week. Mark Ruffalo collaborated on a viral video, Olivia Rodrigo skipped her usual carpet, and an organized direct action group projected images onto Bezos’ own $120 million Madison Square Park condo. The protest centered Mary Hill, a 72-year-old Amazon warehouse worker living paycheck to paycheck while battling cancer. They called the contraprogramming the Ball Without Billionaires. That’s the smoke that should be everywhere. But the algorithm decided dresses were more important.Two things can be true. Lauren Sánchez can wear Schiaparelli inspired by Madame X and that be aesthetically interesting AND the entire spectacle can be obscene given who funded it and what that funder’s empire is doing on three continents. Both. At the same time. Y’all gotta build the muscle to hold both.Receipts: The Bezos Tax RecordNow let me give you what the Chop Up Show been built on. Receipts. Not vibes. Not feelings. Documented, reported, sourced receipts from journalists who risked their careers to put this in the public record.In 2021, ProPublica obtained over fifteen years of IRS data covering thousands of the wealthiest Americans. What they found should have ended the conversation about who is and isn’t paying their fair share in this country. Forever. According to that reporting, Jeff Bezos paid zero dollars in federal income tax in 2007, and he did it again in 2011. In the year he paid zero in 2011, he was already worth an estimated $18 billion. He even claimed a $4,000 tax credit for his children. A welfare credit. For his children. While being one of the richest men in the world.And before somebody runs in here with the “well that was a long time ago” dodge, let me hit you with the bigger picture. From 2006 to 2018, ProPublica found Bezos’ wealth grew by over $127 billion while he paid roughly $1.4 billion in personal federal taxes. That works out to a true tax rate of about 1.1 percent on the actual growth of his fortune. ProPublica’s analysis of the 2014 to 2018 window pegged his “true tax rate” at 0.98 percent. Less than one percent. And during that same period, the typical American household in his age bracket paid more in taxes than they accumulated in wealth.Let me say that one more time for the folks in the back. Y’all are paying taxes faster than y’all are building wealth, while Bezos is building wealth faster than the federal government can tax it. That is not a glitch in the system. That IS the system.How the Trick Works: The “Buy, Borrow, Die” PlaybookNow somebody finna ask, “Well how is this legal?” And that’s the right question. Because the legality is the indictment. The strategy has a name in tax policy circles. It’s called “buy, borrow, die,” and it works like this.Step one, BUY. Bezos kept his Amazon salary at roughly $80,000 per year for two decades. He told the New York Times he asked the compensation committee not to give him any comp because he would have “felt icky” about it. Translation, taking salary triggers ordinary income tax. Holding stock does not. So he held stock. The federal government can’t tax wealth that hasn’t been converted to income.Step two, BORROW. When he needs to fund a yacht, a rocket company, a Madison Square Park penthouse, or a Met Gala sponsorship, he doesn’t sell his stock and trigger capital gains. He borrows against it. Loans are not income. The IRS doesn’t tax loans. Wall Street will hand a man like Bezos credit at rates a school teacher trying to fix her transmission cannot dream of. He lives like a king and pays like a peasant.Step three, DIE. Under current US tax law, when stock is passed to heirs at death, the cost basis steps up to the value at the time of death. Decades of unrealized gains, untaxed during his lifetime, get wiped clean for his children. The dynastic wealth gets passed down with the federal tax bill effectively zeroed out.That is the loophole. That is how a man worth roughly $239 billion as of late 2025 has spent multiple years paying nothing while a single mother working at a Whole Foods owned by his company gets her wages garnished if she falls behind on a $200 utility bill. Every accusation is a confession, and every time a politician calls poor people lazy while protecting this loophole, they are confessing whose interests they actually serve.Project Nimbus: Where Cloud Computing Meets GenocideNow let’s talk about where some of that untaxed wealth goes. Because Bezos isn’t hoarding $239 billion under a mattress. He’s deploying it. And one of the places it’s deployed is a contract called Project Nimbus.In 2021, Amazon and Google jointly signed a $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government to provide cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning services to Israeli government agencies, including the Ministry of Defense and the IDF. According to investigative reporting from +972 Magazine, Local Call, and The Guardian published in late 2025 and early 2026, leaked Israeli Finance Ministry documents revealed extraordinary contractual conditions Israel imposed on the two American tech giants, including obligations to secretly notify Israeli officials if foreign courts ordered the companies to hand over data, and a clause barring Google and Amazon from limiting or revoking Israeli government access even when Israeli conduct conflicted with the companies’ own policies. Microsoft reportedly competed for the same contract and refused those demands. Google and Amazon said yes.Internal Israeli procurement documents reportedly mandate that Israeli defense manufacturers, including Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, purchase cloud services from Amazon and Google. That means the technical infrastructure underwriting the surveillance, targeting, and data analysis used during what United Nations experts and multiple governments have called a genocide in Gaza is running, in part, on AWS servers. Servers funded with money the federal government did not collect because Bezos’ effective tax rate is functionally a rounding error.Inside Amazon, over 300 workers signed an internal letter calling on CEO Andy Jassy to end the company’s involvement in Project Nimbus. They were ignored. Inside Google, more than 90 workers signed a similar letter, and dozens were fired for sit-in protests. They were ignored. The fungibility of Black and Brown life across the diaspora is not theoretical. Wilderson and Hartman have been telling us for decades that the structures built to render certain bodies disposable do not stay confined to one group. Project Nimbus is the contract receipt for that thesis.Amazon Is Slavery Fast Forward 400 YearsA speaker at the Ball Without Billionaires action put it plainly. Amazon is slavery fast forward 400 years. The pickers in the warehouse, that’s the actual job title for the workers who fill the boxes, are running the same productivity logic our ancestors ran in cotton fields. Quotas. Surveillance. Bodies as units of output. Bathroom breaks regulated to the second. Now with robots, metrics, data dashboards, and algorithmic write-ups, but the core process is unchanged.And let’s talk about the union fight, because this is where the rubber meets the road. Workers at the JFK8 facility in Staten Island voted to unionize in April 2022 with the Amazon Labor Union. Amazon refused to bargain. They challenged the election. They tied it up in court. As of recent reporting, it took over 1,500 days for the National Labor Relations Board to issue a bargaining order. Four years. Four years a billionaire used the legal system, funded in large part by tax revenue he didn’t pay, to stall the constitutional right of workers to collectively bargain. The same Bezos who can write a $20 million check for a costume gala in one night cannot find his way to a bargaining table in four years. That is not an oversight. That is strategy.Where is the smoke for that? Where is the Wall Street Journal opinion page? Where is the cable news outrage cycle? Y’all save that energy for women on TANF buying a birthday cake.ICE, Ring, and the Surveillance ArchitectureThen there’s the surveillance side of the empire. Amazon Web Services hosts the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology system, known as HART, which is designed to store biometric data including iris scans, voiceprints, palmprints, and in some cases DNA samples on hundreds of millions of people. AWS also provides technical infrastructure to Palantir, a Peter Thiel company that contracts directly with ICE. Documents obtained by the Project on Government Oversight showed Amazon executives meeting with ICE officials in 2018 to pitch Rekognition, the company’s facial recognition product, for immigration enforcement uses.In late 2025 and early 2026, public scrutiny intensified over a planned partnership between Amazon’s Ring and Flock Safety, a license-plate-reader company whose data is widely accessible to ICE through local law enforcement partners. After weeks of organized backlash, including a viral Super Bowl ad controversy and public pressure from Senator Ron Wyden’s office, Ring announced in February 2026 that it was canceling the planned Flock integration. Pressure works. Organizing works. The same playbook your grandparents used in Montgomery still works. They just don’t want you to know it does.Two things can be true. Ring may not have a direct ICE contract, AND the architecture Amazon has built creates downstream surveillance access that immigration authorities have repeatedly tapped through local police partnerships. Both. At the same time. Don’t let the corporate denial be the end of the analysis. Follow the data trail.Conservative Contradictions and Welfare Queens The welfare queen is one of the most successful pieces of political fiction this country ever produced. Reagan workshopped her on the 1976 campaign trail using a real woman named Linda Taylor — who was actually a serial criminal, not a typical aid recipient — and turned her into a racialized archetype that has shaped American policy for fifty years. The image was always coded: the Cadillac, the furs, the multiple aliases, the implication that she was why your paycheck wasn't stretching. And it worked. It justified gutting AFDC, it built the bipartisan consensus for the 1996 welfare reform bill, and it trained a generation of voters to read "government assistance" as Black, female, and undeserving. But here's where the contradiction snaps the whole frame in half. The actual welfare queen is Jeff Bezos. The actual welfare queen is Elon Musk taking $38 billion in government contracts, subsidies, and tax credits across his companies, by Washington Post reporting. The actual welfare queens are the Walton heirs, whose Walmart workforce relies on so much SNAP and Medicaid that taxpayers effectively subsidize their poverty wages to the tune of billions a year. We've got billionaires paying zero in federal income tax in multiple documented years, sitting on stepped-up basis loopholes that wipe out lifetimes of capital gains for their children, while their companies harvest federal contracts, municipal tax breaks, and HQ2-style bidding wars where cities literally hand them public money to show up. That is welfare. That is government transfer to private benefit. That is the textbook definition. But y'all won't call it that, because the racial coding of the original trope did its job — it taught America to see a Black woman with a grocery cart as a threat to the republic and a white man with a rocket company as an innovator. Every accusation is a confession. When politicians scream about "dependency" while protecting Bezos's tax architecture, they're not describing the poor. They're describing themselves and the class they serve. The welfare queen was never on the corner. She's been at Davos this whole time. Let that marinate.The Billionaire Welfare ClassThe phrase I keep using on the show, and I’m gonna keep using it because it’s accurate, is the billionaire welfare class. These are people whose entire economic position is subsidized by the public. By tax breaks they wrote. By infrastructure they didn’t build. By labor they don’t pay fairly. By legal systems funded by taxpayers and weaponized against critics. By federal contracts they then turn around and use to surveil the very public that funded them.Bezos has reportedly donated $10 million-plus to a super PAC. He poured millions into a documentary project. He just dropped at least $10 million, possibly $20 million, on a single night of fashion. None of those numbers, taken individually, would close out his federal tax liability if it were calculated on his actual wealth growth. But because the tax code is structured to count income, not wealth, and because most of his wealth is held as unrealized stock gains, the bill never comes due. He gets to be a philanthropist with money that should have been a public investment. He gets to play patron of the arts with revenue the IRS never saw.That is welfare. That is government transfer. That is the public subsidizing the private. Y’all just been trained not to call it that when the recipient wears a suit instead of a hoodie.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Liberalism Is a Hell of a DrugI’m gonna keep saying it. Liberalism is a hell of a drug. The liberal framework cannot indict Bezos because it cannot indict the system that produced him. So it produces takes about “smart philanthropy” and “innovation” and “what would we do without Amazon Prime.” It produces Anna Wintour calling Lauren Sánchez a “wonderful asset.” It produces “well at least he’s giving back.”SNCC was not liberal. The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was not liberal. Baldwin was not a liberal, no matter how many times Aaron Sorkin tried to make him one. Black Leftism, rooted in the Black radical tradition, in racial capitalism analysis from Cedric Robinson, in the political economy work of Walter Rodney, in the structural critiques of Angela Davis and the late bell hooks, has always been able to name what liberalism cannot. Capitalism is the engine. Antiblackness is the lubricant. The billionaire is a logical output, not a glitch. You cannot reform your way to an economy that does not produce a Jeff Bezos. You have to dismantle the conditions that make him possible.Huey said it best, and I’m gonna anchor every piece I write on billionaires with this until I draw my last breath. “The first lesson a revolutionary must learn is that he is a doomed man. Unless he understands this, he does not grasp the essential meaning of his life.” Conscious Lee’s remix for 2026, the first lesson y’all must learn is that this system is doomed. Unless y’all understand that, y’all will keep mistaking spectacle for substance, and y’all will keep clapping for our exploiters.Where We Go From HereI am not interested in moralizing at you. Moralizing is what liberals do when they don’t have a strategy. I am interested in equipping you. So here’s where we go.Number one, change the language. Stop saying “tax avoidance” when you mean wealth extraction. Stop saying “philanthropy” when you mean reputation laundering. Start using “billionaire welfare class” in every conversation, on every platform, in every comment thread. Language structures politics. Reclaim the words.Number two, support the workers actually fighting Amazon. The Amazon Labor Union, the Teamsters’ organizing efforts at delivery stations, and the Make Amazon Pay coalition are doing the slow, unglamorous work of class struggle. They need money, bodies at picket lines, and amplification. Not just tweets. Show up.Number three, demand a wealth tax, a billionaire minimum tax, and the closure of the stepped-up basis loophole. The Biden administration proposed taxing unrealized gains at death, and the proposal died because the donor class killed it. Resurrect it. Make every congressional candidate who wants your vote answer for it. On record. In writing. Hold them to it.Number four, divest. Where you can, divest. Cancel Prime if you can survive without it. Buy from local Black-owned and worker-owned businesses where possible. Pressure your university, your union pension, your city council, to divest from companies tied to Project Nimbus and surveillance contracts. The boycott is not a tactic of the past. It worked in Montgomery, it worked in Soweto, it works now.Number five, build the political analysis. Read Wilderson. Read Hartman. Read Cedric Robinson’s “Black Marxism.” Read “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.” Read Charles Mills’ “The Racial Contract.” Listen to your elders, the ones who lived through COINTELPRO and can tell you what it looks like when a state surveils its own people on behalf of capital. Education is elevation. The information is here. The question is whether you’re going to engage it or keep doom scrolling.ClosingMary Hill is 72 years old. She works in an Amazon warehouse. She has cancer. She lives paycheck to paycheck. Jeff Bezos earns, by some calculations, roughly $8 million per hour. He paid zero federal income tax in 2007 and 2011. He just dropped up to $20 million on a costume party in the same week leaked documents revealed his company’s contractual entanglement with a state actively conducting genocide. He has used the legal system, funded by taxpayers, to delay a union contract for over four years.And y’all wanna talk about who’s lazy. Y’all wanna lecture Black women about respectability. Y’all wanna ask why people are angry. This is why people are angry. This is why I do this work. This is why The Chop Up Show keeps running these receipts even when the algorithm doesn’t reward it. Because somebody has to keep saying it out loud until enough of us refuse to look away.Let that marinate. Then come back tomorrow ready to organize.SUPPORT INDEPENDENT BLACK POLITICAL EDUCATIONI do this work without corporate sponsors. No billionaire foundations bankroll The Chop Up Show. No legacy media outlet writes my checks. The reason I can sit here and run receipts on a man worth $239 billion is because I don’t answer to a man worth $239 billion. That independence is paid for by you.When you become a paid subscriber to Education Is Elevation, you are doing more than supporting a writer. You are funding the kind of long-form, sourced, unflinching political analysis that public education media used to produce before the field collapsed. You are keeping a Black-led, debate-trained, Pan-Africanist research practice alive in a moment when billionaires are buying newsrooms and gutting them in real time. The Washington Post, owned by the same Bezos this article is about, just laid off roughly one-third of its staff. That void doesn’t fill itself. We fill it.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Five Key Takeaways1. Bezos has paid $0 in federal income tax in multiple documented years.According to ProPublica’s 2021 reporting on a leaked trove of IRS records, Jeff Bezos paid zero federal income taxes in both 2007 and 2011. In 2011, while worth an estimated $18 billion, he even claimed a $4,000 tax credit for his children. This is not speculation. It is documented from federal records.2. His real, wealth-adjusted tax rate is roughly 1 percent.ProPublica’s analysis of Bezos’ 2014 to 2018 tax record found a “true tax rate” of 0.98 percent, calculated against the actual growth of his wealth. From 2006 to 2018, his wealth grew by over $127 billion while he paid roughly $1.4 billion in federal taxes, a true tax rate of about 1.1 percent.3. $20 million for a Met Gala, $1.2 billion for Project Nimbus.Reports place Bezos’ sponsorship of the 2026 Met Gala at $10 million to $20 million. Meanwhile, Amazon and Google jointly hold a $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government providing cloud and AI services tied to military operations in Gaza. The math of his discretionary spending tells the moral story.4. Amazon’s union-busting cost workers more than 1,500 days.Workers at the Staten Island JFK8 facility unionized in 2022 and waited over four years for a National Labor Relations Board bargaining order against Amazon’s refusal to negotiate. The same legal system that protects billionaires from taxes is used to delay workers from contracts.5. This is welfare. Name it.Tax loopholes, federal contracts, public infrastructure, and legal subsidies make up an entire ecosystem of public support for private billionaire wealth. The phrase “billionaire welfare class” is not rhetorical flourish. It is descriptive accuracy. Use it.RELEVANT RECIEPTS Eisinger, J., Ernsthausen, J., & Kiel, P. (2021, June 8). The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax. ProPublica.Frankel, T. C. (2021, June 9). IRS records show wealthiest Americans, including Bezos and Musk, paid little in income taxes as share of wealth, report says. The Washington Post.Americans for Tax Fairness. (2021). Summary of ProPublica’s Report on Billionaire Tax Dodgers.Loewenstein, A., Berger, Y., et al. (2026, February 4). Inside Israel’s deal with Google and Amazon. +972 Magazine / Local Call / The Guardian.Democracy Now. (2025, October 31). Report: Google and Amazon Violated Their Own Terms of Service in Israel’s $1.2 Billion “Project Nimbus” Deal.Conger, K., & Roose, K. (n.d.). Project Nimbus. Wikipedia overview and aggregated reporting.American Civil Liberties Union. (2018, October). Amazon Met With ICE Officials to Market Its Facial Recognition Product.McGee, A. / Snopes / CNN Business. (2026, January–February). Coverage of the Ring × Flock partnership and its cancellation. 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

Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Y’all already know how this goes. Somebody with a microphone, a Black face, and a national platform spends years telling us he’s one of us, then turns around and starts auditioning for the very people who built this country on our backs. That’s where we are with Stephen A. Smith. And if we don’t break this down with receipts, the algorithm is gonna do what it always does — flatten the contradiction and serve us the polished version.Research over MeSearch. Let me lay it out.In November 2024, Stephen A. Smith voted for Kamala Harris. By January 2025 — barely two months later — he was sitting on Bill Maher’s couch calling himself and every other Harris voter a “damn fool” for it. Not critiquing the campaign. Not pushing the party to do better. Calling Black voters who showed up for the Black woman on the ticket fools. Then he went on Sage Steele’s show in March 2026 and confirmed it again — yeah, he regrets that vote. Sage Steele. The same Sage Steele who built her brand attacking Black women like Serena Williams for talking about race. Two things can be true: a person can have legitimate grievances with the Democratic Party AND choose to air those grievances exclusively on platforms that exist to demonize Black political consciousness. Stephen A. is choosing.In May 2025, when Donald Trump publicly said he’d “love to see” Stephen A. run for president, Smith said he was “aghast.” Then he went on CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper and admitted there’s “a bit of flattery” in being praised by “the man who holds the highest office in the land.” When Tapper pressed him on whether he could actually win, Smith said, “You’re damn right.” Every accusation is a confession. And every aw-shucks denial is a confession too. By February 2026, he’s on The Hill telling reporters he’s a “fiscal conservative” who’s “social liberal” — the exact language Black conservatives have used for forty years to launder right-wing economics through cultural identity. He says he supports “strong borders.” He says he’s “disgusted” with the left. He says any “construction worker” could beat the Democrats. The man is running. He just wants us to act surprised when he announces.Now here’s where the pro-Black branding starts cracking. In October 2025, Smith devoted a full episode of his SiriusXM show Straight Shooter to attacking Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett — a Black woman in Congress doing the actual work of holding this administration accountable. He called her communication style “street verbiage.” He questioned whether her “rhetoric for the streets” was “going to get you anywhere.” Where is the smoke for Trump? Where is the smoke for Stephen Miller? Where is the smoke for Russell Vought? Stephen A. has a multi-million-dollar microphone and he aims it at a Black woman congresswoman before he aims it at the architects of the regime she’s fighting. That’s not analysis. That’s not even disagreement. That’s the same coded language white folks have been using on outspoken Black women since Ida B. Wells. The only difference is now it’s coming out a Black man’s mouth on a Sirius XM show.And he only apologized after Trump himself called Crockett “a very low IQ person.” Read that again. Stephen A. Smith didn’t pull back because he reflected on what he said. He pulled back because Trump used Stephen A.’s framing to attack a Black woman, and Stephen A. realized — out loud, on tape — that he’d handed the president ammunition. He said, “with Trump feeding into that nonsense, giving him fodder or ammunition, to continue to go out there and talk about our Black women that way… I don’t want to be associated with nothing like that.” Cool. But the question Crockett herself asked when she finally responded on TSR Live in October 2025 cuts to the bone — “If you hadn’t gotten smoke, would you have done it?” Liberalism is a hell of a drug, but careerism is the strongest dose.And Crockett ain’t a one-off. Smith has spent the better part of a decade making his money diminishing Black resistance. In 2016, when Colin Kaepernick told reporters he didn’t vote, Stephen A. went on First Take and called Kaep “absolutely irrelevant.” Not the system that blackballed him. Not the league that stole his career. The Black man kneeling. In 2019, when Kaepernick showed up to that staged NFL workout in a Kunta Kinte t-shirt, Stephen A. lost his entire mind on air. He kept telling us he understood the protest — but every time Kaep moved out of the box Stephen A. drew for him, Stephen A. punished him for it on national television. In 2025, after Serena Williams danced at Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show, Stephen A. used his platform to lecture her on her marriage to Alexis Ohanian. A grown Black woman, the most decorated tennis player of all time, dancing at a Black cultural moment, and he found a way to make it about her supposed disrespect to her husband. Lost in the sauce.When Shucking and Jiving Goes WrongNow connect this to the larger pattern. In May 2025, on NewsNation’s Cuomo show, Smith argued Black voters had “played the role of suckers” for the Democratic Party for sixty years. In March 2026, on his Straight Shooter podcast, he told us, “I ain’t giving you anything” — meaning his vote — and pivoted to the line that Democrats “focus on 1% of the population” instead of Black folks. We need to be precise about what he’s doing here. The 1% he’s talking about is trans people. He’s running the same divide-and-conquer playbook the right has been running since the Southern Strategy — pit one marginalized community against another, and reframe Black liberation as something that happens at the expense of trans liberation, immigrant liberation, queer liberation. Kimberlé Crenshaw been told us this is how it works. Cedric Robinson been told us racial capitalism profits from these splits. And Stephen A. is up on Fox News-adjacent platforms running it for the cameras.Two things can be true. The Democratic Party has earned every ounce of Black skepticism. Black voters absolutely should demand more than fear-mongering and lip service. Cory Booker’s voting record told us that. The Voting Rights Act dying in front of our eyes under a Roberts Court told us that. But there is a difference between critiquing a party from inside the community to push it left, and critiquing a party on conservative platforms to push the community right. SNCC critiqued the Democrats. Bayard Rustin critiqued the Democrats. Fannie Lou Hamer critiqued the Democrats from the floor of the 1964 Democratic National Convention. None of them were on Bill Maher complaining about “woke culture.” None of them were sitting next to Bill O’Reilly taking a phone call from Donald Trump. The destination matters. The audience matters. The platform matters.This is where the responsibility piece comes in, and it’s the part nobody wants to hear. Black platforms — and Stephen A. Smith is the most-watched Black voice in American sports media — carry a structural responsibility that white platforms simply do not. When ESPN signs you to a $100 million extension in 2025 and gives you a daily show, a primetime show, a podcast, and a guest chair on every cable news network in the country, you are not just “giving your opinion.” You are setting the terms of debate inside Black households. You are shaping what young Black boys think it means to be a successful Black man with a microphone. You are deciding which Black women get critiqued and which white men get a pass. The influence is the product. ESPN didn’t pay him $100 million for his takes on the Knicks.Here’s the framework. Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism teaches us that racial capitalism doesn’t just exploit Black labor — it commodifies Black voice. Saidiya Hartman’s afterlife of slavery shows us how the structures of unfreedom shape what gets rewarded in Black public life: Black voices that confirm white anxieties get amplified, Black voices that disrupt them get marginalized. Frank Wilderson’s work on antiblackness as a structuring logic asks us why a Black man with national reach reflexively reaches for Black women and Black resistance figures as the targets of his critique, instead of the white power structure that funds his check. The system isn’t broken. The system is doing exactly what it was built to do. And Stephen A. is being paid handsomely to play his position inside it.The responsibility on Black platforms is not to be uncritical of Black politicians or Black movements. The responsibility is to do that critique with the receipts, with the historical context, and with an awareness of who else is in the room. When Stephen A. Smith says “I want Democrats to earn the Black vote” on Fox News-adjacent platforms in 2026, the audience hearing that line is not Black voters running back to a more progressive politics. The audience is white moderates and Black conservatives who use his words as cover to suppress Black turnout, gut the Voting Rights Act, and redraw districts to dilute Black political power. The Supreme Court just gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v. Callais. Republicans are mid-decade gerrymandering five states right now. And the loudest Black voice in sports media is on national television telling Black folks the Democrats took us for granted. Whose interest does that actually serve?We can hold this up against the standard a Cornel West or a Ta-Nehisi Coates would hold themselves to. We can hold this up against the standard Killer Mike held when he sat across from Bernie Sanders. We can hold this up against the standard Angela Davis still holds at 82 years old. The receipts are clear. Stephen A. Smith built his platform on the labor of Black athletes, the suffering of Black communities, and the loyalty of a Black audience that took him seriously when he said he was one of us. Now that the platform is built, he’s renting it out to the highest bidder — and the highest bidder right now is Trump’s America.I’m not telling you to cancel Stephen A. Smith. Cancel culture ain’t the move and it ain’t the strategy. What I am telling you is this: when somebody on a Black platform starts telling you that the people fighting for your liberation are actually the people standing in the way of your liberation, run the receipts. Ask who’s paying. Ask who’s clapping. Ask what the platform looks like in five years if everybody on it talks the way the loudest one talks. Ask whether the analysis lines up with the material conditions of Black life — Black maternal mortality, Black wealth gap, Black voter suppression, Black incarceration — or whether the analysis exists to make white moderates comfortable while we get rolled.Stephen A. Smith says he might run for president in 2028. He says elected officials and billionaires have encouraged him. He polled at 2% in a 2025 Democratic primary survey. He wants us to believe this is organic. It is not. It is the same playbook that gave us Herman Cain, Ben Carson, Tim Scott, Byron Donalds, and every other Black face used to legitimize a politics that treats Black liberation as a niche concern. The faces change. The function doesn’t.Where is the smoke for the people doing the actual harm? Where is the receipts-based critique of the donors funding the gerrymandering? Where is the half-hour monologue on the Heritage Foundation’s role in Project 2025? Where is the smoke for the white owners who blackballed Kaepernick, the white prosecutors who let R. Kelly’s enablers walk, the white politicians who built the prison pipeline? When Stephen A. saves his loudest energy for Black women in Congress and his softest energy for the president of the United States, the contradiction is the message.Y’all be safe. Stay informed. Read your Robinson. Read your Hartman. Read your Crenshaw. And when somebody with a microphone tells you who the enemy is, always — always — check who signs the back of their check.Why Black Platforms Have a ResponsibilityThis is the framing paragraph the user requested — drop-in ready for newsletter pull-quote, post header, or social card.Black platforms carry a responsibility white platforms do not, and the math on that is structural, not moral. When a Black voice with national reach speaks into a Black audience, the trust being extended is intimate — Black folks come to Black voices because we are exhausted from being misrepresented everywhere else. That trust is not free. ESPN paid Stephen A. Smith a reported $100 million in 2025 because the influence is the product, not because his Knicks takes are remarkable. Cedric Robinson taught us that racial capitalism commodifies Black voice the same way it commodifies Black labor — the system pays handsomely for the Black voices that confirm what power already wants said, and it marginalizes the ones that disrupt. Saidiya Hartman’s afterlife of slavery shows up in who gets the $100 million extension and who gets blackballed out the league. So when the loudest Black voice in American sports media uses that platform to redirect Black political grievance toward Democrats and away from the architects of voter suppression, that is not opinion. That is editorial cover. The responsibility is not to be uncritical of Black politicians or Black movements — SNCC, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Bayard Rustin all critiqued the Democrats. The responsibility is to do that critique with receipts, with historical context, and with full awareness of who else is in the room when you speak. The destination matters. The audience matters. The platform matters. Pro-Black branding is not a substitute for pro-Black behavior, and a Black audience that has been lied to from the outside our entire lives deserves Black platforms that don’t replicate the lie from the inside.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Five Key TakeawaysTakeaway 1. Stephen A. Smith voted for Kamala Harris in November 2024, called himself a “damn fool” for it on Bill Maher in January 2025, and confirmed his regret again on Sage Steele’s show in March 2026. Two months between vote and public regret. That’s not political evolution — that’s a pivot, executed on the platforms most hostile to Black political power.Takeaway 2. Smith’s framing of Democrats as the party that “forgot” Black voters and is “focused on 1% of the population” (his March 2026 Straight Shooter language) maps directly onto the right’s divide-and-conquer playbook. He’s not pushing Democrats left — he’s running cover for the Trump administration’s attacks on trans people, immigrants, and other marginalized communities, with Black grievance as the wedge.Takeaway 3. His pattern of punching down on Black women — Megan Thee Stallion (May 2025 breakup commentary), Serena Williams (after Kendrick’s 2025 halftime show), Jasmine Crockett (October 2025 “street verbiage” comments) — is not coincidence. It is the through-line. He apologized to Crockett only after Trump used his framing to attack her, which Crockett herself called out on TSR Live: “If you hadn’t gotten smoke, would you have done it?”Takeaway 4. Trump publicly endorsed Smith for president in May 2025 on NewsNation. Smith called himself “aghast” then went on CNN and admitted he was flattered, said he could win, and by February 2026 was openly calling himself a “fiscal conservative.” He polled at 2% in a 2025 Democratic primary survey. He has never held office. The trajectory is not subtle.Takeaway 5. Black platforms carry structural responsibility because of structural reach. ESPN signed Smith to a $100 million extension in 2025. He sets the terms of debate in Black sports media every single morning. When the loudest Black voice in American sports tells Black audiences that the Democrats took them for granted while saying nothing comparable about the architects of voter suppression, that’s not opinion — that’s editorial cover for the people dismantling Black political power.EXPLICIT ASK TO BECOME A PAID SUBSCRIBERIf this kind of receipts-based, framework-rooted analysis is what you come to Education is Elevation for, the way you keep it coming is by becoming a paid subscriber. This platform runs without corporate backing. No advertisers. No sponsors telling me what I can and can’t say about Stephen A. Smith, ESPN, the Democratic Party, or anybody else. The work — the research, the citations, the writing, the production — is sustained entirely by y’all. Less than 1% of folks who follow me have converted to paid, and the math on that is what it is. If you’ve gotten value from this piece, the move is simple: hit the subscribe button, lock in the paid tier, and put yourself on the side of independent Black analysis that doesn’t bend for the algorithm or the advertiser. Research over MeSearch. Education is Elevation. Let’s keep building.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.CITED SOURCES 1. Smith, Stephen A., interview on Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO, January 24, 2025).Smith’s on-camera admission, alongside Rep. Ro Khanna and Jesse Eisenberg, that he and other Harris voters were “damn fools” for the November 2024 vote. The pivot point for the political phase of his platform.2. Smith, Stephen A., interview on The Sage Steele Show (March 2026), reported in Fox News, April 1, 2026.Smith confirms his regret for the Harris vote on Steele’s platform — a notable choice of venue, given Steele’s history of attacking Black women on race issues.3. Trump, Donald, on NewsNation Town Hall (May 2025), with Bill O’Reilly and Stephen A. Smith.Trump’s public endorsement of a Smith presidential run. The original document for the choreography of the endorsement-and-denial sequence.4. Smith, Stephen A., interview with Jake Tapper, CNN’s State of the Union (May 4, 2025).Smith’s first network response to the Trump endorsement. “There’s a bit of flattery” and “You’re damn right” he could win. The denial that wasn’t a denial.5. Smith, Stephen A., Straight Shooter podcast (October 14, 2025 episode), reported across BET, The Hill, The Grio, Black Enterprise, Ebony, and TheRoot, October 14–November 1, 2025.The original Crockett “street verbiage” comments. Read the BET and TheRoot coverage together for the most complete community response.6. Smith, Stephen A., apology to Rep. Jasmine Crockett, Straight Shooter (October 22, 2025).The apology. Smith’s own framing — that Trump was using his words as “fodder” — confirms the apology was reactive to the political consequences, not the original critique.7. Crockett, Jasmine, interview on TSR Live (The Shade Room, October 30, 2025).Crockett’s response in her own words. The “if you hadn’t gotten smoke, would you have done it?” question is the core analytic frame for the entire Smith pattern.8. Smith, Stephen A., interviews with The Hill (February 13, 2026) and Yahoo Sports (February 14, 2026).The “fiscal conservative, social liberal” framing, the 2028 confirmation, the “strong borders” line. Together these establish the political identity Smith is building heading into 2028.9. Smith, Stephen A., interview on NewsNation’s CUOMO (May 2025).The “played the role of suckers” framing of Black voters. Establishes the rhetorical move of redirecting Black political grievance toward Democrats and away from the structural drivers of Black disenfranchisement.10. Robinson, Cedric. Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition (1983).Foundational text for understanding how racial capitalism commodifies Black voice and labor. The framework for analyzing what ESPN’s $100M contract is actually purchasing.11. Hartman, Saidiya. Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route (2007); see also “The Time of Slavery,” South Atlantic Quarterly (2002).The afterlife of slavery as analytic framework — useful for understanding which Black voices get amplified in mass media and which get blackballed. The Kaepernick / Stephen A. asymmetry lives inside this analysis.12. Crenshaw, Kimberlé. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex,” University of Chicago Legal Forum (1989); “Mapping the Margins,” Stanford Law Review (1991).Intersectionality as the frame that exposes the “1% of the population” rhetorical move for what it is — a divide-and-conquer device that depends on pretending Black communities and trans communities don’t overlap.13. Wilderson, Frank B. III. Red, White & Black: Cinema and the Structure of U.S. Antagonisms (2010); Afropessimism (2020).Antiblackness as a structuring logic. The framework for analyzing why a Black man with $100M in platform reach reflexively reaches for Black women and Black resistance figures as targets of his loudest critique.14. Mallory, Tamika; Rye, Angela; Gillum, Andrew; Cross, Tiffany — public commentary on Native Land Pod and across Instagram, October 2025. This is a public episode. 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Thank you Great Society’s “New Frontier”, Selda, Bob Barnett, Jody Medina Precit, Sonja Kuhn, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.Education is elevation, y’all. Let me set the table real quick before I get into this drama, this mess.I came across a clip of Candace Owens and Laura Loomer going back and forth, and before we even unpack this little circus, I want y’all to feel me on the most important news of the day. What happened yesterday is really showing how they trying to take us back to the plantation, take us back to Jim Crow. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is what started to remove the legal machinery that ensured segregation throughout the South. In 1964, the year before the bill passed, only about 7% of Black folks were registered to vote down South. A year after passage, in 1966, we saw over 50% of Black folks down South registered to vote. That’s what’s at stake when courts and politicians start chipping at voting rights again. That’s the real story. And while the real story is unfolding, we got these MAGA tokens out here doing the work of distraction for free.Now let me get into Candace Owens and Laura Loomer. Trigger warning, for the folks in the back: it’s about to get real racist. It’s about to get real anti-Black. But it’s gonna make sense in a minute.What Loomer Said, and Why It MattersLaura Loomer went on a tirade where she literally called Candace Owens a “nappy-headed Black b***h” and a “resentful ghetto Black b***h.” She mocked Candace’s diction. She mocked Candace’s degrees. She accused Candace of being jealous of pretty white blonde girls and trying to steal their men in Greenwich, Connecticut. Then she pivoted to telling y’all she ain’t a racist person. Feel me?Let that marinate. Loomer used textbook racism, textbook anti-Blackness, textbook white supremacist rhetoric, and capped it off with the disclaimer that she’s just not a racist. Thinking deeply about shallow s**t, that is the whole MAGA brand in one sentence. The performance of racial innocence right after the racist performance.But here’s the part that should land harder than the slurs: Loomer was able to force the administration’s hand. She went on this unhinged racist rant and then made a demand that the President of the United States issue a Truth Social post supporting her. And he did. Reporting indicates Susie Wiles was staunchly opposed and said this was a very bad idea, but Trump’s team conceded anyway. That is the question that should haunt every conservative reading this: why did Donald Trump concede to a lunatic? Owens herself has floated the rumor — and yes, even she admits it’s just a rumor — that Loomer has something on Trump tied to relations she allegedly had with him on Air Force One years ago. I’ll be real with y’all: Candace, Laura, Donald, all three of y’all are full of the same stuff they flush down toilets, so the credibility argument from any of them is losing on me. My grandfather always told me that a broken clock gets it right twice a day. In these days, maybe you change your batteries and tell time a little different. But here’s the thing about time. Time keeps score.Why I’m Not Defending CandaceLet me be crystal clear. I’m not a racist person. I don’t hate Black people. And I’m calling Candace Owens out for the same reason I’m calling Laura Loomer out: when y’all try to act like people are not racist, it always blows my mind that Black conservatives can only understand racism when it’s put on their own body. A lot of y’all claim to be Christians, but the way you come to understand racism is through a selfishness that is not Christ-like.The exact language Laura Loomer is using on Candace Owens right now is the exact stuff Candace Owens thought was cool and permissible when she was benefiting from it. The chastising of Black folks for not taking accountability. The lectures about Black women’s hair, Black women’s bodies, Black communities, Black culture. Candace was at the front of that line for years, getting white conservative checks for it. Now she ain’t benefiting from it no more, and she’s doing her best to appeal to Black people. When she went at Erica Kirk and said Erica Kirk was doing her best Janet Jackson rendition, she was reaching for Black cultural references to climb back into the fold. Repeat me one more time, to my Black conservative free-thinking Republicans: y’all loved having y’all presence tokenized around these folks, but inevitably in a system of capitalism, tokens will always be spent.We always say tokens get spent. What we’re seeing with the way these Republicans are doing y’all, Black Republicans, is that y’all were always already disposable. And now that a lot of y’all are trying to come back into the fold, trying to come back around Black folks, we remember what you said and what you did. Just like you was chastising the community for not taking accountability, for not taking responsibility, before you allowed back around this stuff again, you got to take responsibility and accountability for the climate you helped create.The Greenwich Bar Story Is the Whole ThesisLoomer described, in her own words, how traumatizing it was for her to go on a play date as a young blonde girl in Connecticut at the home of a wealthy white blonde girl with blue eyes. She said her mommy and daddy didn’t love her, and now she sees Erica Kirk as that white blonde girl who got everything she wanted. Then she turns around and tells a story about Candace Owens being a Black girl from the hood who used to walk into ritzy bars in Greenwich and steal the hottest white guy and ruin the popular white girl’s relationship. She said this was satisfying to Candace. So now Loomer is calling Candace a nappy-headed ghetto Black b***h with a vendetta against blonde white women, while simultaneously revealing she has a vendetta against blonde white women. That ain’t it, though.The honest read is this: a lot of y’all that got hoodwinked and bamboozled by your proximity to whiteness thought these white folks didn’t feel about you the way you said they didn’t feel about us. When chickens come home to roost, you got to embrace that chicken. Recognize that regardless of how good your diction is, how many degrees you have, how likable you try to be, at the end of the day a lot of these folks always saw you as a slur waiting to be deployed the moment you stopped being useful.Accountability Without an Escape HatchA lot of these conservatives, not even just the Black ones, a lot of these Trump devout loyalists are starting to see the writing on the wall that the same vitriol and violence Trump pushed out is now coming for them too. So they’re trying to backpedal. Nah, man.I got homeboys and family members who regret the bad actions that placed them in being incarcerated. They want to disavow the people they used to run with. The judge would tell them, yeah, that’s good you acknowledged what you did was bad and you want to disavow it, but you still got to deal with the consequences of your actions. How is it that these conservatives believe they can discursively move around the climate they created and benefited from and just say whoops, my bad? I got a cousin locked up 15 years. Whoops, my bad. He’s still in jail though. He’s still got to deal with the material reality his actions brought about.How is it that so many of these conservatives, all of a sudden right now, are trying to ask for the exact forgiveness they never wanted to give nobody else? Self-serving, man. What would Jesus do? Sault, take it with a grain of crack cocaine, okay?Don’t Let Them Sell You Jill Stein AgainWhile y’all watching the MAGA girls fight, I want to take this opportunity to redirect a different misplaced beef. Unpopular opinion: a lot of the smoke folks have for the Green Party should actually be smoked for Candace Owens and for Donald Trump supporters.In 2016, Jill Stein received about 1% of the vote. Hillary Clinton still won the popular vote. Hillary Clinton lost a bunch of Electoral College points due to states she lost. Instead of dealing with the faulty leadership of the Democratic Party, y’all want to capitulate to Jill Stein. Y’all always could see Jill Stein had no power, has no power, has never had power, would not have any power right now. You can put all the third-party candidates together in 2024, give every single one of them votes to Kamala Harris, and Kamala Harris still loses.Even if 100% of Black folks voted for Kamala Harris, Donald Trump would have still won. Over 85% of the Black community voted for Kamala Harris in 2024, and there’s still certain Black people who want to chastise the Black community, telling us we’re the reason Kamala lost. Let’s focus on the numbers, man. The math don’t lie.Donald Trump was able to stack the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade and gut Chevron deference. Did Joe Biden stack the court? He didn’t. Did the leftists have the ability to pack the courts? No. I don’t know any offices the Green Party holds. I don’t know any positions they hold. How is it that we can blame people that are positionless for decisions made by people with positions? Facts over feelings, y’all. For some reason, feelings and emotions can become centered when they’re yours, but when they’re somebody else’s, you don’t care.On Solidarity, Disagreement, and That Plaque on My WallIt’s a bunch of people I rock with that I disagree with on this. It’s a bunch of folks who rock with me that I disagree with on this. And that is okay. The question becomes, do we have the emotional intelligence and capacity to have a crucial conversation where we vehemently disagree?It’s the reason why I got that Malcolm X standing right next to that Fannie Lou Hamer on my wall. When it comes to Black ideology, when it comes to Black position, there is always a multiplicity of how we position. Do I think Fannie Lou Hamer had the same politics as Malcolm X? Some similarities, a lot of differences. But me being able to appreciate them both is the work. We can talk about how great Assata Shakur was and then turn around and chastise Black folks for taking on the same tools of democracy you say you’re trying to defend. That contradiction is why so many of these conversations go nowhere.I’ll close with this. The Loomer-Owens feud is a Sports Center highlight reel of what racial capitalism looks like when the contract runs out. They was never colleagues. Candace was a token. Tokens get spent. Loomer is reminding her, and reminding all of us, on national air. The lesson ain’t to feel bad for Candace. The lesson is to stop sending other Black folks to that same plantation expecting a different harvest. Time keeps score. It’s keeping score on Candace, on Laura, on Donald, on every Black conservative free-thinker who thought their proximity to whiteness was a passport instead of a lease.Education is elevation. Research over MeSearch. Let that marinate.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Five Key Takeaways#1 Tokens always get spent. Candace Owens being publicly degraded by Laura Loomer with the same anti-Black language Owens defended for years is racial capitalism doing exactly what racial capitalism does. The currency of Black conservatism is acceptance, and acceptance is always conditional, always revocable, always priced in slurs.#2 Loomer’s Greenwich bar monologue accidentally tells the truth. She projected her own resentment of pretty blonde white girls onto Candace Owens, exposing that the white grievance industry runs on the same wounds it accuses Black women of having. The performance of racial innocence right after textbook anti-Blackness is the whole MAGA brand.#3 The real news is the Voting Rights Act, not the catfight. Black voter registration in the South went from roughly 7% in 1964 to over 50% by 1966 because federal machinery dismantled the legal architecture of disenfranchisement. Every modern attempt to roll that back is the through-line we should be tracking while these tokens distract us.#4 Stop misplacing the smoke. Jill Stein got 1% in 2016. Third-party candidates in 2024 combined could not have flipped the result. Even at 100% Black turnout for Kamala, Trump still wins. The faulty leadership of the Democratic Party and the Black conservatives who normalized Trumpism deserve the heat, not positionless leftists.#5 Accountability is not a vibes-based reset. My homeboys locked up for 15 years cannot vibe their way out of consequences, and neither can conservatives who built the climate they’re now trying to backpedal from. You don’t get to chastise folks for not taking responsibility and then beg for forgiveness you never gave. Time keeps score.Explicit Ask To Become A Paid SubscriberIf you read this all the way through and felt something shift, I want you to consider what just happened. You got a Black studies seminar, a voting rights primer, a media analysis, and a structural read on racial capitalism for free, with no corporate sponsor whispering in my ear about what I can and cannot say. That is rare, and it is getting rarer.Public education media is in retreat. Newsrooms with Black political analysis are being hollowed out. Universities are being defunded. Independent scholarship that explicitly refuses corporate backing is what fills the void. That is what Education is Elevation is. That is what your subscription funds.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

Thank you LeftieProf, Lynette, Lo Is, zink, Sherell, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.I had a conversation this week with Kimba White Dupree — educator, radio host at WBOK in New Orleans, womanist, mother, lifelong New Orleanian — and we sat with something most folks won’t sit with. We talked about colorism. Not the TikTok version. Not the “light skin, dark skin” meme version. The actual structural, historical, Catholic-colonial, last-name-traceable, plantation-rooted, currency-bearing version. The version where lightness was literally legal tender.And we used New Orleans as the case study. Because if you want to understand how colorism actually works in America — not the sanitized version, not the “we all Black at the end of the day” version — you need to understand New Orleans. That city is the receipt. Feel me?Let me put you on.Racial Literacy Means Reading and Writing the SituationBefore we even get to New Orleans, let’s level-set. Most of y’all lack racial literacy. I don’t say that to insult you. I say it because we are products of an education system that does not teach us how to read race as a structure. We get taught race as a personal feeling — am I racist, are you racist, did somebody hurt my feelings — instead of race as a hierarchy with property rights, legal designations, and inherited wealth attached to it.When I asked Kimba what came to mind when I said “racial literacy,” her first words were: “white by law.”Let that marinate.She pointed out that until the 1940s, white people in this country didn’t all get to be “white.” Italians were Italians. Russians were Russians. Germans were Germans. Irish were Irish. Each group identified by country of origin. Then somewhere in the 1940s, the census, the Social Security infrastructure, and the broader project of racial consolidation pulled all those groups under one umbrella: Caucasian. White. One designation. One political coalition. One inheritance line.That’s a constructed whiteness. It got built. On purpose. To consolidate power against everybody else, especially us.Now hold that thought, because the same century where whiteness was being consolidated up north, New Orleans was running a completely different operation down in the Gulf. And that operation is where colorism in this country gets its sharpest, most documented, most legally codified form.Why New Orleans Is Different — And Why Y’all Need to Stop Treating It Like a CostumeMost folks treat New Orleans like a vacation. A weekend. A daiquiri on Bourbon Street. Beads. Beignets. Maybe Essence Fest if you fancy.But New Orleans is the uppermost part of the Caribbean.Read that again.Geographically, culturally, in terms of the Middle Passage — for most of the era of trans-Atlantic enslavement, New Orleans was the northernmost Caribbean port. We don’t think about it that way now, but we should. Because the cultural inheritance of the city — the food, the music, the language, the religion, the way race is structured — none of it makes sense if you keep trying to read New Orleans as just another American Southern city.Louisiana is Indigenous. African. French. Spanish. Haitian. And Catholic — heavily, structurally Catholic, in a country where Catholicism is a minority faith. The state has one of the largest populations of Black Catholics in the United States. Xavier University, where Kimba was sitting when we talked, is the only Black Catholic HBCU in the country.Now here is what most people don’t catch: Catholicism, in its colonial form, structures race differently than American Protestantism does. American Protestantism gave us the one-drop rule — binary, clean, brutal. Catholic colonialism gave us gradation. Quadroon. Octoroon. Mulatto. Passé blanc. A whole hierarchy of fractions. A measuring system for your distance from whiteness.And in Louisiana, those weren’t just slurs. They were on birth certificates. They were on property deeds. They were tied to inheritance, marriage law, schooling, employment, and access to capital. Kimba told me she could pull her family records right now and the word “mulatto” lives there in the official paperwork. Not as an insult. As a legal classification.That’s racial literacy. That’s understanding that the words we now treat as offensive were, in the not-too-distant past, the technical vocabulary of how the state organized human beings.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Lightness as Currency: The Plantation Economics of ColorHere’s the part that should make you uncomfortable, because it should.Kimba broke it down plain: in Louisiana, the lighter you were, the more likely you were the child of the master of the house. That wasn’t shameful gossip. That was the math. With French enslavers, Spanish enslavers, and yes, a small class of Black enslavers who bought their own family back, the gradation of skin became a record of who belonged to whom. Before genetics testing, color was the genetic test. The lighter your kin, the closer they were tied to the family that owned them.And in some cases — this is the part nobody wants to deal with — French slave owners married the women they enslaved. Which meant property. Which meant a pass-along of land, of money, of social capital. So now you’ve got generations of light-skinned families in New Orleans whose fairness isn’t coincidence. It’s an inheritance line. It’s documented. It’s traceable through last names — Bourgeois, LeBlanc, Dupree, the whole French registry.For a long time, being lighter didn’t just mean closer to white. It meant a special Black. A Black with a different relationship to property, to money, to access. The money eventually runs out across generations — but the color stays. And the color keeps spending. Because by white standards, the gradation determined who got considered “pretty.” Who got considered hireable. Who got considered marriageable. Who got considered safe.This is why Kimba can tell you: New Orleans has never had a dark-skinned mayor. Not once. Look at the leadership of the city across decades — the political class, the business class, the social and pleasure clubs — and you will see fairness as a through-line. That’s not an accident. That’s the residue of an economy where lightness was currency.The receipts are right there.Mulatto, Creole, and the Trap of Misreading the VocabularyNow in the comments while we were live, somebody asked: why are you using “mulatto”? It’s a slur.Fair question. And here’s where racial literacy matters, because the answer isn’t a clean yes or no.Yes — in 2026, “mulatto” is broadly considered offensive, derived from a Spanish/Portuguese root tied to mules (which is exactly why people object to it; it implies hybridity, sterility, a categorical “in-between” that wasn’t fully human in the eyes of the state). I respect that critique completely.And — for Black Louisianans of a certain generation, “mulatto” appears on their actual birth certificates. It is not a slur their family hurled at them. It is the word the state used to classify them. To erase the term entirely is to erase how the state did the classifying. Kimba’s position — and I think it’s the historically honest one — is: I understand why people would have a reaction to the term, but it lives in my ancestral records. You can’t just retroactively scrub it without erasing the violence that put it there.Now — Creole. This one matters even more, because most of y’all are using it wrong.Creole is not a color.Creole is a culture.Creole is how we cook, how we worship, how we bury our dead, how we speak. Creole is gumbo and red beans on Monday and fish on Friday and the sign of the cross when you pass a cemetery. Creole is the language — French peppered with African and Spanish — that your grandparents spoke. Creole is Catholicism layered over West African spiritual practice layered over Indigenous land knowledge layered over French colonial law. It’s the amalgamation. That’s what Creole means.And here’s the part that breaks people’s brains: there are white Creoles. Yes. Real ones. Creole-by-culture white folks, mostly French-descended, who grew up in that same soup. The book Interview with the Vampire gets this right — the character Louis is a Creole, and in the novel he’s not racially unambiguous in the way the Brad Pitt casting suggested. Creole is cultural, not chromatic.But because lightness in New Orleans was so heavily concentrated among Creole-identified families, and because lightness was currency, the word got flattened in the popular imagination into a synonym for “light-skinned Black person from Louisiana.” That flattening erases the actual culture and reduces a 300-year-old cultural inheritance to a complexion. Don’t do that. Read the situation.The Hierarchy and the Hurt: Why I Won’t Let This Conversation Go Bi-DirectionalNow here’s where the conversation gets sharp, and where I’ll be honest with y’all about where I land.Me and my co-host Toya G have been going back and forth for a minute on this question: when we talk about colorism, do we talk about it as a hierarchy — light over dark, full stop — or do we talk about it as bi-directional, where everybody catches hurt?Both things are true. But they are not equally weighted.There is real hurt that light-skinned people carry. Kimba was clear about it, and I’m going to be clear about it too. Light-skinned folks get accused of acting white. Light-skinned folks get sexualized in ways that flatten them into a fetish. Light-skinned Black men in particular get their masculinity questioned — Michael Beasley just went on Shannon Sharpe’s show and broke down growing up with green eyes and long hair and having to fight constantly because brothers underestimated him. He told Shannon, “I always seen me as you. Y’all didn’t see me as you.” That’s real. That alienation is real. The hurt is real.And.Light-skinned people are still preferred within the hierarchy of race. Closer in proximity to power. Closer in proximity to privilege. Closer in proximity to the magazine covers, the leading roles, the corporate suites, the political offices. That doesn’t get erased because somebody on the lighter end of the spectrum experienced rejection or alienation. Both can be true at once.The trap of bi-directional framing — and this is where I push back on the “we all hurt the same” version of the conversation — is that it mystifies the hierarchy that produced all the hurt in the first place. There’s an analogy I keep coming back to: there are white people who experience real resentment from being positioned inside white supremacy. That hurt doesn’t negate that they are still the primary beneficiaries of the system that’s hurting them. Same logic applies inside Blackness. Lighter-skinned Black folks can carry real wounds and still occupy a structurally preferred position.The work is to hold both at the same time. Acknowledge the hurt without flattening the hierarchy. Acknowledge the hierarchy without dismissing the hurt. That’s emotional intelligence. That’s racial literacy. That’s the job.Don’t make me pick. I won’t pick. But I won’t let you pretend they’re equal either.Gender, Color, and the Megan Thee Stallion ProblemWe can’t talk about colorism without talking about how it intersects with gender, because the two systems do not operate independently. They braid together, and the braid does specific kinds of violence to specific kinds of bodies.Kimba and I got into the Klay Thompson and Megan Thee Stallion situation because it’s a perfect case study. (And before y’all come for me — yes, I know how to spell Klay Thompson now.) Megan is brown-skinned, statuesque, sexually free, financially independent, taller than most of the dudes who want to humble her, and unapologetic about all of it. She is a structural threat to a particular vision of Black femininity that demands docility, smallness, sexual restraint, and emotional service to men.And what does the culture do? The culture spends years rationalizing Tory Lanez shooting her. The culture spends years asking what she did to deserve it. The culture watches Klay step out on her and treats it like a victory lap — for him.Kimba’s read on this is sharp: a lot of dudes celebrating Klay are not celebrating Klay because they like Klay. They are celebrating because they want what Klay has. Megan being free is offensive to a lot of men because freedom in a Black woman who looks like Megan reads as insubordination. It’s not really about her morality. It’s about her autonomy. And the colorism layer underneath all of it is that a brown-skinned woman with that much autonomy doesn’t get the soft-launch protection that a fairer-skinned woman with the same autonomy might get. (Beyoncé, for all the parasocial scrutiny she gets, has been able to keep certain things private in ways Meg isn’t permitted to.)Then there’s the homoerotic shadow Kimba and I started circling. The same dudes who are loudest about “no homo” are doing the most homoerotic stuff — dropping everything to run to a homeboy, performing intense emotional labor for other men, fantasizing in public about other men’s sexual conquests. Some of that “Klay deserved better” energy is, academically, dudes wanting to be in the room with Klay. Feel me? That’s not me being cute. That’s me reading the situation.And the gender-color cocktail produces predictable patterns: dark-skinned women get desexualized or hyper-sexualized but rarely allowed to be soft. Light-skinned men get their masculinity contested. Dark-skinned men get their femininity weaponized against them in arguments — “you a b***h, you soft, you a hoe” — which reveals, by the way, that misogyny is the foundation under all of it. The first move when men want to harm another man is to feminize him. Because femininity is treated as the lower category. That’s not a colorism problem. That’s a misogyny problem. But the two systems compound.Kimba’s line on this was perfect: a lot of men don’t actually like women. They like rubbing up against women. There’s a difference.The Quadroon Ball, Plaçage, and Why Y’all Need to Read Outside the CurriculumWhen I was getting ready for this conversation, I went down a rabbit hole on something called the Quadroon Ball — 19th-century New Orleans social events where free women of color (often classified as one-quarter African descent) met wealthy white men to arrange a system of concubinage called plaçage. The wiki entries hedge — “frequently romanticized,” “likely rare or mythologized” — but the receipts in New Orleans tell a different story. This was not a myth. This was a documented practice. Women were, in effect, contracted into long-term arrangements with white men who would house them, support their children, and sometimes pass property to them, in exchange for sexual and domestic exclusivity outside of marriage.That is colorism, gender, and economics fused into a single institution. It’s a market. The currency is lightness. The product is access. The buyer is whiteness. The seller is — well, that depends on how you frame agency under coercion, which is its own conversation.And this is the same city that produced Plessy v. Ferguson. Think about that for a second. The Plessy case — the case that legalized “separate but equal” for the next sixty years — came out of a deliberate civil rights challenge organized in New Orleans. Homer Plessy was selected because he was light enough to pass; the whole point of the test case was to expose the absurdity of racial classification by having a man who was visibly white be arrested for sitting in a white train car. The Creole community in New Orleans organized that challenge. They lost in 1896. The country lived under the consequences for decades.Same city, same century, also produces the integration of McDonogh 15 — the Lower Ninth Ward elementary school where, in 1960, three Black girls (Dr. Gail Etienne, Dr. Leona Tate, and Dr. Tessie Prevost) integrated alongside Ruby Bridges’ integration of William Frantz Elementary across town. White parents at McDonogh 15 unenrolled their children en masse. Dr. Tate sat in a classroom with a teacher and no other students. White flight from the Ninth Ward to Slidell followed. The same city that mounted the most sophisticated legal challenge to segregation in 1896 was, sixty years later, the site of the most aggressive white refusal to integrate primary schools.That contradiction — Plessy and Ruby Bridges, the legal challenge and the white flight, the Quadroon Ball and the Civil Rights movement — that’s New Orleans. That’s why I keep saying the city is the receipt. It contains every contradiction American race-making produces, and it doesn’t bother to hide them.The Erasure of Southern Black CultureI’ll close with the thing that’s been gnawing at me, because I’m a Southerner and I’m tired.Right now, all over the internet, people are romanticizing the Harlem Renaissance. The Great Migration. The Cotton Club. Langston Hughes. Zora Neale Hurston. Jazz in Harlem. Black New York in the 1920s as the cultural high-water mark of the diaspora.That’s beautiful. That’s real. I’m not knocking it.But the birthplace of jazz is not Harlem. It’s New Orleans. Jelly Roll Morton was from New Orleans. Louis Armstrong was from New Orleans. The Dew Drop Inn was in New Orleans. The artists who got celebrated in Harlem had to tour — they had to come down South and back, because Harlem alone couldn’t pay them. Lorraine Hansberry and James Baldwin both spent time in New Orleans; there’s a famous photo of them dancing at a New Orleans family home. The Dooky Chase restaurant had a backroom where Civil Rights organizers met because Black folks weren’t supposed to be assembling that way in public.When y’all flatten Black 1920s culture into “the Harlem Renaissance,” you erase the South. You erase the people who didn’t migrate. You erase the artists who were touring back and forth and seeding culture in both directions. You erase the fact that while Harlem was renaissance-ing, my people in Texas were trying not to get lynched, and Kimba’s people in Louisiana were inventing the music Harlem was importing.That erasure isn’t accidental either. It’s continuous with how American history erases Southern Blackness except as a setting for plantations or the Civil Rights Movement. We don’t get to be the producers of culture. We only get to be the suffering setting for culture, or the migrants who left to make culture somewhere else.I’m calling that what it is. That’s Southern erasure. And it’s something I’m going to keep beating the drum about, because the receipts are too thick for us to keep getting written out of our own story.Education Is ElevationIf you read this far, this is the part where I tell you what I always tell you. This work… this kind of writing, this kind of research, this kind of “Research over MeSearch,” does not exist without paid subscribers. I don’t take corporate money. I don’t run sponsorships that compromise the analysis. The reason I can sit with Kimba for an hour and a half on a Monday morning, run the receipts on Plessy, dig into the Quadroon Ball, push back against bi-directional framings of colorism without watering it down for an algorithm — that’s because some of y’all decided this work was worth paying for.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.5. FIVE KEY TAKEAWAYS* Whiteness is a coalition that got built, not a fact of nature. Italians, Russians, Germans, and Irish folks were classified by country of origin until the 1940s, when the U.S. consolidated them under “Caucasian.” Understanding whiteness as a constructed political coalition is the foundation of racial literacy.* In Louisiana, lightness was literal currency. Tied to plantation inheritance, French and Spanish colonial law, Catholic marriage practices between enslavers and enslaved women, and property pass-through. The fact that New Orleans has never had a dark-skinned mayor is the residue of an economy that priced complexion.* Creole is a culture, not a color. It refers to the cultural amalgamation of French, Spanish, African, Indigenous, and Catholic traditions in Louisiana. There are white Creoles. There are Black Creoles. Collapsing the term into a synonym for “light-skinned” erases 300 years of cultural inheritance.* Colorism is a hierarchy, not a bi-directional grievance. Light-skinned folks carry real wounds — alienation, masculinity contestation, fetishization — and are still structurally preferred within the racial order. Both can be true. The “we all hurt the same” framing mystifies the hierarchy that produces all the hurt in the first place.* Southern Black culture gets erased in romanticized accounts of the Harlem Renaissance. Jazz was born in New Orleans, not Harlem. Plessy v. Ferguson was organized in New Orleans. Civil Rights strategy was hashed out at Dooky Chase. The continuous erasure of the South from Black cultural and intellectual history is part of how American history flattens the diaspora.Related Readings* Brown, Brandi Amara. Read All Kind of People: A Field Guide to Reading Race in the Black South (referenced as foundational reading on Southern racial reading practices).* Domínguez, Virginia R. White by Definition: Social Classification in Creole Louisiana. Rutgers University Press, 1986.* Gould, Virginia Meacham. Chained to the Rock of Adversity: To Be Free, Black, and Female in the Old South. University of Georgia Press, 1998.* Haney López, Ian. White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race. New York University Press, 1996/2006.* Hartman, Saidiya. Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.* Hirsch, Arnold R., and Joseph Logsdon, eds. Creole New Orleans: Race and Americanization. Louisiana State University Press, 1992.* Johnson, Walter. Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market. Harvard University Press, 1999.* Medley, Keith Weldon. We as Freemen: Plessy v. Ferguson. Pelican Publishing, 2003.* Painter, Nell Irvin. The History of White People. W. W. Norton & Company, 2010. 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

Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The Supreme Court just used Reconstruction-era amendments designed to protect formerly enslaved people as a weapon against voting rights protection.On April 29, 2026, in Louisiana v. Callais, the Court ruled 6-3 that creating a second majority-Black congressional district violated the Constitution’s equal protection clause. The very amendment that ended slavery was weaponized to erase Black representation.“So it’s racist and unconstitutional to fight against racism, huh?” That’s the question we need to sit with. Because that’s exactly what SCOTUS just ruled. And the irony is the point.The Voting Rights Act of 1965 made it possible to undo the legal machinery that made Jim Crow possible—literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clauses. For 61 years, it worked. Until the Supreme Court systematically dismantled it.First they gutted Section 5 (the enforcement mechanism) in Shelby County (2013). Now they’ve rendered Section 2 (the remedy) “all but a dead letter” and they used the 14th Amendment—literally written to protect formerly enslaved people—to do it.That’s not judicial reasoning. That’s calculated inversion. And we need to call it exactly what it is.The Setup: How We Got HereIn 2021, Louisiana drew a congressional map with one majority-Black district representing one-third of the state’s population. Black voters sued, alleging it violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.Federal courts agreed that the map was discriminatory.Louisiana was ordered to draw a new map by January 2024. They did. The 2024 map had two majority-Black districts. Cleo Fields—a former member of Congress—won election from the second district. The VRA worked, exactly as intended.Then a group calling themselves “non-African American voters” sued again, claiming the new map was unconstitutional because it considered race. They argued that creating a majority-Black district to remedy voting rights violations violated equal protection.The Supreme Court agreed.Let that sink in: Creating a district to remedy discrimination = unconstitutional discrimination. Accepting a map that violated the Voting Rights Act = legal. The Supreme Court turned the logic backward.The Amendment Inversion: How Reconstruction Got WeaponizedThis is where it gets dark. And it’s where Toya’s right to make the irony explicit.The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868. It was designed to protect formerly enslaved people. Section 5 says “Congress shall have power to enforce...the provisions of this article.” That power was supposed to protect Black freedom.The 15th Amendment (1870) was even more explicit: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race.”For 95 years (1870-1965), the Supreme Court let those amendments sit dormant while the South used literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clauses, and violence to suppress Black voting. Then Congress passed the Voting Rights Act to enforce what the 14th and 15th Amendments actually said.Now the Supreme Court is using the 14th Amendment—the very amendment meant to protect Black freedom—to strike down voting rights protection.Justice Alito’s opinion says “the Constitution almost never permits the Federal Government or a State to discriminate on the basis of race.” Sounds neutral. Sounds fair. But applied to voting rights protection, it becomes a weapon.Because it makes protecting Black voting rights look identical to suppressing them. It puts the cure and the disease on equal moral footing. And it uses the 14th Amendment—Reconstruction’s promise—to destroy it.That’s not interpretation. That’s inversion. And the irony is absolutely the point.The Machinery: What Jim Crow Left BehindHere’s what they don’t teach you in civics class: Jim Crow wasn’t just about explicit segregation signs. It was a legal machinery. The literacy tests, the poll taxes, the grandfather clauses—these were written into law.The Voting Rights Act of 1965 made it possible to undo that machinery. Section 2 said: if a voting practice has the effect of discriminating based on race, it’s illegal. You don’t have to prove intent to discriminate—the effect is enough.That was revolutionary. Because it meant states couldn’t use neutral-sounding rules (like literacy tests) to achieve discriminatory effects (preventing Black voting).Section 2 worked. It was used to challenge maps that diluted Black voting power, practices that suppressed voting, rules that had racially disparate effects. It was the enforcement mechanism Reconstruction promised but never delivered and now the Supreme Court has gutted it.Under Callais, Section 2 is rendered nearly meaningless. The Court says states can only violate Section 2 if there’s a “strong inference that intentional discrimination occurred.” But they get to decide what counts as sufficient inference. And their standard is impossibly high.Louisiana’s map clearly had discriminatory effects—one majority-Black district for one-third of the population. But the Court’s new standard requires proving something close to explicit intent to harm. And even if you prove that, states can still use other excuses (like “protecting incumbents”) to justify their discriminatory choices.The machinery of voting suppression is back. Different language. Same effect.The Irony as the Point: They’re Using Freedom Against FreedomToya’s line hits because it exposes the fundamental contradiction: “They’re using the 14th Amendment literally to protect formerly enslaved people as a weapon against the exact protection.”The same people who cite the 14th Amendment to oppose affirmative action are now using it to oppose voting rights protection. The same amendment. Different targets. But always the outcome: Black power constrained.This is pattern-level thinking. And it’s crucial.In the 1950s, Southern states invoked “states rights” (embedded in the 10th Amendment) to defend segregation. Federal government overruled them—the 14th Amendment forbids discrimination. They lost.In the 1970s-80s, conservatives argued for “colorblindness”—the 14th Amendment doesn’t allow race-conscious remedies, even to fix discrimination. They won. Affirmative action got restricted.Now they’re using the same “colorblindness” standard to strike down voting rights protection. The 14th Amendment doesn’t allow race-conscious voting remedies, even to fix voting discrimination.Same amendment. Same “neutral” principle. Same outcome: Black power reduced.The irony is that they’re weaponizing the amendment that was supposed to protect Black freedom. And they’re doing it by claiming neutrality. That’s the con.The Map Reality: What Erasure Looks LikeLouisiana has roughly one-third Black population. Under the two-district map, two of six congressional seats would be majority-Black. That’s proportional representation.Under the one-district map that Callais upholds, one of six seats is majority-Black. That’s 17% representation for 33% population. That’s deliberate dilution.And now Callais makes it legal.“Just look at this current map right now and look at the plausible scenario. Look at how much erasure is happening to the black majority districts,” Toya says. That’s what we need to see. Not abstract constitutional law. Real maps. Real districts. Real erasure.Nearly half of all Black-majority state legislative districts in the South are now vulnerable under Callais logic. That’s state representatives and state senators—the people who control education funding, healthcare policy, criminal justice budgets at the state level.The erasure cascades. Congressional districts disappear. State legislative districts disappear. Political power concentrated in fewer hands. Resources flow to where power is. Black communities lose both electoral voice and institutional leverage for resource demands.The Voter Registration Play: The Work Outside CourtsHere’s the crucial move Toya makes: “We’re signing a voter registration drive. We have to get everybody in Harlem registered. Not as Democrats or Republicans, but registered.”This is the strategic clarity we need.The Supreme Court can strike down districts. It can’t strike down voters. And voters are what actually elect people.Cleo Fields got elected because Black voters voted. Not because courts ordered it. And the Supreme Court can’t unvote that. It can redraw the district. But if voters are organized, mobilized, and registered across multiple districts, they still have power.This is what it means to build power outside the court system. Courts are unreliable. They’ve made that clear. But voter registration, voter mobilization, voter organization… that’s infrastructure that courts can’t eliminate.“Every time they look over their shoulder, we want them to see us,” Toya says. That’s not litigation strategy. That’s intimidation strategy. Organized voters. Mobilized communities. Direct action. Political threat.The work is: Get everybody registered. Not as partisan strategy. As power infrastructure, because the courts have shown they’ll go back on their word, but voters… that’s real.The Real Stakes: What Gets Lost Beyond DistrictsWhen voting power disappears, what follows?Education funding. States allocate resources based on electoral leverage. Lose voting power in Congress, you lose leverage in appropriations. Schools in Black neighborhoods get less. That’s not accidental—it’s mechanical.Healthcare access. Federal healthcare dollars flow through Congress. Hospital funding, Medicaid expansion, public health infrastructure—all shaped by Congressional power. Strip voting power and you strip leverage for health equity.Housing. HUD funding, fair housing enforcement, lending discrimination cases—all require Congressional appropriation and Department enforcement. Both require political leverage.Criminal justice. Federal prosecution decisions, civil rights investigations, law enforcement funding—shaped by Congressional power and executive priority. Electoral power determines executive priority.Economic development. Federal contracts, small business loans, economic development zones—all distributed through political networks. Voting power = access to the network.The system is: Electoral power → Legislative leverage → Resource distribution → Material conditions.Strip electoral power and you strip the whole infrastructure. That’s not metaphor. That’s how the system actually works.The 61-Year Timeline: Why This Moment MattersIn 1965 Voting Rights Act passed. “The machinery that made Jim Crow possible” gets undone.In 2013 Supreme Court in Shelby County guts Section 5, the VRA’s enforcement mechanism. “They removed the preclearance requirement—states don’t have to get federal approval before changing voting rules anymore.”Now in 2026, Supreme Court in Callais renders Section 2 nearly meaningless by raising the proof standard to near-impossible levels.In 13 years, two Supreme Court decisions have dismantled 61 years of voting rights progress. Not all at once (that would be too obvious), but methodically. First the enforcement mechanism. Then the remedy mechanism.What’s left? A law that looks good on paper but can’t be enforced. That’s the play. You don’t overturn the law. You make the law unenforceable.They want you confused. They want you to think this is complicated legal reasoning. It’s not. It’s strategic dismantling. One layer at a time.The Call to Action: Breathing Down Their ThroatThis is where it gets real. The Supreme Court made its ruling. The appeal is over. The courts won’t save us. But something else can.Organized voters. Registered voters. Mobilized voters who show up and make politicians understand that there’s a cost to accepting voting rights destruction.“We want to make them pass the strongest civil rights bill they’ve ever passed,” Toya says. Not by asking nicely. By being “right there breathing down their throat. Every time they look over their shoulder, we want them to see us.”That’s voter registration drives. That’s primary challenges against representatives who accept the Court’s ruling without fighting it. That’s ballot initiatives. That’s showing up at district offices. That’s making politicians understand that Black voters are a threat they have to take seriously because here’s the truth: The Supreme Court doesn’t get to decide elections. Voters do. And if we organize at that scale, the Court’s decision becomes just noise.EXPLICIT ASK TO BECOME PAID SUBSCRIBER“Education is Elevation” is a project dedicated to cutting through the noise with rigorous analysis on the education, politics, and news that shape our world. In an era of overwhelming misinformation and under-reported crises, I provide the context and clarity you need.The stark reality? Black men represent only 1.5% of all public school teachers in America at a time when public education, especially for Black students, faces systematic defunding and politicized attacks. My content exists to dissect these urgent issues, moving beyond surface-level takes to deliver the researched truth.That’s why all my core content is and always will be free—no paywall. Whether you subscribe for free or choose to support financially, you will have access to every essential newsletter.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

Thank you Reda Rountree (she/her), LeftieProf, Frances, Jolie, Barbara Shields, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.The World Is on Fire and They Want You to Smile Through ItI’m going to be honest with y’all. I struggled to even show up today. Not because I didn’t have something to say — I always got something to say — but because the weight of what’s happening around us right now is stacking up in a way that makes it hard to breathe, hard to focus, hard to even figure out what the hell to lead with. And I know I ain’t the only one. Feel me?Every day, every hour, every minute of the hour, we’re getting hit with political, social, economic news — domestic, international — that impacts our livelihood, that puts stress on our bodies, that creates anxiety we ain’t even had time to process before the next thing drops. And there are people out here who want to make you feel like something’s wrong with you for acknowledging that reality. They want to move in what I call cruel optimism — a term the late theorist Lauren Berlant gave us — this idea that people can be cruelly optimistic in the face of a system that is actively destroying them, holding onto the promise that the system will eventually work in their favor even when every piece of evidence says otherwise.That ain’t it though. I don’t think cruel optimism is going to get us anywhere. I don’t think it helps us regulate our emotions. And I damn sure don’t think it helps us take the temperature of what’s actually happening in this country.Say Her Name: Cerina Fairfax and the Structural Reality of Patriarchal ViolenceLet me start with what’s been sitting heaviest on my spirit. This past week we learned that former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax — a Democrat, a Duke University graduate, once considered a rising political star — shot and killed his wife, Dr. Cerina Wanzer Fairfax, inside their Annandale, Virginia home before turning the gun on himself. Their two teenage children were in the house. One of them called 911.Let that sit.Cerina Fairfax was a dentist. She was a community-oriented professional, a mother, a woman who was in the process of leaving. Court records show she had filed for divorce in July 2025. She had testified in court that Justin drank daily. She had installed cameras throughout the house during the divorce proceedings. A judge had ordered Justin Fairfax to vacate the home by the end of April 2026. Cerina Fairfax was doing everything the system tells women to do — she was using the legal process, she was documenting, she was preparing to build a life on the other side of a dangerous situation. And she was still killed.Now here’s where I need y’all to lock in with me, because this is the part that too many people — especially men — are getting wrong.The immediate media framing centered Justin Fairfax’s mental health. Court documents noted his emotional decline following his failed 2013 attorney general campaign and the 2019 sexual assault allegations that ended his political career. His heavy drinking. His withdrawal from family life. And while I am not dismissing mental health — I live with ADHD and bipolar disorder myself, and I take that seriously — I need us to be intellectually honest about what’s actually happening here.Women have mental health challenges too. Women experience ADHD, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, PTSD — often at higher rates than men because they are navigating a world that is structurally violent toward them. And I don’t see a pattern of women killing their partners. That ain’t the pattern. The pattern runs the other direction, and it has for centuries.The #SayHerName hashtag was created precisely because women — and specifically Black women — get erased or marginalized in how we talk about violence. Their bodies magnetize conflict, death, and violence, and then the conversation gets redirected to the psychology of the man who killed them. We center the perpetrator and background the victim. Every. Single. Time.Here’s the historical context that matters: intimate partner violence is not a series of isolated mental health events. It is a structural phenomenon rooted in patriarchal systems of ownership and control that predate this nation. English common law’s doctrine of coverture — the legal framework that literally dissolved a woman’s legal identity into her husband’s upon marriage — was imported directly into American law. William Blackstone wrote in his Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765) that husband and wife were one person in law, and that one person was the husband. The “rule of thumb” wasn’t just a phrase — there is historical debate about whether it literally codified the acceptable thickness of a stick a man could use to beat his wife. Whether apocryphal or not, the spirit of that permission was absolutely embedded in Anglo-American jurisprudence for centuries. Marital rape wasn’t criminalized in all 50 states until 1993. Let that marinate.So when we try to explain away what Justin Fairfax did to Cerina Fairfax as a “mental health crisis,” we are doing exactly what we criticize when a 19-year-old white man leaves a white supremacist manifesto and shoots up a church or a grocery store, and the media wants to talk about his mental health instead of the structural climate of white supremacy that radicalized him. We know that framing is a dodge. We know it avoids the elephant in the room. So why do we accept the same dodge when it comes to gender violence?There is a climate in this country that says it is okay and rational to wage violence against women — even if that woman is your partner. That is the structural analysis. That is what patriarchy produces. And you got to name it.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Palantir’s Manifesto: When the Surveillance State Writes Its Own Mission StatementNow let me pivot to something that might seem unrelated on the surface but is deeply connected when you understand how power operates. While we were grieving Cerina Fairfax, Palantir Technologies — the data analytics and surveillance company co-founded by Peter Thiel with early funding from In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm — published a 22-point manifesto on social media drawn from CEO Alex Karp’s book The Technological Republic.This wasn’t a corporate mission statement. This was an ideological declaration. Among its claims: Silicon Valley has a “moral obligation” to participate in national defense. National service should be universal. AI weapons should be built without what Karp called “theatrical debates” about their morality. The “postwar neutering” of Germany and Japan was an “overcorrection.” And certain cultures are “harmful” and “regressive.”Read that last part again. A company that holds billions of dollars in government contracts for surveillance, immigration enforcement, and military operations — a company that built ImmigrationOS, the AI platform that tracks deportations for ICE — is telling us which cultures are worthy and which are not.Critics across the political spectrum have called this what it is. Belgian philosopher Mark Coeckelbergh labeled it “technofascism.” Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said Palantir had signaled a willingness to add “the AI-driven threat to humanity’s existence” to the nuclear one. Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins noted that these aren’t philosophical musings floating in space — they are the public ideology of a company whose revenue depends on the politics it’s advocating.For the folks in the back: Palantir isn’t some startup playing around with code. This is a company embedded in the architecture of the American surveillance state. Their Gotham platform has been used by police departments to aggregate civilian data — names, addresses, social media activity, license plates, personal relationships — to predict the likelihood of people committing crimes. If you’re Black, if you’re Brown, if you’re an immigrant, if you’re poor, you already know what “predictive policing” means in practice. It means you’re the one being predicted on. It means the algorithm was trained on data sets that reflect centuries of racialized policing. It means the bias is baked in, just like it’s baked into every other system we’ve been discussing.This connects directly to the genealogy of American surveillance. From the Slave Patrols of the 18th century — which were the first organized policing bodies in the American South — to the FBI’s COINTELPRO program that surveilled, infiltrated, and destroyed Black liberation movements in the 1960s and 70s, to the NSA’s post-9/11 mass surveillance apparatus, to ICE’s current deportation infrastructure powered by Palantir’s AI: surveillance in America has always been about controlling populations that the state deems threatening to the existing order. Palantir didn’t invent this. They digitized it. They scaled it. And now they’ve written a manifesto telling you it’s their moral right to do so.Democracy Was Always Defined in a Particular WayHere’s where I’m going to challenge some of y’all, and I need you to sit with this even if it’s uncomfortable.I’m past romanticized ideas of democracy.The world we’re living in right now is a direct byproduct of the material reality of democracy — not the ideal, not the rhetoric, not the civics textbook version. The actual, historical, material reality. From the very beginning, democracy was defined in a particular way: to be about land-owning men, to subjugate women and slaves. If you go to the beginning, if you study the genealogy of democracy, the exclusion of foreigners, enslaved people, and women cannot be stripped away from who remains marginalized to this day. That’s not a bug. That’s a core feature. That’s baked in.Athenian democracy — the supposed origin point of Western democratic thought — explicitly excluded women, enslaved people, and foreigners (metics) from citizenship and political participation. The Athenian economy ran on enslaved labor. The democratic polis was built on the backs of people who had no access to its freedoms. When the American founders drew on Greek and Roman models, they weren’t accidentally replicating those exclusions. They were deliberately selecting a framework that concentrated power among propertied white men. The Three-Fifths Compromise didn’t break democracy. It was democracy. The Electoral College didn’t corrupt the system. It was the system — designed specifically to give slaveholding states disproportionate power.And here’s what a lot of America is grappling with right now: the way y’all are experiencing this country under the current political crisis is a lot of ways that Black folks and Indigenous folks have been experiencing this country for a long, long, long time. What feels like collapse to some has been the status quo for others. Fannie Lou Hamer said it best: sick and tired of being sick and tired.I’ve been hearing people say, “We need to defend democracy.” And I get it — I understand the impulse. But I also need us to ask: are we defending the ideal, or are we defending the status quo? Because the past status quo that everybody wants to fight so hard to return to is the very thing that brought us to this moment. Different flavors of fascism have been running through this country for a very long time. The powers that be just made it easy for some of us to find a digestible flavor. And then somebody came along who wasn’t digestible, and now we’re all supposed to act like this is new.It ain’t new. What’s new is who’s finally feeling it.The Patriarchal Paradox and the Co-optation of Identity PoliticsLet me connect another thread here, because these things are not separate conversations. They are one conversation about how power conceals itself.The paradox of patriarchy says that men can act out of emotion — anger, resentment, revenge — and still be seen as rational actors, while women are told they cannot lead because they’re “too emotional.” That’s a paradox. And it’s one of the built-in contradictions of American democracy. Countries that the United States does not consider “leaders of democracy” have already had multiple women heads of state. But in America, we operate under the implicit assumption that capitalism and democracy require male leadership — specifically white male leadership — to function properly.This is the same structural logic that co-opted identity politics. When the Combahee River Collective coined the term “identity politics” in 1977, it was a radical framework developed by Black feminist socialist women to articulate how race, class, gender, and sexuality intersected in their oppression and their liberation. It was weaponized against the system. But then the system got smart. It recognized it could incorporate all the representation people demanded while keeping the ideology and the mission intact. You can diversify the faces without diversifying the power structure. You can have a Black president who expands drone warfare. You can have a woman candidate who doesn’t fundamentally challenge the imperial apparatus. All skin folk ain’t kin folk — and all representation ain’t liberation.The system figured out how to commodify even resistance to itself. You can say “f**k the system,” and that very moniker gets co-opted, becomes merchandise, becomes a way to still justify the thing you were resisting. Because hey — look, democracy lets you say “f**k democracy.” That’s why it’s good, right?The Education Implication: What We Don’t Teach Is What We ReproduceHere’s the education piece, and this is where I need educators especially to lock in.None of what I’ve laid out is taught in standard K-12 curricula. Not the genealogy of democracy that includes its exclusions. Not the history of coverture and the legal architecture of gender violence. Not the lineage from slave patrols to predictive policing to Palantir. Not the Combahee River Collective and the original meaning of identity politics. Not Fannie Lou Hamer’s structural critique of the Democratic Party. Not the distinction between representation and liberation.What gets taught instead is a sanitized, decontextualized version of American history that trains students to be consumers of democracy rather than critical analysts of it. The banking model of education that Paulo Freire described — where students are treated as empty vessels to be filled with the dominant narrative — is alive and well. And it’s not accidental. The same political forces that are pushing book bans, dismantling DEI programs, defunding ethnic studies, and criminalizing critical race theory in classrooms are the same forces that benefit from a population that cannot structurally analyze the systems they live inside of.If you don’t teach students the history of patriarchal violence as a structural phenomenon, they grow up believing intimate partner violence is a series of individual tragedies. If you don’t teach the history of American surveillance, they accept Palantir’s manifesto as innovation rather than recognizing it as the digital continuation of COINTELPRO. If you don’t teach the material history of democracy — including who it was designed to exclude — they spend their whole lives defending an ideal that was never meant to include them.Education is elevation. But miseducation is a cage. And right now, the cage is being reinforced from every direction.The Intersectional Material Impacts: Who Pays the Price?Let me break down the material impacts because this isn’t abstract. This is about bodies. This is about livelihoods. This is about who eats and who doesn’t.On gender violence: According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. That’s more than 10 million people per year. Women ages 18-34 are most commonly abused. Black women experience intimate partner violence at rates 35% higher than white women. And homicide is one of the leading causes of death for pregnant and postpartum women. These numbers exist within a context where domestic violence shelters are consistently underfunded, where legal aid for survivors is scarce, and where the very court systems women are told to use for protection are themselves embedded in patriarchal logic.On surveillance and immigration: Palantir’s ImmigrationOS platform doesn’t just track people — it constructs risk profiles using aggregated data that includes medical records, social media activity, employment history, and family connections. The material impact is that immigrant communities — disproportionately Black, Brown, and Indigenous people from the Global South — live under a constant state of algorithmic surveillance that criminalizes their very existence. Meanwhile, ICE operations disrupt local economies, separate families, and create a chilling effect on everything from healthcare access to school enrollment.On economic precarity: The political chaos isn’t separate from the economic reality. Tariff policies are impacting the global economy. The cost of living continues to rise. Independent creators, educators, and journalists — people like me who are trying to do this work without corporate backing — are caught in the squeeze between declining ad revenue, platform instability, and an audience that is itself financially stretched. I’ve been traveling more because I’ve been broke, and I’ve been broke because of everything that’s going on in this world. And I know I ain’t the only one.These aren’t separate crises. They are the intersecting outputs of a system that produces violence, surveillance, and scarcity as features, not failures.What Do We Do With All of This?I’m not going to pretend I have all the answers. I’m processing this in real time, just like you. But here’s what I do know:We have to stop explaining structural violence through individual psychology. Mental health matters — deeply — but it cannot be the analytical endpoint when the patterns are systemic.We have to stop romanticizing democracy without interrogating its material history. Fighting for an ideal is noble. Fighting to return to a status quo that produced the current crisis is not.We have to name patriarchy when patriarchy is the engine. We have to name surveillance when surveillance is the tool. We have to name capitalism when capitalism is the logic. And we have to do all of this while also acknowledging that we are tired, overwhelmed, overstimulated, and battling burnout from a news cycle that doesn’t give us time to process one catastrophe before the next one hits.EXPLICIT ASK TO BECOME A PAID SUBSCRIBERI’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education 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.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.What you just read — the connection between Cerina Fairfax’s murder and Palantir’s manifesto, between Athenian exclusion and American surveillance, between the Combahee River Collective and the co-optation of identity politics — that analysis doesn’t come from a newsroom. It comes from one person doing the research, making the connections, and putting it out for free while trying to keep the lights on. If this work matters to you, if it helps you make sense of a world that is deliberately designed to be confusing, become a paid subscriber. That’s how we build something that can sustain this level of analysis. Research over MeSearch. Education is elevation.Let that marinate.5 KEY TAKEAWAYS* Intimate partner violence is a structural phenomenon, not an individual mental health failure. The framing of Justin Fairfax’s murder of Cerina Fairfax as primarily a mental health crisis obscures centuries of patriarchal legal architecture — from coverture to the delayed criminalization of marital rape — that normalizes male violence against women. The same analytical error occurs when mass shootings by white supremacists are reduced to mental illness rather than examined as products of a structural climate.* Palantir’s 22-point manifesto is not corporate philosophy — it is the public ideology of the surveillance state. A company built with CIA venture capital, embedded in military and immigration enforcement infrastructure, and holding billions in government contracts has declared its belief in mandatory national service, AI weapons development, cultural hierarchy, and the moral obligation of tech companies to wage war. This is the digital evolution of COINTELPRO, and it requires the same level of public scrutiny and resistance.* Democracy’s exclusions are features, not bugs. From Athenian exclusion of women, enslaved people, and foreigners to the American Three-Fifths Compromise and Electoral College, democratic systems have always been designed around the concentration of power among propertied men. The current political crisis is not a departure from democracy — it is a continuation of its material history. Fighting to return to a previous status quo without interrogating what that status quo produced is a recipe for repetition.* Identity politics has been co-opted by the systems it was designed to challenge. The Combahee River Collective’s original framework was a radical tool of Black feminist liberation. The system learned to absorb representation demands while keeping its ideological mission intact — producing a politics where diverse faces can occupy powerful positions without fundamentally altering the structures of oppression those positions enforce.* The deliberate erosion of education is connected to every other crisis discussed here. Book bans, DEI dismantlement, ethnic studies defunding, and the criminalization of critical frameworks in classrooms are not culture war distractions — they are strategic moves to ensure populations cannot structurally analyze the systems of violence, surveillance, and economic extraction they live inside. What we don’t teach, we reproduce.BIBLIOGRAPHY / RELATED READINGS* Berlant, Lauren. Cruel Optimism. Durham: Duke University Press, 2011.* Blackstone, William. Commentaries on the Laws of England, Vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1765.* Browne, Simone. Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness. Durham: Duke University Press, 2015.* Churchill, Ward, and Jim Vander Wall. The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI’s Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States. Boston: South End Press, 1990.* Combahee River Collective. “The Combahee River Collective Statement.” 1977. Reprinted in How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective, edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2017.* Crenshaw, Kimberlé. “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color.” Stanford Law Review 43, no. 6 (1991): 1241–1299.* Davis, Angela Y. Women, Race & Class. New York: Random House, 1981.* Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. Translated by Richard Philcox. New York: Grove Press, 1963.* Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Translated by Myra Bergman Ramos. New York: Continuum, 1970. 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

Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The Oldest Trick in the Book Ain’t a Trick—It’s a SystemLet me tell y’all something that’s been sitting on my chest since I watched the internet lose its collective mind over Megan Thee Stallion’s breakup with Klay Thompson this weekend. And I need you to hear me when I say this: what you watched unfold across your timelines wasn’t gossip. It wasn’t tea. It wasn’t even drama. What you watched was a 400-year-old system doing exactly what it was designed to do. Feel me?Meg went on Instagram, said what she said. Cheating. Playing house around his family. Cold feet about monogamy after she held him down through mood swings during basketball season. Then she gave a formal statement to TMZ that was as clear as anything I’ve read from a public figure: trust, fidelity, and respect are non-negotiable, and when those values are compromised, there’s no path forward. That’s a grown woman drawing a boundary. That’s a human being saying, “I deserve better.”And how did the internet respond? By monitoring her body. By cataloguing every man she’s ever been photographed with. By laughing. By making jokes about whose bed she’s been in, whose ring she thought she deserved, and whether Tory Lanez—a man convicted of shooting her—somehow cursed her love life from a prison cell.That ain’t it though.What in the Slut-Shame Lane?I want to zoom in on DJ Akademiks for a second, because he’s the case study. This man took to X within hours of Meg’s announcement and said—and I’m paraphrasing the spirit of multiple posts here—that she thought she was the fifth ring, that Klay wasn’t built for monogamy, and that he stands with Klay without even knowing the full story. He then invoked Tory Lanez, suggesting Meg would fabricate claims to put Klay in jail next. He’s done this before with Ayesha Curry, too. Told Steph Curry he should have his wife stressed out to keep her in line.Now, some of y’all will look at that and say, “That’s just Akademiks being Akademiks.” And that’s the problem. That’s exactly the problem. Because when we normalize that behavior, when we frame it as personality rather than pathology, we are participating in a system that predates Akademiks by centuries. He ain’t original. He’s a replica. His talking points were written on a plantation.Let that marinate.The Jezebel Stereotype and the Architecture of SurveillanceHere’s where I need y’all to put on your thinking caps, because we’re about to do what we do here at Education is Elevation. We’re going to think deeply about shallow s**t.The Jezebel stereotype didn’t emerge from thin air. It was manufactured during the period of chattel slavery as an ideological weapon to justify the systematic rape of enslaved Black women. If you could frame Black women as inherently hypersexual, as biologically incapable of restraint, then you could argue that sexual violence against them wasn’t really violence at all. It was just their nature being fulfilled. That’s not my opinion. That’s the historical record. That’s the scholarship of Deborah Gray White, Patricia Hill Collins, Saidiya Hartman, and Moya Bailey.During slave auctions, Black women were stripped naked and paraded before buyers. Their reproductive capacity was inspected like livestock. Their bodies were commodities—valued for labor, for breeding, and for the sexual gratification of enslavers. And then—and this is the part that should make your blood boil—those same enslaved women were characterized as the ones who wanted it. The Jezebel myth made the victim the seducer. It made the enslaved the temptress. It turned systemic rape into consensual desire.This framework didn’t die with emancipation. It adapted. It evolved. It found new hosts.Saartjie Baartman: The Blueprint They Don’t Teach YouIf you want to understand the lineage of what happened to Meg this weekend, you need to know the name Saartjie Baartman. Born around 1789 to the Khoikhoi people in what is now the Eastern Cape of South Africa, Baartman was taken to London in 1810 under a fraudulent contract that promised her domestic work and a share of earnings. Instead, she was displayed in exhibitions across Europe—nearly naked, in a cage alongside a baby rhinoceros—because European audiences were fascinated by her body, particularly her buttocks and genitalia.They called her the “Hottentot Venus.” That name alone tells you everything. “Hottentot” was a colonial slur for the Khoikhoi people. “Venus” was the Roman goddess of love and fertility. The combination sexualized her while dehumanizing her in a single breath. After her death in Paris at age 26, the French naturalist Georges Cuvier dissected her body, preserved her genitalia and brain in jars, and displayed them at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris. Those remains stayed on public display until 1974. Let me say that again. Nineteen seventy-four. Her remains were not repatriated to South Africa until 2002, after Nelson Mandela formally requested their return.Baartman’s body was studied, categorized, and archived to support the pseudoscientific conclusion that Black people were a link between animals and humans. Her exploitation wasn’t just cruelty for its own sake—it was epistemological violence. It was the production of knowledge designed to justify white supremacy. And that knowledge system is still operational.For the folks in the back: when someone tweets that they “monitor the cat of Meg Thee Stallion,” they are participating in a tradition that literally put a Black woman’s genitalia in a jar in a museum in Paris for 158 years. The technology has changed. The logic has not.Misogynoir: Naming the SystemMoya Bailey coined the term “misogynoir” to describe the specific intersection of anti-Black racism and misogyny that Black women experience. This isn’t standard sexism. This isn’t garden-variety racism. It’s a compound oppression that produces harms that are, as Kimberlé Crenshaw’s intersectionality framework teaches us, irreducible to their parts. You can’t separate the anti-Blackness from the misogyny. They are fused.Dr. Treva B. Lindsey described what happened to Meg during the Tory Lanez trial as “a terrible storm of racialized gender stereotypes.” The National Women’s Law Center documented how Meg was adultified, hypersexualized, and had her credibility questioned precisely because her body and her persona didn’t fit the mold of a “respectable” victim. She was too tall. Too confident. Too sexual. Too much.And here’s the educational implication that nobody wants to talk about: none of this is taught in schools. The Jezebel stereotype is not in your state standards. Saartjie Baartman is not in your AP History curriculum. Misogynoir is not a vocabulary word in any standardized test in this country. And that silence is not accidental—it is structural. When you remove the historical context that explains why Black women are treated this way, you make every new instance of misogynoir look like an isolated event rather than a chapter in a very old book. You make DJ Akademiks look like a lone provocateur rather than a product of a system that has been training men—Black men included—to surveil, ridicule, and devalue Black women since before this country existed.The Homoeroticism of Misogyny (Yes, We’re Going There)One of the sharpest observations from the discourse this weekend came from a commenter who pointed out that the misogyny and homoeroticism kind of go together. And I want to sit with that for a second, because it’s a deeper cut than people realize.When men—particularly Black men in digital spaces—spend more energy cataloguing a Black woman’s sexual partners than they do examining their own political conditions, their own economic precarity, their own proximity to state violence, something is profoundly misaligned. The obsession with who Meg has slept with, the jealousy disguised as critique, the need to simultaneously degrade her and monitor every detail of her intimate life—that’s not strength. That’s not masculinity. That’s a crisis of identity being projected onto the body of a Black woman.And it’s on brand with what bell hooks described as the way patriarchy within Black communities often mirrors the very structures of domination that white supremacy imposed on Black people in the first place. You cannot liberate yourself by oppressing the person standing next to you.The Material Impacts Are RealLet me bring this home with some facts over feelings, because I know some of y’all think this is just a cultural conversation. It’s not.Black women in America experience intimate partner violence at rates significantly higher than women of other racial groups. Black women are killed at rates nearly three times higher than white women. The National Center on Violence Against Women in the Black Community has documented that one in five Black women are survivors of rape. When Black women do report violence, they are less likely to be believed than their white counterparts. And when the cultural environment normalizes the mockery, surveillance, and character assassination of Black women who speak publicly about being wronged—as happened with Meg this weekend—you create a chilling effect that keeps countless other Black women silent.This is not abstract. This has material, intersectional consequences. It affects employment. It affects housing. It affects custody. It affects healthcare—Black women experience maternal mortality at rates three times higher than white women, in part because medical professionals carry the same implicit biases that tell them Black women exaggerate pain, Black women are stronger than they claim, Black women don’t need the same care. These are Jezebel’s grandchildren. Different century, same DNA.What Education Could Do—If We Let ItHere’s where I land, and I need y’all to hear this clearly. The antidote to misogynoir is education. Not the watered-down, sanitized, feel-good version of education that treats Black history as a footnote in February. Real education. The kind that teaches you the name Saartjie Baartman before you learn to tweet about a Black woman’s body. The kind that puts Moya Bailey’s framework alongside the Federalist Papers. The kind that gives students the analytical tools to recognize that DJ Akademiks and the plantation overseer are reading from the same script separated by nothing but time and technology.But that education is under attack. Book bans. Curriculum restrictions. The systematic defunding of ethnic studies, gender studies, and any framework that might give young people the language to name what is happening to them. We are living in a moment where the very knowledge that could inoculate a generation against misogynoir is being classified as too dangerous to teach.Research over MeSearch. That’s what we do here. We don’t just react. We trace the root. We name the system. We bring the receipts. And then we build something better.Support This Work—Because Nobody Else Is Funding ItI want to be real with y’all for a second. This piece you just read? It draws on the scholarship of Saidiya Hartman, Patricia Hill Collins, Moya Bailey, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Deborah Gray White, bell hooks, and others who dedicated their lives to producing the knowledge that makes analysis like this possible. That knowledge is being erased from classrooms across this country right now. Curriculum that teaches the Jezebel stereotype is being banned. Courses on misogynoir are being defunded. The histories of Saartjie Baartman, of the slave auction block, of the pseudoscientific exploitation of Black women’s bodies—these are the histories being classified as too dangerous to teach.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.I’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education 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.That means the same system that doesn’t want Saartjie Baartman’s name in a textbook also benefits when independent educators can’t sustain this work. Your subscription is a direct intervention against that. It’s the difference between this analysis existing and not existing. Between the Jezebel stereotype being named and being forgotten. Between Meg getting context and Meg getting memes.If this piece taught you something, if it gave you language you didn’t have before, if it connected dots that nobody in your classroom ever connected—become a paid subscriber today. This is how we build the thing they’re trying to dismantle.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.5 KEY TAKEAWAYS1. The public reaction to Megan Thee Stallion’s breakup is not gossip—it is misogynoir operating in real time. The surveillance of her body, the cataloguing of her sexual partners, and the immediate pivot to mockery rather than empathy follow a pattern that has been documented by scholars including Moya Bailey, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Treva B. Lindsey. This is a system, not a series of individual bad takes.2. The Jezebel stereotype was manufactured during chattel slavery to justify the systematic rape of enslaved Black women, and its logic remains embedded in how Black women are treated today. From slave auctions where Black women were stripped and inspected to social media threads monitoring Meg’s intimate life, the through-line is the same: Black women’s bodies are treated as public property subject to communal evaluation and control.3. Saartjie Baartman’s story is the historical blueprint for the commodification and surveillance of Black women’s bodies. Exhibited in cages across Europe, dissected after death, and displayed in a Paris museum until 1974, Baartman’s exploitation was not merely cruelty—it was epistemological violence that produced the pseudoscientific framework used to dehumanize Black women for centuries.4. The erasure of this history from American education is not accidental—it is structural. The Jezebel stereotype, misogynoir, and the history of Saartjie Baartman are absent from state standards, AP curricula, and standardized testing. This erasure ensures that each new instance of misogynoir appears isolated rather than systemic, preventing the development of critical consciousness.5. Misogynoir has material, intersectional consequences that extend far beyond culture. Black women experience intimate partner violence, maternal mortality, and medical discrimination at rates dramatically higher than their white counterparts. The cultural normalization of surveilling and mocking Black women creates a chilling effect that discourages reporting, reduces access to care, and compounds existing structural inequalities.Thanks for reading Education Is Elevation! This post is public so feel free to share it.BIBLIOGRAPHY / RELATED READINGS* Bailey, Moya. Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women’s Digital Resistance. NYU Press, 2021.* Crenshaw, Kimberlé. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex.” University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989.* Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Routledge, 2000.* Crais, Clifton, and Pamela Scully. Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus: A Ghost Story and a Biography. Princeton University Press, 2009.* Gray White, Deborah. Ar’n’t I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South. W.W. Norton, 1985.* Harris-Perry, Melissa V. Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America. Yale University Press, 2011.* Hartman, Saidiya. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals. W.W. Norton, 2019.* Hartman, Saidiya. Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America. Oxford University Press, 1997.* hooks, bell. Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. South End Press, 1981.* hooks, bell. We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity. Routledge, 2004.* Morton, Patricia. Disfigured Images: The Historical Assault on Afro-American Women. Praeger, 1991.* National Women’s Law Center. “’A Terrible Storm’: Megan Thee Stallion, Misogynoir, and Leaving Black Survivors Unprotected.” December 2022.* Wallace, Michele. Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman. Verso, 2015 edition.* Wilderson III, Frank B. Afropessimism. Liveright, 2020.* Willis, Deborah, ed. Black Venus 2010: They Called Her “Hottentot.” Temple University Press, 2010.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

Thank you Reda Rountree (she/her), LeftieProf, Billy Bumbo, Full Frontal Loeb, Lynette, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.I told y’all I was going live twice today. The first conversation was with Everton Blair — a Democrat running for Congress in Gwinnett County, Georgia — and that was a conversation about reform, about whether the Democratic Party can be pushed from within, about what Congress even does for us. If you missed it, go watch it. But this second conversation? This one’s different. This one’s about connecting the international to the local, the macro to the micro, the big to the small. And my boy Lavish Dope from Minneapolis is exactly the person to have this conversation with.Lavish grew up a couple blocks from where George Floyd was killed. His grandfather was in SNCC before becoming a Black Panther. He grew up across the hall from a Palestinian family since the 1980s. The international connection wasn’t something he learned in a classroom — it was lived in a hallway. But as he told me, knowing something and knowing how to apply it are two different things. We didn’t know how to walk at one time either.What made this conversation hit different is that Lavish has actually put his body on the line internationally — the Global March to Gaza, UN meetings in Brussels, solidarity missions to Cuba — and then come home to face the consequences. Detained at Newark for six hours after Egypt. Twenty people detained coming back from Cuba. Eighteen phones confiscated. Chris Smalls may never have gotten his back. And then having anxiety flying domestically within America because of what happened internationally. That’s the imperial boomerang in real time. That’s Aimé Césaire’s thesis playing out on your cell phone screen.The Same Struggle, Different GeographyHere’s what Lavish laid out that I need y’all to really sit with. Before the blockade intensified and the genocide escalated, Cuba and Gaza shared something extraordinary: the lowest infant mortality rates in the world, the highest literacy rates in the world, and the highest ratios of doctors per capita. Cuba has 81 doctors per 1,000 people. Most of us in America don’t even know a medical doctor personally — the doctors we know got PhDs in philosophy. Feel me?And Cuba is a Black-ass island. Majority Black population. That adds a whole other layer to why America hates Cuba so much. The monopoly can never sleep as long as Cuba and the idea of dignity and resistance that Cuba represents continues to exist. Because if the rest of Latin America wakes up and raises that flag of dignity the way Cuba has, but they do it collectively? American hegemony is done. And that’s what the Monroe Doctrine, McCarthyism, and Red Scare programming have been designed to prevent since jump.The minimum wage in Cuba is four dollars a month. When Lavish brought portable chargers on his first trip, he realized an $80 charger represents twenty months of wages. They don’t need tech gadgets. They need toothpaste. Toothbrushes. Medicine. The blockade creates artificial scarcity of the most basic human necessities. And Americans don’t know that two million people travel to Cuba every year for May Day — the largest labor solidarity movement in the world. We don’t know because we’re not supposed to know. Research over MeSearch.Democracy Will Wipe Your Ass OutThis country tells us that democracy is the freest form of government available to humanity. In real time, in 2026, they’re still selling that line. But we also have a history — documented, receipted, undeniable — that shows democracy will wipe your ass out if it feels like you’re a threat to it. Metaphorically or literally.Think about it. Mormons can travel the world freely, push their ideology across borders, do aid work, extract wealth — nobody’s confiscating their phones at customs. But if you’re a little anti-capitalist? If you believe genocide is bad? If you think American imperialism might be a little faulty? Then your ability to move freely from border to border gets policed. Your devices get seized. You get interrogated about Hamas for three hours when you’re a citizen born in Minneapolis.Lavish said something that stuck with me: the justification for American freedom has always been that you can say f**k America. That’s what ‘freedom ain’t free’ means — soldiers fight overseas so you have the right to dissent. But once they can use your same tax dollars to come hunt you down for exercising that dissent? The legitimacy falls apart. And we’re watching it fall apart in real time with task forces targeting anti-American ideology, with ICE functioning as a domestic paramilitary, with 3,100 agents deployed to one American city during Operation Metro Surge.Fascism is nothing but imperialism turned inward. That’s not a new observation — Césaire said it, the Panthers lived it — but it hits different when you can see the 20-foot Skydio drones over Minneapolis that were deployed in Gaza last year. The same drones Kevin Durant invests in. The imperial boomerang doesn’t care about your political affiliation. It comes for everybody. That ain’t it though — pretending it won’t.The Settler’s Move to Innocence and White PsychopathologyI got philosophical on the stream and I’m not apologizing for it. Some scholars call it the settler’s move to innocence. Some call it white psychopathology. I call it the machinery that makes cowboys the heroes and Indians the savages before anybody even starts arguing.Think about it linguistically. Cowboys and Indians. Who’s the bad guys? The Indians. Always already. The word ‘Indians’ carries embedded savagery, an embedded understanding of being anti-human. We never view cowboys as being the invaders, the intruders. The language does the ideological work before the argument begins. And that micro lens — that childhood game — applies on a structural lens when we talk about settler colonialism everywhere.The settlers in every instance always claim to be victims. In America, the Native Americans were scalping them, kidnapping them, pillaging them. In Israel, they have the right to exist and the right to defend themselves because everybody is always after them. You can bring it all the way to Emmett Till — the white woman as victim, the Black boy as threat. It’s 360 degrees. Same playbook. Same function.Lavish told a story that crystallized it. His dad is fully Irish — grandparents born in Ireland. The year his dad was born, the Queen of England ordered one of the largest mass executions of Irish people in modern times. When Queen Elizabeth died? His dad mourned her. Whiteness superseded his brain. That’s white psychopathology in action. Even when you logically know, even when the evidence is in your bloodline, the settler’s innocence overrides lived history.And here’s the structural asymmetry that makes it psychopathological: you can always separate white people from what they’ve done. Thomas Jefferson was a bad person, but he’s still the father of education and the Constitution. Winston Churchill committed atrocities, but he saved democracy. You can isolate the good from the bad. But Islam? Iran? Egypt? Cuba? You must view the entirety through the lens of what they’ve done wrong. No separation. No nuance. No immunity. That asymmetry IS the structure. Let that marinate.The Magical Negro and Imperial LiberalismI can speak to the magical Negro paradigm personally. As a first-generation brother from Bryan, College Station, Texas, who was always able to articulate himself with a certain ability, I’ve navigated this paradigm my whole life. The magical Negro is how you create exceptions to the rule. The system says: yeah, maybe being a nigga is bad. But all else fails, if you still have to be a nigga, can you at least be a magical one?Good diction. Three degrees. Marry the right people. Go to the right events. Maybe then you can do X, Y, and Z. Ralph Ellison wrote about this in Invisible Man — the charismatic, exceptional Black figure who gets instrumentalized by systems of power. The magical Negro serves as a way to perpetuate the benevolence of the system. It’s how you justify the system around you that forced you to be magical in the first place.And here’s where it gets real. Liberalism has commodified what it means to be a magical Negro in ways that have forced a lot of Black folks to buy into imperialism. Barack Obama was the embodiment. For him to be seen within the system of imperialism, he had to take the tools of imperialism and actualize them in ways white folks could never have dreamed of. That’s the reason why he’s lauded. His presidency mystified imperial violence for eight years. Libya. Drones. Deportations. But how dare you criticize him — a lot of people in the Black community have issues with Black leftists because we’re critical of Obama.Kamala Harris is the same architecture. Lavish called her a Black slave catcher, and I understand why that language hits the way it does. Slave catchers were bad, but a Black one has access to the community. There are ways they can get in and disrupt things that a white person never could. And the question of whether you view that framing as accurate or offensive usually comes down to one thing: do you think the system can be reformed, or do you think it needs to be fundamentally transformed? That entry point — leftist or liberal, reform or revolution — dictates your description of Kamala Harris. Facts over feelings.Purity Politics Is a Slur for Refusing to SettleCarlos in the comments asked about purity politics, and I went off. I’m going off again right now in print because this needs to be documented.Purity politics is a disingenuous terminology deployed by people aligned with oppressive power to make you not stand on what you believe because it’s ‘not pragmatic,’ because it’s ‘too idealistic.’ Lavish put it perfectly: I’m not asking for streets paved in gold. I’m asking for motherfuckers to have UBI, food stamps, the capability to feed their kids. That ain’t purity.Here’s where I applied the debate framework. When somebody says genocide is bad and your response is purity politics, you’re making a straw man argument. Nowhere in ‘genocide is bad’ is there a demand for perfection. Nowhere in that statement is there a claim that purity is necessary or that we need a perfect candidate. You’re responding to a point that was never made. That’s textbook straw man argumentation, and I will call it out every single time.But let me take it further because I defend this position to anybody — mama, daddy, homeboys, colleagues in social media. When you say purity politics, you’re debating about the comfort of white supremacy and you’re saying that I should be grateful. Purity politics means you being an ungrateful nigga. That’s what it means every time it’s deployed. How come you can’t be a grateful nigga for the imperial comfort that we have? How come this ain’t enough?How dare you want a candidate that’s not genocidal? How dare you want a candidate that ain’t taking AIPAC money? How dare you want a candidate that ain’t funded by tech oligarchs and oil money? You’re being ungrateful. You’re being impractical. You’re being pure.Nah. I deserve more. And you should be ashamed of yourself for deploying purity politics in the name of settlement. Because that’s what it is — you’re mad because I ain’t gonna settle. And I think conversations about purity politics illustrate ignorance to international relations specifically. You never hear purity politics unless someone brings up international solidarity. Whatever they’re calling pure, guaranteed, they don’t care about it. Israel-Palestine? Purity politics. But stopping Asian hate got unanimous support. Women’s reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, climate crisis, Black rights — all of that is ‘partisan.’ Why? Because purity politics is about what the establishment values and what it’s willing to sacrifice. Research over MeSearch.The False Dichotomy of Local Versus GlobalI had three conversations in Atlanta this past weekend where people said international politics matters, but it doesn’t matter more than what’s happening here. And I kept saying: this is a false choice. We thinking that one of these matters more than the other is a false dichotomy.The proof is in your gas tank. If Israel has particular desires to expand its borders, it brings American taxpayer dollars in and has us fighting with Iranians. When you see $70 to fill your tank and it used to be $40, you understand that what happens over there has a direct impact to what happens here. The international IS the local. The local IS the international.Black people do not exist only in America. There are liberation movements rooted in Blackness that have succeeded in other countries. But American exceptionalism has Black folks in this country thinking our struggle is the only one that counts. John Henrik Clarke said it: the boat dropped you off here. Because the boat dropped you off over here don’t make you more special than dropped off over there.The Black Panthers were in Algeria. They were in Cuba. International solidarity wasn’t a distraction from domestic liberation — it was the practice of liberation itself. If it was good enough for SNCC and the Panthers, it’s good enough for us. And Lavish is living proof that the model still works. From George Floyd Square to Havana to Brussels to Barcelona — the geography changes, but the system doesn’t.Capitalism has incentivized a lot of us to be some selfish b******s. And as a result, we believe that politically things only matter unless it can be tied to the self. I would argue that is not only anti-communal — it’s anti-Black at its core. And it’s exactly what gets in the way of us being able to move forward and get the progress that we really desire. Education is elevation.Where Do We Go From HereLavish is heading back to Cuba in less than two weeks for May Day — connecting with an organization called Belly the Beast, planning to bring 300 pounds of aid, and documenting the experience for a short film. His Instagram, Twitter, and everything else is @lavishmac. He just started a Substack for travel updates and dispatches from the field.Me? Tomorrow I’ll be at Cullen Middle School in Houston, Texas — Sunnyside — talking to young Black students, especially young Black boys, about what it means to view themselves outside the paradigms being pushed on them. Because if they’re pushing the YN doctrine on all the young niggas, somebody’s got to make sure those young brothers see alternatives. That’s the work. That’s what Education is Elevation looks like in practice — in the classroom, on the livestream, on the page.And to everybody reading this: you’re closer to somebody in Gaza who lost fifty family members than you are to the motherfuckers making the bombs. Money cannot be the goal. Money is an exchange of energy for something good you did in the world. When we reclaim that narrative — when the goal becomes wholeness instead of wealth — the rest follows.The struggle is one. The geography changes. The system doesn’t. And the boomerang always comes back. Research over MeSearch. Education is elevation.5 Key Takeaways1. The imperial boomerang is real: drones, detention camps, and militarized policing deployed abroad are now operating domestically in places like Minneapolis and Dilley, Texas — what America allows overseas always returns home.2. The “magical Negro” paradigm is how liberalism commodifies Black exceptionalism to justify imperialism — Barack Obama mystified imperial violence for eight years because his presidency made criticizing the empire feel like criticizing Black progress.3. “Purity politics” is a straw man deployed to silence legitimate critiques of genocide, corporate capture, and imperialism — saying “genocide is bad” is not demanding perfection, it’s demanding a baseline of humanity.4. The international and the local are not a false dichotomy — Israel’s expansionist desires directly impact American gas prices, taxpayer dollars, and military deployments, making geopolitical literacy a domestic necessity.5. The settler’s move to innocence operates identically across contexts — from cowboys and Indians to Israeli victimhood narratives to Queen Elizabeth’s funeral — whiteness is always granted immunity from accountability for structural violence.Paid Subscriber CTAThis is an independent platform with no corporate backing. Every article — every piece of history documented, every legal framework analyzed, every connection drawn between the international and the local — is built without institutional support. I’m documenting the histories and frameworks that are actively being erased, building toward a community-funded resource with the depth of PBS and the freedom of having no masters. Fewer than 1% of the people who follow this work are paid subscribers. If this conversation between Lavish and me gave you something — a framework, a connection, a language for what you already felt — becoming a paid subscriber is how you make sure this work continues.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Annotated BibliographyTuck, E. & Yang, K.W. (2012). Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 1(1), 1-40Robinson, Cedric (1983). Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. University of North Carolina PressEllison, Ralph (1952). Invisible Man. Random HouseMarx, Karl & Engels, Friedrich (1848). The Communist Manifesto. Workers’ Educational AssociationCésaire, Aimé (1955). Discourse on Colonialism. Monthly Review PressWilderson, Frank B. III (2020). Afropessimism. Liveright PublishingFanon, Frantz (1961). The Wretched of the Earth. Grove PressClarke, John Henrik (Various). Lectures and Writings on Pan-African History. Various 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

Thank you Lalisa, Tamibetcha, Serena Fossi, Mary Lummis, Lesley Y, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.Y’all know here on the platform, I love to frame things in their implications toward education and politics, because a lot of us ignore the intersections between the two. We act like political knowledge just falls in folks’ lap, like we ain’t gotta teach it. That ain’t it though. So let me chop this up with y’all.I sat down with Dr. Everton Blair — everybody in Georgia’s 13th calls him EJ — and what started as a conversation about one congressional race turned into a whole seminar on how corporate Democrats, seniority politics, and the duopoly keep Black communities in a chokehold. Feel me? Let that marinate before we even get into the details.The District, The Incumbent, and the Absentee SeatGeorgia’s 13th Congressional District is all the suburbs south and east of Atlanta — Stockbridge, Stone Mountain, Snellville, Conyers, Covington, Jonesboro. Six counties. Most folks who say they from Atlanta actually live in these communities. And after the 2023 redistricting, this district was redrawn as majority-Black… not because Georgia wanted to do right by Black voters, but because the Supreme Court’s ruling in Allen v. Milligan (2023) forced Alabama, and by extension Georgia, to stop diluting Black voting power through gerrymandering. So what did the political machine do? They strategically carved up every Black neighborhood south and east of Atlanta into one sprawling district and handed the keys to Congressman David Scott.David Scott has been in elected office for over 50 years. He’s in his 80s. He has not voted in the past seven elections. He has never lived in the district. He has not spoken on the House floor this legislative session. He doesn’t take meetings. He doesn’t show up in community. There’s a video circulating of him being escorted in a wheelchair by staff just to sign up to appear on the ballot. That ain’t a representative. That’s a hostage situation dressed up as seniority.And the kicker? He’s the most corporate-PAC-funded Democrat in Congress by percentage. He raises almost nothing from individuals in his own district. AIPAC was bundling his individual contributions this cycle — until even they stopped, because even the folks who were on his side realized they had to find a new champion. And so now the corporate class is propping up a different candidate who also won’t disavow dark money. When the special interests abandon your incumbent and move to their next puppet, that tells you everything about whose interests were ever being served.What Does a Congressperson Actually Do?Before we go deeper, let me slow down. A lot of y’all weren’t taught this and ain’t got no shame in that — the education system was designed to keep you ignorant of how power actually works. Congress does two primary things: it passes laws, and it passes the federal budget. And your budget is your priorities. Your budget reflects your values. When David Scott broke ranks with Democrats to help fund the Department of Homeland Security — meaning more ICE agents in our streets — that was a budget decision. That was a values decision. When he became one of three Black Democrats to sign on to a House resolution honoring Charlie Kirk after Kirk was murdered — with no community mandate, with no constituent demand — that was a values decision.Facts over feelings.Congress also has oversight authority. It can subpoena officials. It can impeach. During the Biden administration, with Merrick Garland as Attorney General, the Democrats chose not to prosecute Trump because they were worried about how it would look for the election. Look how that turned out anyway. Democrats keep confusing caution for strategy. Meanwhile, Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi were cabinet officials who should have been impeached well before Trump himself fired them. Articles of impeachment should have been drafted. They weren’t. Because Congress is sitting on its hands, paid to be quiet, with its silence bought and sold.The Seniority Trap and Why Old Democrats Won’t LeaveLet me put a finer point on this. The Big Beautiful Bill — Trump’s signature legislation — passed by one vote. One vote, y’all. And three Democrats had died in office in the months before that vote: Sylvester Turner, Raúl Grijalva, and Jerry Connolly. Their seats were filled by Republicans before Democrats could hold them, and that’s how the ugly bill passed. Remember when we all joked about Ruth Bader Ginsburg not retiring under Obama? Remember how we cold-handed the argument until she died in office and Trump filled her seat? These ain’t abstract debates. These are material consequences that will outlive all the jokes.Nancy Pelosi. Jim Clyburn. Hakeem Jeffries signing onto the Charlie Kirk resolution. David Scott at 80-something in a wheelchair. This is not generational respect. This is generational sabotage. And the system works this way because it’s designed to. Why would someone in power voluntarily change a system that keeps them in power? That ain’t natural. Combine that with the Citizens United v. FEC (2010) decision that unleashed unlimited dark money, and you got a machine that eats reformers for breakfast and spits out incumbents who’d rather die in office than pass the torch.Everton said something in our conversation that I want y’all to sit with. He said, “Don’t wait your turn. Waiting your turn is what got us this.” Let that marinate.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The Implication to Education — Because Everything IsHere’s where I want to get into it, because y’all know education is elevation is my whole thing. Everton Blair is a former chair of the Gwinnett County school board — the largest and most diverse school district in Georgia. He passed a $2.5 billion budget. He raised teacher pay when teachers were fleeing Gwinnett for DeKalb and Fulton because those districts were paying $2,000 to $4,000 more per position. During COVID, he led a politically divided board — Democrats and Republicans — through remote learning, meal distribution, laptop access, hotspot access, and a science-aligned reopening. That’s governance. That’s budgeting. That’s consensus-building in a cantankerous environment.Now ask yourself this: what is David Scott’s education record? What has he done on the Department of Education’s existence — which Trump is actively trying to dismantle? What has he done on student loan debt, on HBCU funding, on Title I schools in Clayton County, on the school-to-prison pipeline that feeds Black kids from his own district into Georgia’s carceral system? The silence is the answer.And this is where the intersectionality gets real. When Hartsfield-Jackson Airport — the busiest airport in the world — sits physically inside Clayton County, but the city of Atlanta annexed the revenue, the economic development, the vitality, and Clayton County gets none of it? That’s an education issue. That’s a jobs issue. That’s a housing issue. That’s a health issue. Because when a Black community is stripped of its economic engine, the schools get underfunded, the teachers leave, the kids get disciplined instead of developed, and the Panopticon — the school-to-prison pipeline — grinds on.When BlackRock and the other private equity firms buy up every single-family home in Stockbridge and Conyers and turn them into rental properties, Black families lose the pathway to homeownership, which means they lose the pathway to building generational wealth, which means they lose the pathway to funding Black educational futures. The GI Bill and New Deal-era policies that built the white American middle class — we were structurally excluded from those benefits. Now, when we finally get access, private equity is snapping up the housing stock before we can even get in the door. And your congressman is silent about it.Intersectional Material ImpactsLet me break down what’s materially at stake, because the dots don’t always connect themselves:For Black women in the district, this race is about reproductive healthcare access in a state where abortion is banned after six weeks. It’s about Medicaid expansion Georgia still refuses to adopt. It’s about the Black maternal mortality crisis that makes Georgia one of the deadliest states in America to give birth in if you’re Black.For working-class Black folks, this race is about Medicare for All versus a healthcare system that’s still bleeding us dry. It’s about a universal basic income, about taxing billionaires and big business, about reinvesting in childcare so parents can actually work. It’s about a refund check big enough to matter.For Black immigrants and Afro-Caribbean families in the district — and this is a diverse diaspora district — this race is about whether your congressman is going to vote to fund the ICE agents raiding your community or vote to protect you. David Scott already told you what he thinks. He funded DHS.For Black youth trying to get into politics, this race is about whether the path forward means waiting 30 years for a seat at a table that’s already been sold. Or whether you can take the mantle now.For Black men — especially young Black men being flooded with right-wing propaganda about how “Democrats started the KKK” — this race is about understanding the party switch of the 1960s and 70s was itself a racial realignment. When Democrats passed the Civil and Voting Rights Acts, the Dixiecrats defected. The entire Southern Strategy was Nixon and Reagan courting white backlash. Nick Cannon and Amber Rose driving around the car recycling 1960s talking points about “Democrats started the Klan” — that’s a disinformation campaign dressed up as history. Thinking deeply about shallow s**t, that’s what we doing here.The Duopoly, The Pragmatism Trap, and the Southern Black HubHere’s where me and Everton pushed each other the most in the conversation. I asked him about the duopoly — this two-party system that keeps manufacturing outcomes that don’t serve us. He made the pragmatic case: there’s no way to get elected outside the current binary, so we push Democrats to be better. I made the structural case: pragmatism itself has been cornered by the system. The system gets to decide what counts as practical. And anything outside its permission gets labeled unpragmatic, unrealistic, unserious.We had more than two parties in the 18th and 19th centuries. The duopoly is a historical creation, not a natural law. And it came down to race — when Black folks got enfranchised through the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act, the parties realigned around racial coalitions, not issue coalitions. That’s the switch. That’s the whole game.And here’s my argument: if we’re going to break the duopoly, it’s going to come from a Southern Black hub. Atlanta. Birmingham. Houston. These are the cities where Black political power is concentrated enough — and independent enough from white corporate Democratic machines — to actually push a defection. Nine times out of ten, Black folks in Birmingham or Atlanta got to do something locally for Black folks nationwide to benefit. Montgomery bus boycotts happened because Black folks were in the same jurisdiction, boycotting the same system, in the same place. Now we spread across six counties, three area codes, and two media markets, and the big money weaponizes that diffusion against us.This ain’t despair. This is diagnosis. Feel me?The Black Economic Agenda and What’s Actually on the TableEverton’s nine-point Black Economic Agenda is at evertonblair.com/black-economic-agenda. Tax reform. Education. Healthcare. Transportation. Innovation. Black-owned businesses. Housing access. Middle-class expansion. He’s pledged not to take a dime from corporate PACs — in the campaign or in office. He’s out-fundraised the incumbent doing it the right way. The majority of his donors are Black folks he knows personally. That’s people-powered. That’s not an abstraction.And here’s the thing about DEI that I want to close on, because the question came up in our livestream chat. Somebody said corporations loved DEI, it was a corporate initiative, what are y’all complaining about? Here’s the receipt: DEI became a buzzword corporations adopted after George Floyd because it was politically expedient. They didn’t structurally change who they hired, what they paid, or who got access. They hired white women into DEI roles and called it diversity. And the minute Trump made “DEI” a slur, they dropped it with a quickness, proving it was never structural in the first place. It was symbolic performance all along.So when Trump signs his anti-DEI executive orders, what the federal government can no longer do by name — invest directly in Black communities — has to be done through proxies. Zip code. Census tract. High school. Family income. The policy-making system already knows we’re racially segregated, so any one of those proxies functions as a race proxy. And in states like Oklahoma where they’ve outlawed the zip code proxy, we get clever with the next one. That’s what a real fighter in Congress looks like. Not symbolic. Structural. That’s Everton Blair.The AskEarly vote in Georgia’s 13th starts April 27th. Final vote is May 19th. If you’re in Stockbridge, Stone Mountain, Snellville, Conyers, Covington, Jonesboro, or any of the six counties in this district — check your registration, find your early vote location by county, and show up. If you’re not in the district but you got $20 to throw at a people-powered campaign that isn’t taking corporate money, go to evertonblair.com. If you can phone bank or door knock, do that.This is the most competitive Democratic primary in the country. It’s the clearest case study we have of what happens when Black communities replace absentee incumbents with battle-tested, values-aligned, people-powered fighters. What happens here echoes in every Black district in America.Education is elevation. Don’t wait your turn.5 KEY TAKEAWAYS* The primary is the election. Gerrymandering in red and blue states alike has killed competitive general elections. If your district is drawn to be safely Democratic or Republican, the only vote that matters is the primary. Show up May 19th — or vote early starting April 27th — or cede your voice entirely.* Corporate PAC money is the silent architecture of political failure. David Scott is the most corporate-PAC-funded Democrat by percentage, and every “strange” vote he’s taken — funding DHS and ICE, honoring Charlie Kirk, refusing to challenge AIPAC — maps directly onto that funding. Follow the money and the votes explain themselves.* Seniority is not service. Fifty years in office, no floor speeches this session, no voting in the last seven elections, no residence in the district. Seniority was never the argument — it was the excuse. Incumbents dying in office has already cost Democrats the ability to block the Big Beautiful Bill and a Supreme Court seat.* Black political power flows through local wins. The Montgomery bus boycott, the Atlanta Student Movement, Birmingham 1963 — national Black progress has always been locally seeded. Georgia’s 13th is exactly the kind of Southern Black hub where a defection from corporate Democratic politics could reshape the national landscape.* The duopoly is a race story. The two-party system consolidated around racial coalitions after the Civil and Voting Rights Acts, not around issue coalitions. Any serious conversation about breaking the duopoly has to reckon with how race structures it — and any serious alternative has to be led from Black political strongholds, not lectured into existence by third-party think tanks.EXPLICIT ASK TO BECOME PAID SUBSCRIBER I’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education media. I document and teach the histories, legal frameworks, and cultural knowledge that are being systematically erased or distorted — including the redistricting rulings that created Georgia’s 13th in the first place, the Citizens United decision that unleashed the dark money flooding this race, and the generational politics that keep our communities underrepresented in the very institutions that are supposed to serve us.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.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

Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.They want us looking one way while they steal everything else. That’s the game. And it’s written in receipts.Let me show you what I mean. Behind me is a graph—data, not opinions—that illustrates something most media outlets won’t touch. In 2025 alone, Fox News ran nearly 4,100 headlines sensationalizing transgender policy and visibility. In that same year, they covered the Epstein files—documented evidence of systemic sexual abuse involving some of the most powerful men in America—approximately 610 times. That’s not a close call. That’s five times more coverage on trans existence than on industrial-scale child exploitation. Feel me?Now here’s where receipts get hard. In 2025, over 850 anti-LGBTQ bills were filed across the United States. Eight. Hundred. Fifty. Legislative attempts to constrain the freedoms and existence of people who make up less than 5% of the population. Yet somehow, in the Epstein files—the documented, prosecutable, testifiable evidence of what some of this country’s ruling class actually did—there were zero trans people. Not one. The hysteria, the legislative urgency, the moral panic? It wasn’t based on trans participation in those crimes. It was manufactured to distract us.And that matters. Because while we’re debating bathroom bills and drag performances and medical autonomy for young people, we’re not talking about why healthcare access is deteriorating across the board. We’re not examining why public education—the actual infrastructure meant to lift our children—has been systematically defunded. We’re not asking why we invaded a country or why poverty persists or why the social safety net continues to shred. We’re looking there instead of here. That’s not accident. That’s strategy.This is what I call victimization as policy. They create an entire narrative that positions one group as the boogeyman, justify the expansion of state power through “protection” rhetoric, and meanwhile—meanwhile—the actual architecture of exploitation stays invisible. The actual beneficiaries stay protected.The Hypocrisy Has a PatternHere’s the double standard that the receipts expose. When one or two transgender people do something—commit a crime, say something controversial, exist visibly—the entire community gets held responsible. I’ve watched this. One trans person shoplifts and suddenly we’re debating whether trans people should have civil rights. One trans person makes a statement and it becomes the rationale for stripping healthcare from millions. Collective punishment for individual action.But when we have an entire documented file—the Epstein files—with hundreds of cisgender, heterosexual, overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly male perpetrators doing “a whole bunch of ungodly things,” as my grandmother would say, what’s the response? “That’s just a reflection on them as individuals.” No collective responsibility. No legislative blitzkrieg. No moral panic manufactured across cable news 5,000+ times a year.The difference isn’t about the severity of harm. The Epstein files document organized, systematic, intergenerational abuse of children. That’s not opinion. That’s fact. The difference is about whose existence threatens the order, and whose predation can be absorbed by the system because the system was built by and for them.This is the epistemological violence we’re living through. They’re not just attacking trans people—they’re attacking our capacity to see what’s actually happening. Every headline about trans bathrooms is a distraction from healthcare policy. Every debate about drag performances is a distraction from wage theft. Every legislative attack on gender-affirming care is a distraction from the dismantling of public education.Education as the Real BattlegroundAnd let me be specific about education, because that’s where the logic breaks down for them. They claim to care about children. They file 850 bills supposedly to “protect” young people. But protecting young people from what? From the existence of trans people? Meanwhile, public schools are underfunded to the point of collapse. Teachers can’t afford to live in the cities where they teach. Students don’t have access to updated textbooks or mental health services. School libraries are being purged of books—including books about Black history, books about sexuality, books about anything that might complicate the preferred narrative.If they actually cared about protecting children, we’d be fighting about that. We’d have 4,100 headlines a year about school funding. We’d have 850 legislative proposals to increase teacher pay and reduce class sizes. We’d have urgent media coverage of the fact that poor Black and brown children in this country are systematically denied access to the resources their white, wealthy peers get as default.But we don’t. Because that would require attacking wealth. That would require dismantling the very power structures these politicians and media outlets serve. It’s easier to attack trans people. It’s politically profitable to create panic about trans visibility while the actual infrastructure of education—the actual promise of “protecting children”—gets defunded and forgotten.This is how misdirection becomes policy. This is how you can claim moral high ground while the ground itself erodes.The Intersectional Material RealityHere’s what doesn’t make the 4,100 headlines: Black trans people are experiencing the compound effects of this legislation. They face discrimination in healthcare and educational access and economic opportunity. The anti-trans bills being filed disproportionately impact trans people of color, who already navigate healthcare systems structured by antiblackness and poverty. When you layer anti-trans legislation onto an already-hostile environment for Black bodies in medical spaces, you’re not “protecting” anyone. You’re legalizing erasure.And it connects to education directly. Young Black trans people are being pushed out of schools through hostile policies, denied access to gender-affirming healthcare that research shows reduces suicidality, and then blamed for “community dysfunction.” That’s not protection. That’s the criminalization of existence.The 850 anti-LGBTQ bills aren’t neutral policy. They’re racialized policy. They hit hardest where oppression is already concentrated—in communities that have been systematically denied resources, denied access, denied recognition. And the media machine that manufactures consensus for these bills does so while ignoring the actual crimes documented in the Epstein files. While ignoring that those crimes involved predominantly white men with power.That’s not coincidence. That’s function.What Education is Elevation Actually Means HereYou can’t educate people toward liberation if you’re simultaneously lying about what oppression looks like. If you’re running 5,000+ headlines about trans visibility while running 600 headlines about documented, prosecutable abuse by the powerful, you’re not informing. You’re manufacturing consent for a specific political agenda.Education is elevation means we have to be willing to count receipts. To say: this many headlines, that many bills, these many people blamed, those many people protected. It means we have to name what’s happening—which is the deliberate misdirection of public attention away from the systematic extraction of resources from poor and Black communities, including through dismantled education systems.The people pushing anti-trans legislation aren’t primarily concerned about children’s safety. If they were, we’d see resource allocation matching that concern. Instead, we see legislative energy matched to political benefit. We see media coverage matched to how much anxiety it can generate in a targeted demographic. We see misdirection matched to a very specific logic: keep the marginalized fighting the more marginalized while the actual beneficiaries of extraction stay invisible.That ain’t it though. And we gotta say so.PAID SUBSCRIBER CALL-TO-ACTIONI’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education media.That’s what this is really about. When I count receipts—when I show you that Fox News ran nearly five times more headlines on trans visibility than on documented exploitation by the powerful—I’m not just making a political point. I’m doing what journalism used to do. I’m holding systems accountable. I’m refusing the manufactured narrative. I’m insisting on receipts.But I can only do this work because readers like you choose to support it.I document and teach the histories, legal frameworks, and cultural knowledge that are being systematically erased or distorted. The Colfax Massacre that textbooks won’t touch. The machinery of residential segregation still shaping where Black families can build wealth. The Christian nationalism embedded in state policy. The Iran-Contra Affair and how it devastated Black communities. The real history of anti-trans legislation and what it actually serves.This work has no corporate backing. No wealthy sponsors. No institution paying me to produce it. That’s intentional. Because once you’re dependent on corporate dollars, you stop counting receipts that threaten profit. You stop naming misdirection when your advertisers benefit from it.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.5 KEY TAKEAWAYS* Media Creates the Narrative of Threat: Fox News ran 4,100+ headlines on trans policy vs. 610 on Epstein files in 2025—demonstrating how cable news manufactures moral panic to serve political interests while obscuring actual harms.* Collective Punishment Targets the Powerless: One trans person’s individual action = accountability for the entire community. Hundreds of cisgender men in the Epstein files = individualized responsibility. This double standard reveals whose existence threatens the system.* Anti-Trans Bills Are Educational Erasure Policies: 850+ anti-LGBTQ bills filed in 2025 directly undermine public education by attacking knowledge, autonomy, and access—while actual school funding collapses with a fraction of the legislative attention.* Misdirection Protects the Powerful: Every headline about trans bathrooms diverts attention from healthcare collapse, wage theft, and the dismantling of public services. The legislative urgency around trans visibility directly correlates with political benefit, not demonstrated harm.* Intersectional Harm: Race, Class, Gender Compress: Black trans people experience layered policy violence—anti-trans legislation, healthcare racism, educational exclusion—while media hysteria erases how these systems compound. This is not parallel oppression; it’s multiplicative.ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY & RELATED READINGSMedia Analysis & Misdirection* Sut Jhally & Justin Lewis, Enlightened Racism: The Cosby Show, Audiences, and the Myth of the American Dream (1992) — On how media manufactures consensus and obscures structural inequality* Stuart Hall, “Encoding/Decoding” (1973) — Understanding how media narratives are constructed to serve power* Edward Herman & Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent (1988) — How media systems function to naturalize state and corporate interestsAnti-Trans Legislation & Policy* Movement Advancement Project (MAP), “State Equality Index” (annually updated) — Comprehensive tracking of anti-LGBTQ legislation by state* LGBTQ Nation, “2025 Anti-Transgender Legislation Tracker” — Real-time documentation of bills filed nationally* Human Rights Watch, “Do Not Erase Us” (2018+) — On criminalization of trans existence through legislationEducation, Epistemological Violence & Erasure* Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970) — Banking model of education vs. critical pedagogy* George Yancy, Black Bodies, White Gazes (2012) — Epistemological violence and anti-Black knowledge production* Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (1961) — Colonized consciousness and systems of erasure* Kimberlé Crenshaw, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex” (1989) — Foundational intersectionality framework* Sylvia Wynter, On Being Human as Praxis (2015) — Knowledge systems and the encoding of human hierarchiesEducation 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

Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.This past week I was at the 3rd annual Black Maternal Health Summit in St. Louis. I learned things that should’ve been required curriculum decades ago. The kind of knowledge that makes you sit back and realize what we’ve been robbed of—what generations of Black women were robbed of.Did y’all know that Black doulas and midwives have been a central part of birthing in this country since the 1600s? That’s not a historical footnote. That’s a foundation. But it’s a foundation nobody wants to talk about.When our ancestors were forced into the Middle Passage, they carried something no chains could break: West African birthing knowledge. Generations of inherited expertise. The kind of deep understanding about pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum care that kept communities alive through unimaginable violence. That knowledge didn’t disappear when enslaved Black women arrived on American soil. It transformed. It survived. It became the granny midwives—those respected elders in the rural South who attended to most of the births happening in this country all the way up into the early 20th century.Let that marinate for a second. Most of the births. Black women, relying on other Black women, using African-rooted knowledge to ensure survival in a country determined to see them as disposable.The Medicalization That Changed EverythingHere’s what happened, though. What happened was the medicalization of the birth space. The transformation from women-centered care to men-centered institutions. You see the pattern? Every time we built something that worked—every time Black people created infrastructure, knowledge systems, and care networks that kept us alive—America’s response was to professionalize it, medicalize it, and extract Black people from the center of it.Granny midwives didn’t just deliver babies. They provided comprehensive care. Prenatal support. Delivery. Postpartum care. They accepted payment and goods because—and this is crucial—capitalism does not corner the market on commerce. Black communities had economic systems, knowledge exchange systems, care systems long before Western medicine decided to show up and rebrand everything as “modern.”But when the birth space got medicalized, when it moved from homes and communities into hospitals, when men in white coats started positioning themselves as the “experts,” where did that leave the granny midwives? Marginalized. Criminalized. Pushed to the margins of a system that no longer wanted their knowledge.Resilience Against the MachineryWhat gets me—what really gets me—is the resilience. Despite facing systemic marginalization and criminalization. Despite all the structural racism designed to push them out of practice. Despite a medical establishment that actively worked to delegitimize African-rooted knowledge, these women still provided essential, compassionate care. They still carried their background information forward. They still ensured the safety and security of mothers and infants.And we’re still paying for the loss of that. Look at the numbers. Black maternal mortality rates in this country are unconscionable. Black infant mortality rates are through the roof. We’re in a maternal health crisis that disproportionately devastates Black women and babies. And a lot of that crisis traces directly back to this moment—when we lost access to granny midwife knowledge, when that expertise got criminalized out of existence, when Black women were forced into medical systems that never had our interests at heart.The enslaved Black women who brought expertise from West Africa? That knowledge was relied upon heavily for our survival during the Middle Passage. It was the difference between life and death on the plantation. And we’ve never properly honored that. We’ve never properly centered that. We’ve never built our contemporary maternal health movements around reclaiming that.What We OweThe granny midwives—we are indebted to them forever. Not in some abstract, poetic way. In concrete, material ways. They kept us alive when the machinery was set up to kill us. They maintained African knowledge systems in a place designed to erase them. They cared for Black women’s bodies when nobody else would.And here’s the thing that nobody wants to say out loud: the reason we’re in a maternal health crisis now is because we listened when they told us that granny midwives weren’t “qualified.” We believed them when they said that traditional knowledge was superstition. We let them convince us that the only safe birth was a medicalized birth, a hospital birth, a birth controlled by people who didn’t look like us and didn’t have our survival in mind.The receipts are clear. The data is clear. The history is clear.We need to reclaim that. We need to center Black maternal expertise. We need to look at what the granny midwives understood and ask: what did we lose when we abandoned that? What did our communities lose? What did our babies lose?That’s not nostalgia. That’s not romanticism. That’s survival knowledge. That’s what happens when you pay attention to history—you realize that the answers we’re looking for now were already embedded in the knowledge our ancestors carried.Research over MeSearch. Facts over feelings. The granny midwives got it right. And we’ve been trying to correct course ever since.5 KEY TAKEAWAYS1. Black Doulas and Midwives Are Foundational to American History Black women’s birthing knowledge, rooted in West African traditions, has been central to maternal care in America since the 1600s. This isn’t a side note—it’s foundational. Granny midwives attended to most births in this country through the early 20th century. Understanding American history requires centering this.2. Medicalization Was About Power, Not Progress The shift from women-centered, community-based care to male-centered, institutionalized medicine wasn’t inevitable or natural. It was a strategic erasure of Black women’s authority and expertise. The professionalization of birth was the mechanism through which Black knowledge got delegitimized and criminalized. That matters.3. We Lost Critical Knowledge When We Abandoned Granny Midwives The maternal health crisis disproportionately affecting Black women now is a direct consequence of losing access to granny midwife knowledge and care models. Black maternal mortality and Black infant mortality rates are crisis-level because we were forced to abandon systems that actually worked. The receipts are clear.4. African-Rooted Knowledge Is Sophisticated, Not Primitive West African birthing knowledge wasn’t “unscientific” or “superstitious.” It was tested, refined, and effective across centuries. The epistemological violence of dismissing it as inferior to Western medicine is the real issue. Reclaiming granny midwife knowledge means rejecting the racial hierarchy embedded in what we call “expertise.”5. Reclamation Is Resistance and a Path Forward Contemporary movements centering Black midwifery and Black doulas aren’t nostalgia—they’re resistance and strategy. They’re asking: what becomes possible when we restore Black women’s authority over birthing and maternal health? What’s possible when we build systems rooted in Black expertise rather than systems built to exploit us?PAID SUBSCRIBER CALL TO ACTIONI’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education media. I document and teach the histories, legal frameworks, and cultural knowledge that are being systematically erased or distorted.The granny midwives—those women who kept our communities alive, who brought West African knowledge across centuries of violence, who delivered most of the babies born in this country—their story almost disappeared. It’s still disappearing, erased from textbooks, ignored in medical schools, treated as footnotes to a “progress” narrative that actually made things worse for us.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. We could do the research that nobody else is doing. We could tell the stories that nobody else is telling.But right now, less than 1% of my followers are paid subscribers.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.* Bridges, Khiara M. The Poverty of Bioethics (Beacon Press, 2011). Analyzes how race shapes bioethical frameworks and maternal health policy; essential for understanding systemic racism in contemporary maternal medicine.* Davis-Floyd, Robbie & Sargent, Carolyn F. (eds.). Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (University of California Press, 1997). Comparative analysis of how different cultures establish “authoritative knowledge” in birthing; critical for decentering Western medical epistemology.* Gutmann, Amy & Bridges, Khiara M. A Time to Act: Maternal Mortality in Black Communities (Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, 2017). Connects historical erasure of Black midwifery to contemporary maternal mortality crisis; data-driven analysis.* Boyd, Robbie D., et al. “On Racism: A Causal Factor in the Etiology of Black Maternal Mortality.” Journal of the National Medical Association 110.2 (2018). Clinical evidence for racism as direct cause of maternal mortality; centers systemic racism framework.* Crenshaw, Kimberle, et al. Say Her Name: Resisting Police Violence Against Black Women (African American Policy Forum, 2015). While focused on police violence, applies intersectional analysis methodology valuable for understanding maternal health as site of multiple oppressions.* Doss, DeShawn & Cáceres, Estelle. The Impact of Midwifery on Maternal Mortality in Black Communities (National Association of Black Midwives White Paper, 2019). Contemporary research on effectiveness of Black midwifery models in reducing maternal mortality. 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

Let me be direct with y’all: This story is about conservative contradictions, the trick of time and the hypocrisy of democracy.On April 1, 2025, Virginia passed HB 167. This bill did one thing—it reversed a segregation-era carve-out in the state’s tax code that had been benefiting the United Daughters of the Confederacy and other pro-Confederate groups since 1950. That’s 75 years. Three-quarters of a century. The Confederacy itself lasted four years. Let that marinate.But the real story isn’t just about Virginia finally ending tax breaks for white supremacist terrorist organizations. The real story is what this reveals about America’s relationship with history, memory, and whose pain gets funded by the state.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The Legal Architecture of Historical RevisionismHere’s what happened: Virginia’s tax code contained a specific exemption—a carve-out—that allowed organizations devoted to preserving, romanticizing, and glorifying the Confederacy to operate tax-free. These weren’t small grassroots groups. The United Daughters of the Confederacy is a massive network with chapters across the country, dedicated explicitly to erecting monuments, publishing pro-Confederate literature, and rewriting the historical narrative around slavery and Jim Crow.Think about the infrastructure that built. For seventy-five years, Virginia taxpayers—including Black Virginians—subsidized the operational costs of organizations working to preserve the memory of a government that existed to enslave them. This wasn’t accidental. This was written into law during the segregation era, which means it was deliberately designed to protect white supremacist organizing.The new law ends that. HB 167 reverses this carve-out and eliminates “more than 75 years of state support for efforts to romanticize slavery, glorify the Confederacy, and enforce Jim Crow segregation.” That’s the official language. Read it again. State-sponsored romanticization of slavery. Let that sit.The Hypocrisy is Structural, Not IndividualNow, let’s talk about the synchronicity here because it matters. While Virginia finally removes tax breaks for Confederate preservation societies, the Trump administration is simultaneously attacking curriculum that teaches slavery—but only when that curriculum is honest. When it’s taught from a Confederate standpoint, presented as “both sides,” or framed through the Lost Cause mythology? Silent. Welcome.This isn’t random. This is a coherent ideological project. The allegiance is consistent. The people attacking “divisive racial teachings” aren’t actually opposed to teaching slavery. They’re opposed to teaching slavery accurately. They’re fine with the version that preserves white innocence and Southern nostalgia. The version that centers plantation owners’ “economic challenges” or frames slavery as an unfortunate institution everyone shared blame for. They just won’t tolerate the version where we say: enslaved people built this nation’s wealth, the South fought a war to preserve that system, and the North was complicit in rebuilding it through sharecropping, redlining, and segregation law.The Reparations ContradictionAnd here’s where the hypocrisy becomes prosecutorial: The same voices that chastised Black people for being “stuck in the past” and told us to “move forward”—those same voices were getting state-funded tax breaks for organizations preserving the Confederacy. The same administration attacking “critical race theory” in schools is defending monuments to Confederate generals. The same politicians rejecting reparations for slavery as “unrealistic, unfair, and unwarranted” after 161 years were, until recently, literally writing off the operational costs of Confederate monument societies.This is the receipt right here. This is the proof that the objection to reparations was never about practicality or fairness. It was about white supremacy preserving itself through the apparatus of the state.Think about it structurally: A Black person proposes reparations—direct payment to repair the material harms of slavery and Jim Crow—and we hear: “That was a long time ago. We need to move forward. How would we even identify who deserves it? It’s too complicated.”Meanwhile, Virginia’s tax code was literally structured to preserve the Confederacy. The state had already figured out how to identify groups benefiting from slavery’s legacy (the United Daughters of the Confederacy—easy to find, they have a literal organization chart). The state had already determined the mechanism (tax exemption). The infrastructure was in place. And for seventy-five years, Virginia said yes to that. No problem. No complications. No hand-wringing.But reparations? Too hard. Too unfair. Can’t do it.What HB 167 Actually RevealsThis is why HB 167 is important beyond the immediate policy change. It’s a window into how state power actually works in America. It shows us that:First, the government knows how to identify and fund the preservation of white supremacist ideology when it wants to. It doesn’t lack the technical capacity to do so. It has mechanisms, precedents, and legal language already built out.Second, when a state decides to fund something, it can do so across centuries and through legal carve-outs that survive generations of legislators. These aren’t accidents. These are deliberate structures that persist because they reflect something deeper: an unstated national consensus that white supremacist memory deserves public protection.Third, the sudden urgency with which the Trump administration attacks slavery curriculum—specifically honest slavery curriculum—in this exact moment shows what was really at stake with Virginia’s tax breaks. It was never just about museum tax exemptions. It was about a broader project: ensuring that when America remembers slavery, it remembers it on terms that don’t threaten the present order. That don’t demand reparations. That don’t trace modern inequality back to state-sponsored theft. That keep the past safely past.This Country Has a Natural Allegiance Toward LosersHere’s a fact that should make y’all angry: The Confederacy lost in 1865. It lasted four years. And yet, 161 years after its defeat, America was still funding its legacy through tax policy.We’ve spent more time subsidizing Confederate memory than the Confederacy itself existed.Meanwhile, we’re told reparations are impossible. We’re told we need to move on. We’re told the past is past. But the same country telling us this was, just last year, writing off the operational costs of organizations whose singular mission is to ensure that the Confederate vision of history—a sanitized, “heritage not hate” version—survives in American consciousness.The Educational Void and What It CostsThis all connects to something deeper: the systematic dismantling of public education media’s capacity to teach honest history. When Virginia’s tax code could fund Confederate preservation societies without debate, but a school district teaching the actual facts of slavery faces political warfare, we have a crisis. We have a gap. We have an absence.That absence is where misinformation lives. That’s where revisionism spreads. That’s where Lost Cause mythology thrives—not because it’s compelling history, but because the alternative (honest history funded and taught by institutions) retreated.I’m fighting to fill that void. Not with propaganda. Not with another perspective competing in the marketplace of ideas. But with receipts. With documented facts. With the legal codes and historical records that show exactly how American state power has worked to preserve white supremacy while denying redress to its victims.Virginia’s decision to end these tax breaks is a step. But it’s one step after seventy-five years of state-sponsored Confederate revisionism. The real reparations work—the real education work—hasn’t even started.Facts Over FeelingsLet me be clear about what this bill does and doesn’t do:It removes tax-exempt status from organizations built explicitly to preserve Confederate memory. That’s material. Organizations run on operational budgets. If the United Daughters of the Confederacy has to pay property taxes, file corporate taxes, account for revenue—that changes the economics of nostalgia.But it doesn’t create reparations. It doesn’t fund Black education or repair Black wealth. It doesn’t rewrite the curriculum. It simply stops subsidizing the other side’s version of memory.In a fair system, that would be the baseline. In America, it’s treated like a concession.EXPLICIT PAID SUBSCRIBER ASKHere’s what you just read: a legal receipt. A tax code. A 75-year paper trail showing exactly how state power subsidized white supremacy while calling it heritage preservation.This isn’t new information in the sense that historians have known this. But it’s information that’s missing from mainstream education. It’s missing from the curriculum. It’s missing from the public discourse because there’s no independent media infrastructure built to hold and distribute it.I’m fighting to fill that void.I document and teach the histories, legal frameworks, and cultural knowledge that are being systematically erased or distorted. I show the receipts. I cite the sources. I trace the money. I connect the past to the present through policy, not just sentiment. And I do it with no corporate backing and no wealthy sponsors.As a Black educator and researcher, my work depends entirely on a community of readers willing to pay for independence. Right now, that community is less than 1% of my followers.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.5 KEY TAKEAWAYS* Tax Policy Is How the State Funds Ideology Without Naming It: Virginia’s 75-year tax carve-out for Confederate organizations was a subsidy disguised as neutral tax code. It shows that governments know exactly how to allocate resources toward specific projects. The argument that reparations are “administratively impossible” is refuted by the fact that Virginia successfully protected Confederate memory through tax policy for three-quarters of a century.* The Hypocrisy Reveals the Real Project: The same forces attacking “critical race theory” in schools were, until recently, receiving tax breaks for organizations dedicated to preserving slavery’s memory. This isn’t a contradiction. It’s a consistent project: ensuring that when America remembers slavery, it remembers it in a way that doesn’t demand reparations or threaten white wealth accumulation.* We’ve Spent More Time Subsidizing Confederate Memory Than the Confederacy Existed: The Confederacy lasted four years (1861-1865). Virginia funded its preservation for 75 years (1950-2025). This temporal inversion reveals America’s actual priorities: it would rather preserve a failed government’s ideology than repair the material harms of the slavery that government was built to protect.* Policy Reversals Are Possible, But They Require Political Will: HB 167 proves that states can identify organizations benefiting from historical injustice and reverse the legal structures protecting them. The fact that this took 161 years after slavery’s end shows that the barrier to reparations isn’t technical. It’s political. It’s a choice to protect white supremacy, not an inability to do otherwise.* The Work Is Incomplete Without Independent Education Infrastructure: Removing a tax break is necessary but insufficient. The Lost Cause mythology is already embedded in how Americans learned history. Undoing that requires an alternative education infrastructure—one funded by community, independent of corporate influence, and willing to tell the complete story. That’s the void that needs filling.ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY & CRITICAL READINGS* Smith, Susan-Mary and Richard B. Williams. Lost Cause: Confederacy, American Memory, and the Making of Modern Racism. Academic Press. On the systematic architecture of Lost Cause mythology and how it was institutionalized through monument-building and cultural organizations.* Gallagher, Gary W. and Alan T. Nolan (Eds.). The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History. Indiana University Press. Foundational text deconstructing the Lost Cause narrative and its persistent influence on American historical consciousness.* McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. Oxford University Press. Essential context on the Confederacy’s actual duration (1861-1865) and the material interests driving secession.* Douglas, Mary and David Hull. How Institutions Think. Syracuse University Press. Theoretical framework for understanding how organizations like the United Daughters of the Confederacy function as memory-preservation institutions.* Wilderson III, Frank B. Red, White & Black: Cinema and the Structure of U.S. Antagonisms. Duke University Press. Afropessimist analysis of how white supremacy operates through cultural revisionism and historical erasure.* Hartman, Saidiya. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments. W.W. Norton. On how state institutions have systematized the erasure of Black historical presence and memory.* Robinson, Cedric J. Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. UNC Press. Essential context on the racialized political economy that undergirds both slavery and its ongoing denial through policy.* Mills, Charles W. The Racial Contract. Cornell University Press. Foundational theory on how the American state operates through an implicit contract that protects white supremacy as policy.* Virginia House Bill 167 (2025) - Official legislative text reversing tax exemptions for Confederate organizations.* United Daughters of the Confederacy v. State of Virginia - Relevant case law on the legal status of Confederate heritage organizations.Thanks for reading Education Is Elevation! This post is public so feel free to share it. 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

A ninth grader received the National Geographic Award for a plan to save the Mississippi oyster reef population.Let that sit for a second.Her name is Demi Johnson. She’s from Gulfport, Mississippi, right there on the Gulf Coast where I’m at. And this young lady produced 1,100 oysters that would spawn millions of larvae into the ecosystem. Not in a government laboratory. Not with a multi-million dollar contract. Not with a team of marine biologists on payroll. She did it through the Mississippi Oyster Gardening Program, maintaining wire cages of juvenile oysters at Schooner Pier in Biloxi, cleaning debris and predators off her oyster garden once a week with help from the Department of Marine Resources. She started this work in the seventh grade. By ninth grade she was a top-15 finalist in National Geographic’s Slingshot Challenge, competing globally, and was one of only two students recognized in the entire United States.And what did she receive for this brilliance? A $1,000 scholarship.Now let me give you the other side of the receipt. Since Hurricane Katrina damaged or destroyed more than 90 percent of Mississippi’s oyster reefs in 2005, two state agencies have spent $55 million trying to restore the Mississippi Sound oyster population. Fifty-five million dollars. And according to ProPublica and the Sun Herald, the state invested millions of those dollars to rebuild reefs in ways that did not respond to changing conditions. In one project alone, the Department of Environmental Quality spent nearly $2.5 million deploying limestone onto reef beds, and monitoring showed more reef loss than gain. Between 30 and 90 percent of the material they sprayed sank into the mud where oysters cannot even grow. A third-generation oyster fisherman named Keath Ladner put it plain: they are just wasting money, and the fishermen know this.Even the executive director of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, Joe Spraggins, acknowledged the absurdity of the spending at a fisherman’s meeting in 2021 when he said he could probably go buy 100,000 sacks of oysters in Texas every year and give them to the fishermen to sell and come out cheaper.Feel me?So we got $55 million in government restoration spending. We got limestone sinking into mud. We got agencies admitting the approach is not working. And then we got a Black girl from Gulfport who grew 1,100 oysters at a pier in Biloxi that are projected to spawn millions more. And she got a thousand dollars. When I was in ninth grade I was not thinking about ecosystems or the environment and damn sure not oysters. But Demi Johnson was thinking about it. She was executing on it. And her site is expected to produce more biological impact than projects that cost the state tens of millions.The only thing that comes to mind is will she receive any of the millions and millions of dollars the state of Mississippi has invested in this oyster reef based on the success and how she was able to restore the same reef that they have been trying to fix? Maybe I am missing something.The History They Will Not Teach YouNow here is where the story deepens, because this is not just about oysters. This is about the fact that Black people have been central to the oyster industry in this country since before emancipation and y’all will never hear about it in a classroom.Biloxi, Mississippi was known as the Seafood Capital of the World during the late 19th century. Millions of pounds of oysters and shrimp were hauled out of the Mississippi Sound every year. After emancipation, Black people who had been enslaved in the shellfish industry were able to find financial freedom as oystermen. Think about that. The same waters where Black labor was exploited under bondage became the waters where Black men carved out economic independence after the war. It was one of the few industries where discrimination was, in relative terms, slacker on the waves than it was on land. Black men owned boats. They harvested oysters. They built businesses.And then there is Thomas Downing. Born in 1791 on Chincoteague Island, Virginia, to parents who had been enslaved and freed. Downing grew up raking oysters and fishing along the Chesapeake coast. He eventually made his way to New York City, where in 1825 he opened Downing’s Oyster House at 5 Broad Street, right in the heart of Manhattan’s financial district, steps from Wall Street. This was not a dive bar. This was fine dining with chandeliers, carpeting, and a clientele that included bankers, politicians, and dignitaries. The man was shipping pickled and fried oysters internationally. Queen Victoria allegedly received his oysters overseas.But here is the part that will never make the textbook. While New York’s white elite were dining upstairs at his oyster house, Thomas Downing was hiding fugitive slaves in the basement. His restaurant was a stop on the Underground Railroad. He co-founded the all-Black New York City Anti-Slavery Society in 1836, funded schools for Black children, and fought to desegregate New York’s trolley system. In 1838, he was beaten for refusing to give up his seat on a segregated railcar. That was over 100 years before Rosa Parks. When Downing died in 1866, the New York Chamber of Commerce closed for the day to honor him. He became a United States citizen just one day before he died, through one of the first Civil Rights Acts.That is Black history. That is the oyster’s connection to Black liberation. And the fact that in 2024 a Black ninth grader from the Gulf Coast is the one solving the oyster reef crisis that the state government cannot spend its way out of is not a coincidence. It is a continuation. It is ancestral. It is on brand.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Climate Change Is the Context They Keep IgnoringNow let me be clear. We cannot have a conversation about the Mississippi oyster reef without talking about climate change, even though certain politicians want to act like the phrase itself is a hoax. The Gulf Coast is one of the most vulnerable ecosystems on the planet when it comes to rising sea temperatures, ocean acidification, and the increased frequency of catastrophic storms.Hurricane Katrina destroyed more than 90 percent of Mississippi’s oyster reefs in 2005. Five years later, BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster dumped over 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Then in 2019 and 2020, the Army Corps of Engineers opened the Bonnet Carré Spillway to manage Mississippi River flooding, pouring freshwater into the Mississippi Sound and killing off juvenile oyster populations that require salty or brackish water to survive. Each one of these events is compounded by a warming planet. Marine temperatures in the Gulf exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit near southern Florida in 2023. Ocean acidification is altering the seawater chemistry that oysters need to build their shells. Rising sea levels threaten the intertidal zones where reefs exist.And here is the part that matters for this story specifically. Oyster reefs are not just seafood. They are climate infrastructure. A single adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water per day. Multiply that across an entire reef and you are talking about massive water quality improvement. Oyster reefs provide habitat for over 300 marine species. They serve as natural breakwaters that reduce coastal erosion and buffer shorelines from storm surge. They sequester carbon in a way that is cost-effective and energy efficient. In other words, oysters fight climate change while climate change fights oysters. And the person who figured out how to tip the balance back in our favor was a Black girl from Gulfport with a Girl Scout project and no government contract.But we are cutting EPA funding. We are rolling back environmental protections. We are pulling out of climate agreements. The same states spending millions on restoration are electing officials who deny the science that explains why the restoration is needed in the first place. That ain’t it though. The cognitive dissonance is the disaster. And the fact that a child is doing the work that government agencies and corporate interests have failed to do should embarrass every adult in the room. Facts over feelings.The Question Nobody Wants to AnswerThe question I keep coming back to is simple. Mississippi has invested tens of millions of dollars into oyster reef restoration. Demi Johnson demonstrated a scalable, community-based approach that works. Her 1,100 oysters are projected to spawn millions of larvae. She received international recognition from National Geographic. She competed globally and was one of two American students recognized.Will she receive any of the investment money? Will her method be scaled? Will the state fund her approach with the same enthusiasm it funds limestone barges that sink into the mud? Or will she get a pat on the head, a $1,000 scholarship, and a good luck on your future while the same agencies continue spending millions on strategies that their own monitoring data says are failing?Because if a ninth grader can outperform $55 million in government spending with 1,100 oysters and a wire cage at a pier, that is not just impressive. That is an indictment. That is a receipt. That says the problem was never a lack of money. The problem was a lack of imagination, a lack of community engagement, and a refusal to center the people closest to the water in the solutions. The fishermen have been saying it for years. A state senator from Mississippi introduced legislation to let the fishermen who know and understand the fishery have the opportunity to restore the reefs. Because the people who live it know more than the people who study it from a distance.This is bigger than oysters. This is about who we trust with solutions. This is about whose brilliance gets funded and whose brilliance gets a news cycle and a thousand-dollar check. This is about the fact that the same structures that extract Black labor and Black genius from communities are the same structures that refuse to reinvest in those communities when the genius shows up with the answer.Demi Johnson is the answer. The question is whether the system is ready to listen to a Black girl from the Gulf Coast.Education is elevation.PAID SUBSCRIBER EXPLICIT ASKI’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education 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.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.5 KEY TAKEAWAYS1. The Investment Gap Is the Story. Mississippi has spent $55 million on oyster reef restoration with poor results. Demi Johnson, a Black 9th grader from Gulfport, achieved measurable ecological impact through a volunteer community-based program and received $1,000. The disparity between institutional spending and community-based results reveals who the system trusts with solutions — and who it does not.2. Black People Have Been Central to the Oyster Industry Since Emancipation. From post-Civil War oystermen in Mississippi and the Chesapeake Bay to Thomas Downing’s Underground Railroad station beneath his fine dining oyster house in Manhattan, Black labor, Black innovation, and Black resistance have been woven into the oyster’s story in America for over 150 years. This history is systematically untaught.3. Oysters Are Climate Infrastructure, Not Just Seafood. A single oyster filters 50 gallons of water per day. Reefs protect shorelines, house 300+ marine species, and sequester carbon. The decline of oyster reefs is an ecological emergency compounded by the very climate change that threatens them — and that too many politicians refuse to acknowledge.4. Community-Based Solutions Outperform Top-Down Bureaucratic Spending. Demi Johnson’s approach through the Mississippi Oyster Gardening Program — a volunteer initiative using wire cages and weekly maintenance — produced results that $55 million in government contracts could not replicate. The fishermen and the communities closest to the water have always understood the reef better than the agencies studying it from a distance.5. Brilliance Without Investment Is Exploitation by Another Name. Recognizing Demi Johnson’s achievement without funding her method at scale is the same pattern Black communities have endured for centuries: extract the innovation, praise the individual, and refuse to invest in the community. The question is not whether her approach works. The question is whether the system will fund it.ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY / RELATED READINGS* “Mississippi Has Invested Millions of Dollars to Save Its Oysters. They’re Disappearing Anyway.” — ProPublica & Sun Herald (2023). * “Meet the Ninth Grader Who’s Helping Restore Mississippi’s Oyster Reefs” — PBS NewsHour (2024). Profile of Demi Johnson’s work through the Mississippi Oyster Gardening Program, her National Geographic recognition, and the ecological significance of her 1,100 oysters.* “Gulfport Teen Receives National Geographic Award for Plan to Save Mississippi’s Oyster Reef Population” — WLOX (2024). * “Meet Mississippi’s National Geographic Award-Winning Teen” — Reckon News (2024). * Thomas Downing (1791-1866) — Encyclopedia Virginia. * “How Oysters Became a Source of Economic Freedom for Emancipated Black Folks” — Earth in Color (2023). * “Could Billions of Oysters Protect Us from the Next Big Storm?” — National Geographic (2023). Thanks for reading Education Is Elevation! This post is public so feel free to share it. 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

Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.I disagree with KRS-One.And I need y’all to understand how much weight that carries coming from me. KRS-One is the Master Teacher. He is the person who taught me that hip-hop was created to be in resistance to the institutional abuse known to the system. He shaped how I think about culture as a site of political education and community self-determination. So when I say I disagree with him, I’m not saying it casually. I’m saying it with the full weight of somebody who studied under his philosophy and now has to apply it in ways he apparently won’t.Because when KRS-One stood in front of a crowd and said that anybody who has a problem with Afrika Bambaataa should quit hip-hop, he wasn’t just defending a man. He was revealing a logic. And that logic is the exact same logic that has protected predators across every institution in human history — from the Catholic Church to the plantation to the halls of Congress. The logic that says: this person is too important to be held accountable. Their contribution outweighs their harm. And if you push back, you’re the problem. Not them. You.Let that marinate.Two Things Can Be TrueLet me be clear about something before we go any further. I am not here to erase Afrika Bambaataa’s contributions to hip-hop. That would be intellectually dishonest, and Research over MeSearch means we deal in the full complexity of the evidence, not just the parts that make us comfortable.Afrika Bambaataa — born Lance Taylor on April 17, 1957, in Bronx River Projects — was a foundational architect of hip-hop culture. He co-opted the Black Spades, one of the most notorious street gangs in New York City, into the Universal Zulu Nation, officially founded on November 12, 1977, making it the first hip-hop organization in history. His 1982 record “Planet Rock,” produced with Arthur Baker and the Soulsonic Force, didn’t just chart — it fundamentally altered the trajectory of electronic music, electro-rap, and dance-pop for decades. Generations of artists from Missy Elliott to City Girls drew from that well. He helped organize the 1985 anti-apartheid album Sun City alongside Bono, Run-DMC, and Keith Richards. He held a three-year visiting professorship at Cornell University. His record collection was so legendary that DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist built an entire international tour around it.That’s the receipt.But here’s the other receipt. In March 2016, Ronald Savage, a former “crate boy” who carried Bambaataa’s records to gigs, publicly alleged that Bambaataa sexually abused him in 1980 and 1981, when Savage was fifteen years old. Within days, at least three other men came forward with similar allegations — abuse dating back to the late 1970s and 1980s, involving boys as young as twelve and thirteen. By the time the dust settled, more than a dozen men had accused Bambaataa of sexual abuse of minors. In June 2016, the Universal Zulu Nation itself issued an open letter — signed by nearly three dozen members from as far away as New Zealand — apologizing to “the many people who have been hurt by the actions of Afrika Bambaataa and the subsequent poor response of our organisation.” They admitted that some members of the organization knew about the abuse and “chose not to disclose” it.In October 2021, an anonymous John Doe filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court under the New York Child Victims Act, alleging that between 1991 and 1995, when the plaintiff was twelve years old, Bambaataa repeatedly sexually abused and trafficked him to other adult men. Bambaataa never responded to the suit. He never showed up to court. In May 2025, Judge Alexander M. Tisch granted a default judgment against Bambaataa — “without opposition.”And on April 9, 2026 — five days before I’m writing this — Afrika Bambaataa died of prostate cancer in Pennsylvania at the age of sixty-eight.Two things are true. He helped build hip-hop. And he used what he built to prey on children.Both of those things are true. Feel me?The Dangerous Logic of the “Untouchable”Now let’s talk about what KRS-One actually said, because the quote is worse in context than it is in isolation.During a Q&A session in Birmingham, England, KRS-One was asked about the allegations against Bambaataa. He dismissed them as “accusations and gossip.” He said, “Show me the evidence, and I will definitely have justice done.” And then he said the part that matters most — the part that reveals the entire architecture of how abuse gets protected inside institutions.He said: “Some of us are infallible. Some of us are going to have to be untouchable or our entire culture is going to fall. Our culture cannot fall on the accusations of four people. That’s weak.”Read that again.He said “infallible.” He said “untouchable.” These are not words of caution or nuance. These are words of doctrine. This is a theological claim dressed up in hip-hop language — the claim that certain leaders exist above the possibility of accountability because their contribution to the culture renders them immune from critique. This is not a defense of due process. This is a defense of impunity.And see, it’s something about when KRS-One speaks in this particular way that shows you how we’re able to protect people in leadership, especially when we love something they created. When you love what somebody built, it becomes almost impossible to hold them accountable for what they destroyed. That’s the trap. The creation becomes the shield. And the victims become collateral damage to the narrative of greatness.That ain’t it though.The Institutional Abuse FrameworkHere’s where my training kicks in. As somebody with a master’s degree in adult education and an undergraduate degree in African and African-American studies, I need y’all to understand that what we’re looking at with Afrika Bambaataa is not an anomaly. It is a pattern. It is a structural feature of how power operates inside movements, institutions, and communities.The history of abuse by leadership within liberation movements — and the subsequent silencing of victims to preserve the movement’s image — is as old as the movements themselves. This is documented. From the sexual violence that went unaddressed within the Civil Rights Movement, to the ways women organizers were marginalized and exploited by male leadership in the Black Panther Party, to the decades of institutional child abuse covered up by the Catholic Church, to the pattern of coaches, teachers, and mentors who used their proximity to youth as a gateway to predation — the blueprint is always the same.The leader builds something people love. The leader uses that love as a shield. The institution protects the leader because the institution’s survival depends on the leader’s mythology. The victims are framed as threats to the institution rather than casualties of the leader.Every single element of that blueprint is present in the Afrika Bambaataa case. Every single one.And when KRS-One said “our culture cannot fall on the accusations of four people,” he was deploying the exact same logic that every institution has deployed to protect its abusers. He’s saying: the institution matters more than the individual. The leader matters more than the child. The culture matters more than the body of the twelve-year-old boy who was trafficked by the person who “invented” that culture.Facts over feelings.What Does It Mean to Lose a Civil Case You Didn’t Show Up For?I need y’all to sit with this one. Because when KRS-One says “no evidence, no convictions,” he’s deploying the language of the legal system — the same legal system that hip-hop was built in opposition to — as his standard for truth.First: there was a civil case. Filed in 2021. Under the New York Child Victims Act, which was specifically designed to give survivors of childhood sexual abuse a pathway to justice after statutes of limitation had expired. An anonymous plaintiff alleged repeated sexual abuse and trafficking beginning at age twelve. Bambaataa never responded. Never appeared. A judge granted default judgment against him.What does it mean to lose a civil case because you did not show up to defend yourself in court? It means the court evaluated the allegations and, in the absence of any defense, found them credible enough to rule in the plaintiff’s favor. It means the person accused of the most heinous crimes against children could not even be bothered to say “I didn’t do this” under oath. And we’re supposed to call that “no evidence”?And for the people in the back — we can always acknowledge that the legal system, the one that hip-hop was made in opposition to, was never the great adjudicator of justice. So when we talk about somebody not having a criminal conviction, it does not speak to their innocence. It speaks to the system’s inability — or unwillingness — to charge them. The statute of limitations on the criminal allegations had expired. No charges could be brought. That’s not exoneration. That’s a system failing to deliver accountability — the same system we already understand is broken.You can’t invoke the legal system’s standards when it’s convenient and reject them when it’s not. That’s not principled. That’s on brand for protecting power.The Freudian SlipThere’s a moment in KRS-One’s defense that I keep coming back to. He said: “I hope for healing for everyone involved. First for those who are accusing Afrika Bambaataa.”Why does someone who is merely “accusing” need healing? If the accusations are baseless gossip, as KRS-One claims, then the accusers don’t need healing — they need to be discredited. But KRS-One’s own language betrays him. He says “healing” because somewhere, on some level, he knows. He knows that what those boys experienced was real. And still, the defense continues.That slip tells you everything. The rhetoric says “gossip.” The subconscious says “trauma.”Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Hassan Campbell and the Sound of Unheard TraumaWhich takes me to Hassan Campbell. I know a lot of people hate him and call him goofy and think he’s the problem. But when I hear him talk and hear what he’s been through, it sounds like unheard trauma. It sounds like somebody who has been looking for healing and looking to be heard and seen since it happened to him, and he hasn’t been able to do it. So he’s wreaked havoc on anything and anybody around him.This is what unaddressed childhood sexual trauma does. It doesn’t resolve itself neatly. It doesn’t present itself in ways that are palatable to an audience that would rather look away. The behavior that people mock and dismiss in Hassan Campbell is the direct product of what was done to him. And the fact that people find it easier to ridicule his pain than to interrogate the system that caused it tells you everything about where our sympathies actually lie.We sympathize with the leader. We pathologize the victim.And see, he’s not the only one. The French hip-hop pioneer Solo of the hardcore rap group Assassin alleged in his 2024 autobiography that he was sexually victimized by Bambaataa in the 1980s at age seventeen while staying at Bambaataa’s residence. Melle Mel of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five said in a 2021 interview with DJ Vlad that “everyone knew” about the abuse, calling it “hip-hop’s best kept secret.” A former bodyguard stated that Bambaataa regularly traveled with teenage boys. The Zulu Nation itself acknowledged it.How much evidence does it take before “gossip” becomes documentation? How many boys have to carry that weight before we decide the culture can survive the truth?The Education Implications: Who Teaches Our Children, and Who Watches?Let me bring this home to education, because this is where the material impact becomes undeniable.Afrika Bambaataa held a three-year visiting professorship at Cornell University. Cornell also acquired his papers. The Universal Hip-Hop Museum — a multimillion-dollar mixed-use property in the Bronx — was initiated in part by Bambaataa, and despite claiming he had “no role” since 2016, he continued to appear in its marketing materials. Hip-hop education programs proliferate in public schools, universities, and community centers across the country. And the foundational question that this case forces us to ask is: what are the safeguarding mechanisms in place when cultural leaders gain access to young people through educational and mentorship programs?This is not abstract. This is a child protection question. When we celebrate hip-hop’s transformative educational potential — and it is transformative — we must simultaneously build the institutional structures that prevent leaders from exploiting that access. The Bambaataa case is a case study in what happens when mentorship pipelines have no oversight, no accountability mechanisms, and a culture that treats leaders as infallible. It is what happens when the proximity that mentorship requires becomes the proximity that predation exploits.Every hip-hop education program, every youth arts initiative, every after-school program that invokes the culture needs to reckon with this. Not by abandoning hip-hop as an educational tool — that would be absurd. But by building into those programs the exact safeguarding protocols that the Universal Zulu Nation never had. Background checks. Mandatory reporting training. Transparent governance. The understanding that no leader — no matter how foundational — is above accountability. Because the moment you declare someone untouchable, you’ve built the architecture for abuse.Intersectional Material Impacts: Race, Gender, Sexuality, and the Disposability of Black BoysLet’s talk about who the victims were. Because they weren’t random. They were Black boys. Specifically, they were Black boys from the South Bronx — one of the poorest, most marginalized communities in America. They were boys who loved hip-hop. Boys who were looking for mentorship, community, and a sense of belonging. Boys whose vulnerability was a function of their race, their age, their class, and their geography.The sexual abuse of Black boys is one of the most underreported, under-discussed, and under-resourced categories of violence in America. Black boys who experience sexual abuse are less likely to disclose, less likely to be believed when they do, and less likely to receive appropriate therapeutic intervention. The intersections of anti-Black racism, toxic masculinity, and heteronormative expectations of Black male identity conspire to create a silence so thick you could choke on it.When KRS-One dismissed those boys’ experiences as “gossip,” he was participating in a tradition far older than hip-hop. The tradition of treating Black boys’ bodies as expendable in service to the larger project. The tradition that says Black male pain — particularly sexual pain — is not legible, not worthy of investigation, not important enough to disrupt the mythology of Black male greatness. Saidiya Hartman calls this the afterlife of slavery — the ways in which Black bodies remain fungible, available for use, disposable after the fact. Frank Wilderson would call it gratuitous violence — violence that doesn’t need a reason because the target was never considered fully human to begin with.The boys Bambaataa allegedly abused were fungible. They were raw material for the culture’s origin story. And when they spoke up, they were told to quit hip-hop.Can We Love Hip-Hop and Still Protect Our Children?So my question to people who love hip-hop, especially those who look like me: Can we love and have pride in the culture of hip-hop while also being critical of the individuals who cultivated the culture for their violence and their impact on our community? Can we?I believe we can. I believe we have to. Because the alternative — the KRS-One alternative — is a culture that eats its own children to preserve the image of its founders. And that is not a culture worth preserving. That is a plantation.The ugly truth is that a lot of the boys who were abused by Afrika Bambaataa also loved hip-hop. That’s the reason they were abused — because he used their love for hip-hop to prey on them. Almost sounds like what KRS-One is saying is the same thing Bambaataa felt, and that’s the reason he felt so enabled to do the things he did for so long. He understood he was insulated by a whole community of defense. His leadership made it where he was immune to accountability and responsibility. How dare you accuse him — the leader, the cultivator of hip-hop — of such things.If we believe that holding abusers of children accountable would bring down the culture or the system, what does it say about the culture and the system?When y’all ask why it took so long for the victims to come out — what you saw with KRS-One was the illustration. They weren’t going to be believed. All anyone was going to do was chastise them and tell them the leadership is untouchable, infallible. We gotta protect it at all costs. Right or wrong, true or false.How can we in hip-hop protect the very children that we’re supposed to be protecting and cultivating within the culture?The answer starts with the willingness to say what KRS-One couldn’t: no one is untouchable. No contribution is large enough to render a child’s body disposable. No culture that requires the silence of abuse victims to survive deserves to survive in its current form.Education is elevation. And the first lesson is that accountability is not the enemy of culture. It is the precondition for any culture worth having.EXPLICIT ASK TO BE A EDUCATION IS ELEVATION PAID SUBSCRIBERI’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education 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.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.5 KEY TAKEAWAYS* Two truths coexist. Afrika Bambaataa was a foundational architect of hip-hop culture who transformed the Bronx and influenced music globally. He also used his position to sexually abuse minors over decades — a reality confirmed by more than a dozen accusers, a Zulu Nation apology letter, and a civil court default judgment.* KRS-One’s “untouchable” logic is the blueprint for institutional abuse. Declaring a leader infallible and above accountability is not loyalty — it is the exact mechanism that protects predators across every institution, from the Catholic Church to political movements to sports programs.* The legal system is not the measure of truth. The absence of criminal charges reflects expired statutes of limitation, not innocence. Bambaataa lost a civil case by failing to show up. Invoking “no convictions” while simultaneously rejecting the legal system’s legitimacy is intellectually dishonest.* Black boys are among the most invisible survivors of sexual violence. The intersection of anti-Black racism, masculinity norms, and cultural loyalty creates a silence that compounds trauma. The dismissal of victims as “goofy” or “gossip” is a material continuation of that violence.* Hip-hop education requires institutional safeguards. If hip-hop is powerful enough to transform communities and educate youth, then the programs that carry it into schools and neighborhoods must include accountability structures — background checks, mandatory reporting, transparent governance — that prevent mentorship from becoming exploitation.ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY / RELATED READINGS* Hartman, Saidiya. Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America (Oxford University Press, 1997). Essential framework for understanding how Black bodies are rendered fungible and available for use — directly applicable to how Bambaataa’s victims were treated as disposable within hip-hop’s origin mythology.* Wilderson III, Frank B. Red, White & Black: Cinema and the Structure of U.S. Antagonisms (Duke University Press, 2010). Provides the Afropessimist lens on gratuitous violence — violence against Black bodies that requires no justification because it operates within a structure of ontological negation.* Chang, Jeff. Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation (St. Martin’s Press, 2005). The definitive cultural history of hip-hop’s origins in the South Bronx, including the transformation of gang culture into the Universal Zulu Nation — essential context for understanding the institutional architecture Bambaataa built and exploited.* Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (Pantheon Books, 1977). The panopticon framework for understanding surveillance, power, and institutional control — applicable to how Bambaataa’s leadership position created a structure of visibility and vulnerability for the boys in his orbit.* Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Herder and Herder, 1970). The foundational text on education as liberation — and the ways in which educational relationships can be co-opted by oppressive power dynamics. Directly relevant to the question of safeguarding youth in hip-hop education programs.* Davis, Angela Y. Women, Race & Class (Random House, 1981). Critical for understanding the intersection of race, gender, and sexual violence within liberation movements, and the historical pattern of silencing survivors to protect organizational leadership.* hooks, bell. We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity (Routledge, 2004). Examines the crisis of Black masculinity and the cultural forces that make it difficult for Black boys and men to name, claim, and heal from sexual violence.* Patton, Desmond Upton, et al. “Gang Violence, Trauma and the Therapeutic Relationship: Treating Gang-Involved Youth in a Community Mental Health Context.” Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 22:7, 2013. Research on trauma among youth in gang-affiliated communities — directly applicable to the Zulu Nation context where boys were abused within an organization that was itself a response to gang violence.* Rolling Stone. “Afrika Bambaataa Loses Child Sexual Abuse Civil Case on Default Judgment.” May 22, 2025. Primary source reporting on the civil case and its outcome, including the timeline of allegations from 2016 to 2025.* The Universal Zulu Nation. “Open Letter of Apology.” June 2016. Signed by nearly three dozen members acknowledging the organization’s failure to address Bambaataa’s abuse — a primary document of institutional complicity.Thanks for reading Education Is Elevation! This post is public so feel free to share it. 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

Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.I need y’all to sit with some numbers for a second. Not opinions. Not feelings. Numbers.In 2025, Fox News ran over 4,000 headlines sensationalizing transgender visibility. In that same year, they mentioned the Epstein files roughly 610 times. That’s nearly five times more coverage dedicated to a manufactured moral panic about trans people than to the exposure of one of the most sprawling child sex trafficking networks in modern American history. Let me say that again so it sits in your chest the way it should: a major American news network chose to spotlight transgender people — who appear in zero Epstein documents — at five times the rate they covered a convicted child predator’s files implicating some of the most powerful people on the planet.This is not an accident. This is architecture.The Graph They Don’t Want You to ReadI put a graph behind me during the video because I believe in showing you the receipts. Research over MeSearch. That graph illustrates a deliberate editorial decision — not a reflection of what matters to the American public, but a reflection of what Fox News needs you to not pay attention to. When you zoom out and look at the data, the pattern is unmistakable. Fox News didn’t just undercover the Epstein files. According to Media Matters, in the weeks following the Department of Justice’s massive January 2026 document dump — we’re talking millions of pages — Fox mentioned Epstein only 239 times over two weeks. In the same window, CNN logged 2,304 mentions. MSNBC hit 3,321. Even Newsmax — Newsmax! — managed 1,464 mentions. Fox News, the network that had spent years demanding the Epstein files be released, went functionally silent once those files started naming people in Trump’s orbit.Meanwhile, researcher Jessica Kant documented that Fox News published more articles referencing the trans community in 2025 than any other news outlet in the entire country — conservative or progressive. More than The Advocate. More than The Washington Post. More than The New York Times. Fox News produced more anti-trans content in a single year than there are days in a year. This isn’t journalism. This is what Stanley Cohen called a moral panic — the deliberate construction of a folk devil to redirect public fear away from the people actually doing harm.The Anatomy of a Manufactured VillainLet me walk you through how this works, because if you understand the playbook, you can never be played by it again.Stanley Cohen coined the term “moral panic” in 1972. He defined it as a moment when a group of people is elevated into a perceived existential threat to society — not because of anything they’ve actually done, but because powerful institutions need a villain. The process has five stages: concern is manufactured, hostility is directed, consensus is engineered, disproportionality is the feature (not the bug), and then the panic either fades or becomes permanent policy. Sound familiar?In 2020, there were roughly 100 anti-LGBTQ bills filed across the country, most of them narrowly targeting sports participation. By 2025, that number exploded past 850 — the most in United States history. Of those, 867 bills specifically targeted transgender Americans. One hundred and twenty-two would ban gender-affirming care. Seventy-seven would restrict bathroom access. Seventy-three sought to eliminate legal recognition of transgender people entirely — revoking driver’s licenses, stripping gender markers, invalidating identity documents. Some bills proposed classifying a parent’s support of their trans child as child abuse, opening the door for state-sanctioned family separation.Not a single transgender person appears in the Epstein files. Not one.But over 5,300 files in the January 2026 DOJ release contained more than 38,000 references to Donald Trump, his wife, his Mar-a-Lago club, and related terms. The files revealed ongoing communication between Epstein and Steve Bannon. They contradicted Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s public claims about the extent of his relationship with Epstein. They included an email in which Epstein told Ghislaine Maxwell that Trump knew about the victims.So ask yourself: who is the actual threat to children in this story? The trans woman trying to use a bathroom in peace, or the network of wealthy men whose names keep showing up in a dead predator’s files?The Oldest Trick in the BookThis is not new. This is, in fact, one of the oldest mechanisms of power in human history. Scholar Ben Debney calls it “panic-driven scapegoating” — the strategic construction of bogeymen to protect elite privilege during periods of crisis. The formula is ancient: identify a marginalized group, inflate a threat narrative around them, saturate media with that narrative, pass legislation to codify the fear, and while everyone is watching the folk devil, the people in power consolidate theirs.The Red Scare did this with communists. The War on Drugs did this with Black communities. The satanic panic of the 1980s did this with daycare workers. The “super predator” myth of the 1990s — championed by politicians on both sides of the aisle — did this with Black children, turning them into monsters in the public imagination to justify mass incarceration policies that devastated an entire generation.And now, in 2025, transgender Americans have been cast as the folk devil of this political moment. Not because they pose any measurable threat to public safety — the data is unambiguous on this point — but because their visibility coincides with a period in which powerful people need the public looking anywhere else.Stuart Hall wrote about this in Policing the Crisis back in 1978. He argued that crime statistics are routinely manipulated for political and economic purposes, and that moral panics are deliberately ignited to create public support for authoritarian responses. Hall was talking about mugging in Britain, but the framework maps perfectly onto what we’re watching today. The trans moral panic isn’t about bathrooms. It isn’t about sports. It isn’t about children. It’s about manufacturing consent for a surveillance state that monitors bodies, controls identity, and punishes deviance — while the actual predators walk free.Victimization Is When You Build the Narrative for Your Own AbuseI said something in the video that I want to expand on here, because it’s the key that unlocks this entire apparatus: victimization is when you create an entire narrative for you to be abused by. That’s what this media ecosystem does. It constructs a reality in which the most vulnerable people in society — trans folks, queer folks, Black folks, immigrants — are presented as the aggressors, and the most powerful people in the world are presented as the victims of some vague cultural assault.Fox News didn’t just fail to cover the Epstein files proportionally. They actively worked to cushion the political fallout. When Attorney General Pam Bondi’s initial “Phase One” rollout of Epstein documents was widely criticized as inadequate, Fox’s on-air personalities blamed the deep state. When the files started implicating people close to Trump, the network pivoted to relitigating Russiagate. When House Democrats released emails specifically referencing Trump’s knowledge of Epstein’s victims, Fox News was silent for hours. Host Greg Gutfeld went on air and warned viewers that future Epstein releases would be “distorted.” Jesse Watters — the same man who once asked on camera, “Who protects a dead pedophile when children are raped?” — began deflecting and dismissing the story entirely.This is what manufactured consent looks like in real time. This is what Noam Chomsky was describing when he outlined the propaganda model of media. The coverage gap between trans panic and Epstein accountability isn’t a journalistic oversight. It is an editorial policy designed to protect a class of people who benefit from your distraction.The Numbers Behind the SilenceLet me give you one more set of numbers, because this is Education is Elevation and we believe in data.A December 2025 Reuters poll found that only 23% of Americans approved of Trump’s handling of the Epstein case. A January 2026 CNN poll found that 49% of Americans were dissatisfied with how much of the files the government had released. Two-thirds of respondents believed the government was deliberately withholding information. When Attorney General Bondi initially told Fox News in February 2025 that the Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review,” the public expected transparency. By July 2025, the DOJ released a two-page memo claiming no client list existed, no credible evidence of blackmail was found, and Epstein died by suicide. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times subsequently reported that Bondi had informed Trump in May that his name appeared in the files alongside what officials described as “unverified hearsay” — and that advisors had recommended against public disclosure.Trump called the files falsified and filed a defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal.Meanwhile, in state legislatures across the country, lawmakers were filing their 850th anti-LGBTQ bill. The ACLU documented that attacks on transgender people grew “exponentially” between 2023 and 2025. Research linked these legislative attacks to a 72% increase in suicide attempts in some states. The CDC reported that one in four transgender youth had attempted to take their own life in the last year.So who is actually under threat? And whose safety is actually being prioritized by this media ecosystem?Consciousness Precedes TransformationHere’s what I need y’all to understand — and this is the throughline of everything I do on this platform. You cannot fight a system you do not see. Consciousness precedes transformation. If you cannot name the mechanism, you cannot dismantle it. And the mechanism here is as clear as it has ever been: moral panic is the weapon, media is the delivery system, and legislation is the payload.Trans people are not destroying your healthcare system. Trans people did not invade any country. Trans people are not the reason you can’t afford education. The Epstein files — the actual documents — implicate wealthy, powerful men who trafficked children. And the network that ran five times more headlines about trans people than about those files made a calculated decision about what you should and shouldn’t be outraged about.Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And once you can’t unsee it, you have a responsibility to say something.EXPLICIT ASK TO BECOME A PAID SUBSCRIBERI’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education 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.Think about what we just walked through together. A billion-dollar news network is spending its airtime constructing folk devils out of trans people so you don’t ask questions about convicted child predators. The histories that explain how and why they do this — moral panic theory, propaganda models, the political economy of scapegoating — are being systematically defunded and removed from public education. This Substack is the counter-curriculum.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.5 KEY TAKEAWAYS* The coverage gap is the story. Fox News ran approximately 5x more headlines on transgender people than on the Epstein files in 2025. This is not journalistic proportionality — it is a deliberate editorial strategy to redirect public attention away from powerful individuals implicated in child sex trafficking toward a marginalized community that appears in zero Epstein documents.* Moral panic is a technology of power, not a spontaneous public reaction. From the Red Scare to the War on Drugs to the current anti-trans legislative surge, the construction of folk devils follows a documented, repeatable pattern identified by sociologists going back to 1972. Recognizing this pattern is the first step to resisting it.* The legislative consequences are measurable and devastating. Over 850 anti-LGBTQ bills were filed in 2025 — the most in U.S. history. Research has linked this legislative environment to a 72% increase in suicide attempts among trans youth in some states. Meanwhile, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, passed in November 2025, has been met with heavy redaction, staggered releases, and bipartisan criticism of the DOJ’s noncompliance.* Fox News’ silence on Epstein is as revealing as its obsession with trans people. When the DOJ released millions of pages of Epstein files in early 2026, Fox mentioned the story 239 times in two weeks — compared to CNN’s 2,304, MSNBC’s 3,321, and even Newsmax’s 1,464. The network that had demanded the files’ release for years went functionally silent once the documents implicated figures in its political ecosystem.* Consciousness precedes transformation. You cannot dismantle a system you cannot name. The mechanism at work — moral panic as a tool of manufactured consent — has been documented by scholars from Stanley Cohen to Stuart Hall to Noam Chomsky. Understanding the playbook is the prerequisite for resisting it. Education is elevation.ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY & RELATED READINGS* Cohen, Stanley. Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers. London: MacGibbon and Kee, 1972. — The foundational text on moral panic theory. Cohen defines the five-stage process by which societies construct perceived threats from marginalized groups, providing the theoretical framework for understanding how trans Americans have been cast as folk devils in contemporary media.* Hall, Stuart, Chas Critcher, Tony Jefferson, John Clarke, and Brian Roberts. Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order. London: Macmillan, 1978. — Hall and colleagues demonstrate how crime statistics are manipulated for political ends and how moral panics are ignited to justify authoritarian state responses. Essential for understanding the relationship between media coverage disparities and policy outcomes.* Chomsky, Noam, and Edward S. Herman. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon Books, 1988. — Outlines the propaganda model of media, demonstrating how corporate ownership, advertising dependence, and source selection systematically filter information to serve elite interests. Directly applicable to understanding Fox News’ editorial choices around Epstein versus trans coverage.* Debney, Ben. The Oldest Trick in the Book: Panic-Driven Scapegoating in History and Recurring Patterns of Persecution. Singapore: Springer Nature, 2020. — Traces panic-driven scapegoating across centuries, establishing a five-stage model of how elites construct bogeymen to protect privilege during periods of crisis. Debney argues this mechanism is one of the primary ways history repeats itself.* Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press, 2010. — Documents how the War on Drugs functioned as a racial caste system, using moral panic about crack cocaine to justify mass incarceration of Black Americans. Provides historical precedent for understanding how manufactured fear translates into discriminatory legislation.* Goode, Erich, and Nachman Ben-Yehuda. Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994. — Expands Cohen’s framework to identify five key indicators of moral panic: concern, hostility, consensus, disproportionality, and volatility. Essential for evaluating the current anti-trans legislative surge against objective threat assessments.* Erin Reed / Erin In The Morning. “Over 850 Anti-LGBTQ+ Bills Filed in 2025; Most in History.” April 2025. — Primary data source documenting the unprecedented volume of anti-trans legislation. Reed’s legislative tracker provides the empirical foundation for understanding the legislative dimension of the current moral panic.* Media Matters for America. “Compared to Other Cable News Channels, Fox News Is Hiding the Latest Epstein Revelations from Their Audience.” February 2026. — Quantifies Fox News’ coverage gap on the Epstein files, documenting 239 mentions over two weeks compared to CNN’s 2,304 and MSNBC’s 3,321. Provides the empirical basis for the media analysis in this article.* Kant, Jessica. Research on Anti-Trans News Coverage, 2023–2026. Reported in PinkNews, February 2026. — Longitudinal data tracking Fox News’ anti-trans article output, documenting that the outlet produced more articles referencing the trans community than any other publication in 2025, exceeding one article per day for nearly four consecutive years.* Freedom House. “To Find an Authoritarian, Just Follow the Scapegoat.” 2018. — Argues that scapegoating of marginalized groups — particularly LGBTQ communities — is a hallmark of authoritarian governance globally, functioning to distract from governance failures, bolster support, and isolate domestic opponents.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

Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Let me tell y’all about the city of Festus, Missouri, because this story right here is the blueprint.The residents of Festus told their city council — clearly, explicitly, on the record — that they did not want a data center built in their community. The council ignored them. Voted to approve it anyway. So the people of Festus did what democracy is supposed to let you do. They voted out every single council member who approved that data center. Every. Single. One. Lost their job. That’s accountability from micro to macro, and that’s the energy we need to be studying right now, because what’s happening with data centers in this country is one of the most underreported environmental justice crises of our generation.And I need y’all to understand why those folks in Festus were so adamant, because this isn’t about being anti-technology. This is about understanding what these facilities actually do to the communities that have to live next to them.The Numbers Don’t LieHere’s the fact that should stop every single one of us in our tracks: all data centers worldwide, combined, now consume 32% more electricity than the entire nation of Great Britain. Let that marinate. We’re talking about server farms — buildings full of machines — using more power than a country of nearly 70 million people. And that matters because power generation is already the single largest source of CO2 emissions on the planet. Every time that energy demand climbs, so do the emissions. So do the health consequences. So does the suffering in the communities closest to the plants generating that power.And it gets worse. A single Google data center — one facility — consumes approximately half a million gallons of water per day. Per day. In a country where Flint, Michigan went years without clean water. In a country where Jackson, Mississippi’s water system collapsed. In a country where Black communities from the rural South to the urban Midwest have been fighting for decades just to get water that won’t poison them. Big Tech is draining aquifers to cool servers so somebody can ask ChatGPT to write a poem.The cooling systems alone in these data centers account for over 40% of their total electricity usage. So not only are they consuming massive amounts of power, a near-majority of that power is just keeping the machines from overheating. That’s the part nobody in Silicon Valley wants to put in the press release. They’ll tell you about the jobs. They’ll tell you about the tax revenue. They won’t tell you about the 40% energy overhead just to manage the heat their own infrastructure produces.Environmental Racism Has a New AddressNow here’s where I need y’all to really lock in, because this isn’t just an environmental story. This is a race story. It’s always been a race story.The pattern of where data centers get built follows the exact same cartography of disinvestment and disposability that has defined Black life in America since Reconstruction. Robert Bullard — the father of environmental justice — documented this architecture of harm back in 1990 in Dumping in Dixie. He showed how hazardous waste facilities, landfills, chemical plants, and polluting industries were systematically sited in Black communities. Not by accident. By design. Because those communities had been politically weakened by decades of disenfranchisement, economically hollowed out by redlining and capital flight, and socially rendered invisible by a media ecosystem that didn’t care what happened south of the highway.That was the playbook then. The playbook hasn’t changed. The product has. Instead of a petrochemical plant, it’s a data center. Instead of toxic sludge, it’s diesel exhaust from backup generators and the constant hum of industrial cooling systems. But the targeting logic is identical: find the community with the least political power, the fewest resources to fight back, and the lowest likelihood of making the evening news.Look at what happened in Prince William County, Virginia — one of the largest data center corridors in the world. The communities adjacent to those facilities have documented persistent noise pollution, diesel emissions from backup generators, and strain on local water and electrical infrastructure. When residents pushed back, they ran into the same wall communities of color always run into: the economic development narrative. The jobs argument. The tax base argument. The same arguments that were used to justify putting a highway through the middle of Black Bottom in Detroit, or a garbage incinerator next to public housing in Chester, Pennsylvania.And let’s talk about those backup generators, because this is the health piece that is getting buried. Diesel exhaust from data center backup generators contains fine particulate matter — PM2.5 — that embeds itself in your lungs and enters your bloodstream. We’re talking about documented pathways to heart disease, lung disease, stroke, and premature death. The American Lung Association has been clear on this. The EPA has been clear on this. The science is not in dispute. What’s in dispute is whether anyone in power cares enough to act on it when the people breathing that air are Black and brown.The Historical PlaybookIf you understand the history of environmental racism in this country, none of this surprises you. It follows a lineage that is as American as the Constitution itself.In 1982, residents of Warren County, North Carolina — a predominantly Black community — fought against the state’s decision to dump 6,000 truckloads of soil contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls in their backyard. That protest, which saw over 500 arrests including Dr. Benjamin Chavis and Congressman Walter Fauntroy, is widely recognized as the birth of the environmental justice movement. The community lost that particular fight — the landfill was built — but the resistance catalyzed a national reckoning that led directly to the landmark 1987 United Church of Christ study, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States, which proved empirically what Black folks already knew: race was the single most significant predictor of where hazardous waste facilities were located. Not income. Not land value. Race.President Clinton signed Executive Order 12898 in 1994, directing federal agencies to address environmental justice in minority and low-income populations. But executive orders are only as durable as the administration that issues them. The enforcement mechanisms have been gutted, restored, and gutted again depending on which party holds the White House. Meanwhile, the facilities keep getting built. The permits keep getting approved. The pattern keeps reproducing itself with new technology and the same old geography.The data center boom is just the latest iteration of what Dorceta Taylor calls “the environmental justice framework” — the systematic distribution of environmental hazards along racial and socioeconomic lines. Taylor documented in Toxic Communities how zoning laws, land use decisions, and permitting processes function as mechanisms of racial sorting, ensuring that the communities least equipped to resist are the ones most likely to bear the burden.The Water Crisis Within the CrisisI want to come back to the water piece because I don’t think people fully grasp the scale of what’s happening.When a data center consumes half a million gallons of water a day, that water is being drawn from the same municipal systems and aquifers that serve residential communities. In regions already experiencing drought or water stress — and climate change is making that an expanding category every year — data center water consumption directly competes with household water needs. This isn’t theoretical. This is happening right now in places like Mesa, Arizona, where residents have raised alarms about data center water permits being approved while the state faces historic drought conditions along the Colorado River Basin.And here’s the structural piece that ties it all together: the communities most vulnerable to water scarcity are, once again, disproportionately communities of color. The water infrastructure crisis in this country — from Flint to Jackson to the Navajo Nation — maps onto the same racial geography as everything else we’ve been talking about. So when a data center moves into a water-stressed region and starts consuming hundreds of thousands of gallons a day, it’s not an equal-opportunity extraction. It deepens existing inequities that were already shaped by decades of racialized disinvestment.Communities Fighting BackBut here’s what I want to leave y’all with, because the story of environmental racism in America has never been just a story of victimization. It has always, simultaneously, been a story of resistance.Festus, Missouri is one example. But it’s not the only one. Across the country, communities are organizing against data center expansion using every tool available — from municipal elections to zoning board challenges to state-level legislative advocacy.In Virginia, grassroots coalitions have pushed for stricter noise ordinances and emissions standards for data center facilities. In Georgia, community organizers have demanded environmental impact assessments before new data center permits are approved. In Oregon, environmental groups have challenged the water permits granted to large tech companies. These fights are happening in real time, and they are being led, disproportionately, by the same communities that have always been on the front lines of environmental justice: Black communities, Indigenous communities, working-class communities that understand what it means to have your health and your resources sacrificed on the altar of someone else’s profit.The playbook that Festus used — direct electoral accountability — is one of the most powerful tools available. When elected officials understand that approving a facility the community doesn’t want will cost them their seat, the calculus changes. That’s democracy doing what democracy is supposed to do. And it shouldn’t take an extraordinary act of civic mobilization to make that happen, but in this country, for communities of color, it always has.Policy That MattersThere are real policy interventions that could change the trajectory of this crisis. The EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice needs to be empowered — not just funded, but empowered with enforceable regulatory authority — to review data center siting decisions through an equity lens. The National Environmental Policy Act should require comprehensive environmental impact statements for any data center above a certain energy or water consumption threshold. State legislatures need to pass legislation mandating that data center developers conduct community health impact assessments and make those assessments public before a single permit is approved.At the federal level, the Justice40 initiative — which commits to delivering 40% of the benefits of certain federal investments to disadvantaged communities — should be expanded to include data center infrastructure oversight. If the government is going to incentivize the construction of these facilities through tax breaks and infrastructure spending, then the communities bearing the environmental and health costs need to be at the table, not as an afterthought, but as the first voice heard.And the tech companies themselves need to be held to account. The same corporations posting net-zero pledges and ESG reports are the ones building facilities that consume more electricity than entire nations. Facts over feelings — if your sustainability report says one thing and your energy consumption says another, the community has a right to call that what it is.The Bigger FrameThis is what I mean when I say education is elevation. Understanding the data center crisis isn’t just about understanding technology or environmental science. It’s about understanding how power operates in this country. It’s about understanding that the same logic that put a chemical plant in Cancer Alley puts a server farm in a water-stressed Black community in the South. It’s about understanding that the systems we’re told are neutral — zoning laws, permitting processes, economic development incentives — are, in fact, operating exactly as they were designed to operate: to distribute risk downward and profit upward along racial lines.The people of Festus understood that. They didn’t need a policy briefing or an academic lecture. They understood it because they live it. And they acted. That’s the model. That’s what fighting back looks like at the local level. From micro to macro, that’s how we get accountability with these folks.Research over MeSearch. Facts over feelings. Feel me?EXPLICIT ASK TO BECOME PAID SUBSCRIBER I’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education 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.This article — tracing the line from Warren County to Festus, from Cancer Alley to Data Center Alley, from Robert Bullard’s research to the backup generator running next to someone’s home right now — is the kind of work that doesn’t get funded by the same corporations building those data centers. It gets funded by you. Every paid subscription keeps this work independent, rigorous, and accountable to the community, not to advertisers or algorithms.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.5 Key Takeaways1. Data centers are an environmental justice crisis hiding in plain sight. These facilities consume more electricity than entire nations, drain hundreds of thousands of gallons of water per day, and emit diesel exhaust from backup generators that causes heart disease, lung disease, and stroke — and they are disproportionately sited near communities of color.2. The siting of data centers follows the exact same racial geography as every other environmental hazard in American history. From toxic waste dumps to petrochemical corridors, the pattern documented by Robert Bullard in 1990 holds: race is the primary predictor of who lives next to industrial harm. Data centers are the latest product in a centuries-old playbook.3. Festus, Missouri proved that local electoral accountability works. When every council member who voted for a data center the community opposed was voted out of office, it demonstrated the most direct and replicable form of community power — making elected officials pay a political price for ignoring the people they serve.4. The regulatory framework is decades behind the technology. Data centers operate in a gray zone — consuming energy and water at industrial scale while being regulated as commercial buildings. Without mandatory environmental and health impact assessments, communities have no formal mechanism to evaluate what’s being imposed on them.5. Environmental justice has always been, and remains, a racial justice issue. From Warren County in 1982 to Data Center Alley in 2026, the distribution of environmental harm in America is inseparable from the distribution of racial power. Understanding that connection is the first step toward changing it.Bibliography / Related ReadingsBullard, Robert D. Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality. Westview Press, 1990. The foundational text of environmental justice scholarship. Bullard documents the systematic siting of hazardous waste facilities in Black communities across the American South, establishing that race — not income — is the primary predictor of environmental hazard proximity.Taylor, Dorceta E. Toxic Communities: Environmental Racism, Industrial Pollution, and Residential Mobility. NYU Press, 2014. Taylor expands the environmental justice framework to examine how zoning laws, land use decisions, and permitting processes function as mechanisms of racial sorting, producing disproportionate environmental burden for communities of color.Rothstein, Richard. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. Liveright, 2017. Essential for understanding how federal, state, and local government policies — including zoning — created and maintained residential segregation. Provides the legal and historical context for understanding why data centers are sited where they are.United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice. Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States. 1987. The landmark report that provided the first national empirical evidence that race was the strongest predictor of hazardous waste facility siting in the United States. A foundational document of the environmental justice movement.Rodney, Walter. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Bogle-L’Ouverture Publications, 1972. Rodney’s analysis of the extractive relationship between Europe and Africa provides the framework for understanding the global dimension of data center expansion — how technological infrastructure reproduces colonial patterns of resource extraction.Robinson, Cedric J. Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. University of North Carolina Press, 1983. Robinson’s concept of racial capitalism — the idea that capitalism has always been organized through racial hierarchy — is essential for understanding why the data center economy distributes its benefits and burdens along racial lines.Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. Grove Press, 1961. Fanon’s analysis of how colonial infrastructure is repurposed under neocolonial conditions provides theoretical grounding for understanding data center expansion in the Global South as a continuation of extractive logics.Sze, Julie. Noxious New York: The Racial Politics of Urban Health and Environmental Justice. MIT Press, 2007. Sze examines how environmental racism operates in urban contexts — relevant for understanding how data center siting in metropolitan areas follows the same political dynamics that have concentrated environmental harm in communities of color.Pulido, Laura. “Rethinking Environmental Racism: White Privilege and Urban Development in Southern California.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 90, no. 1 (2000): 12-40. Pulido’s influential article argues that environmental racism must be understood not just through intentional siting decisions but through the structural dynamics of white privilege and urban development — a framework directly applicable to data center corridors.International Energy Agency. “Data Centres and Data Transmission Networks.” IEA Energy System Reports (updated annually). The authoritative source for data on global data center energy consumption, providing the empirical foundation for claims about electricity usage relative to national consumption levels.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

Thank you Reda Rountree (she/her), Margie, Millie Jones-Cowles, Allie, Jennifer Jones, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.I need y’all to sit with something for a minute. Really sit with it. Because what I’m about to lay out is not just history. It’s a blueprint. It’s a pattern that connects the destruction of Greenwood in 1921 to the murder of Terrence Crutcher in 2016 to the bombs dropping on Iran right now. And if you can’t see the thread, I need you to stay with me, because by the end of this, you will.I recently had a conversation with Attorney DeMario Solomon-Simmons — a national civil rights attorney who has been representing survivors and descendants of the Tulsa Race Massacre for almost 30 years. His wife is a descendant. He’s Muscogee Creek. He played football at the University of Oklahoma, got three degrees from OU just like I did. And let me tell y’all — when this brother speaks, he’s not giving opinions. He’s giving receipts. The kind of receipts that hold up in federal court.And the first receipt he dropped changed how I understood the entire story.Before There Was a Massacre, There Was a Freedom Mind StateSee, most people want to start the Tulsa Race Massacre story at Dick Rowland and the elevator. That ain’t it though. You can’t understand why Greenwood was destroyed if you don’t understand why Greenwood existed. And the story of why Greenwood existed goes back almost a hundred years before the massacre even happened.Before Oklahoma became a state in 1907, it was Indian Territory. We’re talking about the 1830s, when the United States forcibly removed the five southeastern tribes — Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole, Cherokee, and Muscogee Creek — and marched them along what we know as the Trail of Tears. But here’s what a lot of people don’t realize: a significant portion of those on the Trail of Tears were Black. They were enslaved by those nations, and they looked like you and me. Attorney Solomon-Simmons’ own ancestor, Cal Tom, was on that trail.When the Civil War ended and enslavement ended within those nations, something extraordinary happened. Black people in Indian Territory were living free and independent for fifty years before Oklahoma even became a state. Fifty years. While Black folks in Mississippi and Alabama and across the South were looking for a place to be free — going to Mexico, going to Canada, going back to Africa, going to the Caribbean — the promised land was right there in Indian Territory. Because there were already free Black people there. Already Black towns. Already infrastructure.Oklahoma had the most all-Black towns in the history of this country. Boley. Tatum. Redbird. Summit. And all of those Black towns fed into the big city. Greenwood was the metropolis. Attorney Solomon-Simmons put it like this: in New York, they call Manhattan “the city.” Well, Greenwood was the city for all those Black towns.And here’s where the pattern starts.Tulsa Was the Oil Capital of the World. Let That Marinate.At the time, Tulsa was the oil capital of the world. I said it. The oil capital of the world. And a lot of that oil money, a lot of that land, was possessed by Black people. So now you’ve got this collision: a freedom mind state Black community, more Black millionaires per capita than any other place in the history of this nation, more Black professionals per capita than anywhere in the country — and then statehood arrives in 1907 and brings white supremacy with it.The very first law of the state of Oklahoma? Senate Bill 1. Segregated railroad cars and phone booths. The first law. Not infrastructure. Not commerce. Segregation. Jim Crow became the founding principle of the state.So you’ve got free, independent, wealthy Black folks who’ve been building for half a century, and now you’ve got a state apparatus designed to subjugate them. That tension — between Black freedom and white supremacist governance — is what produced the massacre.Y’all starting to hear the pattern?The Dick Rowland Story Was the Spark. The Land Was the Motive.In 1921, a nineteen-year-old Black shoeshine boy named Dick Rowland got on an elevator with a white elevator operator named Sarah Page. We don’t actually know what happened. But the allegation was that he tried to assault her. They arrested him, took him downtown, and a white mob formed calling to lynch him.And this is where the story of Greenwood becomes the story of love. Because about a hundred of the richest, most powerful Black men in the community — not just in Tulsa, but in the nation — many of them World War I veterans, strapped up with their military training and their weapons, and went downtown to protect Dick Rowland’s life.He wasn’t rich. He didn’t own businesses or land. He was a shoeshine boy. But he was one of theirs. That’s community love. That’s one of the five Think Greenwood Principles. It didn’t matter that Dick Rowland didn’t have wealth. What mattered was that no Black man was going to be lynched on their watch.A hundred brothers went downtown and faced a mob of 1,500 to 2,000 whites. They went to the sheriff and said they were there to help protect Rowland. The sheriff told them to leave. They stayed. And as they were walking away from the courthouse, an old white man in the mob said to what we believe was O.B. Mann, a World War I veteran: “Nigga, what you going to do with that gun?” And O.B. Mann said: “I’m going to use it if I have to.”That white man tried to take the gun. The gun went off. And all hell broke loose.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.36 Hours. 25,000 Attackers. And the City Gave Them a License to Kill.The Black men retreated back across the train tracks into Greenwood and set up defensive perimeters. And this is the part of the story that doesn’t get told enough. These brothers fought. Many of them had World War I military training, and they held off the mob for over twelve hours. The first twelve hours? Greenwood was winning.But here’s where the state enters the picture. The mob of about 2,000 whites was deputized by the city of Tulsa. They weren’t just given permission. They were armed by the city. Walter White — not the TV character, the NAACP executive who happened to be in Tulsa investigating a separate lynching — this brother looked like a white man. So he went and got himself deputized with the mob to document what was happening. He later wrote about it in The Nation magazine. He said when he was deputized, a white man turned to him and said: “Now I can kill any nigga I want and the law is behind me.”The receipt.The National Guard was called in. They brought machine guns. And around five o’clock the next morning, a whistle blew, and 20,000 to 25,000 whites poured into Greenwood. That number is not mine. That’s from the National Guard’s own after-action reports. They got on top of buildings and on top of the standpipe and mowed down the defenses with machine guns. Then they came into Greenwood and they looted. They burned. They raped. They killed.When the smoke cleared: 1,550 homes and businesses burned to the ground. Over 8,000 people displaced. 3,000 people never heard from again. The survivors — about 8,000 — were placed in what they called at the time internment camps. You couldn’t leave unless a white person signed you out and put a green sticker on you saying they were responsible for you. And if you weren’t working for a private white employer, you were forced to clean up the destruction they created. For free.In other words, they effectively re-enslaved them.The Language Was the Second WeaponAnd they called it a “Tulsa Race Riot.”Why? Because these Black people were sophisticated. They understood business. Many of them had insurance policies. But those insurance policies had riot clauses that would invalidate the coverage. So by calling a government-backed massacre a “riot,” they ensured that Black people couldn’t collect a single dime. The language wasn’t just inaccurate. It was a legal weapon designed to prevent financial recovery.Attorney Solomon-Simmons has spent almost thirty years fighting to change that language from “riot” to “massacre.” Because what I just described to y’all was not a riot. It was a planned, state-sanctioned campaign of terror, destruction, and dispossession. The historical record confirms they wanted the land of Greenwood to expand the industrial base of downtown Tulsa because the oil industry was booming. Dick Rowland was the spark. The land was always the motive.Feel me?The Beneficiaries Are Still Operating TodaySo who benefited? The city of Tulsa and private business owners who took the land and developed further industry for the oil companies. The insurance companies that refused to pay property claims — companies like Chubb, AIG, and Hartford, many of which are still in existence today. They received premiums for years and when it came time to pay, they didn’t pay.Banks benefited too. When your bank book burned up in the massacre and you went to the bank to claim your deposits, they told you they didn’t know if it was really your money. Solomon-Simmons’ team did over 250 hours of research and found the banks that swooped up all the institutions from that era. Two major banks that are still operating today: BOK and Chase.These are the beneficiaries of the massacre. And they are still profiting.And the land? Greenwood was four square miles. Almost forty city blocks. It was bigger than Harlem, New York. When you go to Greenwood in 2026, you see one block of the original buildings that were rebuilt right after the massacre. And everything around it — the high-rises, the ballpark, the banks, the hotels, the office buildings — none of it is owned by descendants of Greenwood. None of it is owned by African Americans. Zero.From Dr. A.C. Jackson to Terrence Crutcher: Hands Up, Still MurderedDr. A.C. Jackson was considered the best Black surgeon in the nation at the time of the massacre. He came out of his home with his hands up. A white judge, Judge Oliphant, who was a friend of Dr. Jackson’s, tried to save him. He told the mob: “Do not harm this man. Do you know who this is? This is Dr. A.C. Jackson.” And they said: “We don’t give a damn who this nigga is.” They shot him twice in the stomach. The greatest Black surgeon in the nation bled out over five hours in an internment camp.Now fast forward to September 16, 2016. Terrence Crutcher, a student at Tulsa Community College, was coming home when he was encountered on the side of the road by Officer Betty Jo Shelby. He’s on video walking away from her. His hands are up. He has no weapon. She shot him in the chest. And then she and the other officers on scene — including her husband, who was in the helicopter above calling Terrence “a bad dude” — consoled each other while Terrence bled out on the ground without medical assistance.Here’s what I didn’t know until my conversation with Attorney Solomon-Simmons: Terrence Crutcher was a descendant of the Tulsa Race Massacre. His great-grandmother was Rebecca Brown Crutcher. His twin sister is Dr. Tiffany Crutcher, who now runs the Crutcher Foundation and the Black Wall Street Legacy Fest.Dr. A.C. Jackson. Hands up. Murdered. 1921.Terrence Crutcher. Hands up. Murdered. 2016.Same city. Same pattern. A hundred years apart.Let that marinate.The Legal Fight Is Still Happening Right NowBetty Jo Shelby was found not guilty at her criminal trial in 2017. Then she got a job in Rogers County. Then she went on a national speaking tour teaching officers how to survive being accused of shooting a citizen. She commodified Black death and built a whole career out of it. The community had to organize just to shut that down.The Crutcher family filed a civil lawsuit. The case was dismissed in 2023 when the district court granted qualified immunity — that legal shield that protects rogue officers from accountability when they violate constitutional rights. But Attorney Solomon-Simmons and his team appealed to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. They argued the case in Denver in May 2025. And on March 30, 2026 — just over a week ago — the 10th Circuit agreed with them. They overturned the qualified immunity. They affirmed what should have been obvious: you cannot shoot someone with their hands in the air. That’s been the law of the land since Tennessee v. Garner in 1985.The case now goes back to district court. If the city doesn’t settle, it goes to trial. Attorney Solomon-Simmons says co-counsel includes Karen Portlock at Gibson Dunn — one of the biggest law firms in the world — and Attorney Ben Crump.This fight is not over.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The Domestic and the International Are the Same BlueprintI want y’all to hold something else. Because while we were having this conversation about Greenwood, America was bombing Iran. And the parallels are not accidental.In the 1920s, the American government destabilized a region within its own borders to make it so the inhabitants could no longer control the natural resources. The oil industry was booming, and they wanted that land. In 2026, America is doing the same thing internationally — trying to control a region because it believes the natural resources should be dictated by American, British, and Israeli interests. Trump even said it. They want the oil.Attorney Solomon-Simmons made this connection directly. He said when you start talking about bombing and wiping out a civilization, that means something specific to someone from Greenwood. Because his people were bombed. They tried to wipe out his civilization. And just like in Tulsa, where they used a fake narrative about Dick Rowland assaulting a white woman when the real motive was land, America internationally uses narratives about security and terrorism when the real motive is resources.At the end of the day, it’s all about resources. It’s all about power. Domestically and internationally, the question is always the same: who gets to own the land? Who gets to dictate the land? And the answer, historically, has always been determined by who has the capacity for violence and the legal infrastructure to justify it.This is what I mean when I talk about how whiteness, specifically descendants of Europeans, operates on the belief that they have dominion over natural resources. Meaning: if we don’t have control over the resources, we believe the world will go into complete chaos. So this justifies us creating chaos to get the resources that we say not having will create chaos. Read that again. That’s the logic. That’s the circular justification. And it’s the same logic in Greenwood in 1921 and in Iran in 2026.Stop Saying We Can’t Work Together. Stop Saying We’re Our Own Worst Enemy.Attorney Solomon-Simmons said something in our conversation that I need everybody to internalize. He said there are three lies that Black people have swallowed from white supremacy that we need to stop repeating immediately.One: that we don’t work together and aren’t unified. That is a falsehood. By empirical studies, Black people actually have more unity than any other ethnic group in this nation based upon our shared history. Greenwood itself is the proof. A hundred of the richest Black men in the community risked their lives for a shoeshine boy because he was one of theirs. That’s unity. Stop saying we don’t have it.Two: that we are our own worst enemy. How can you be your own worst enemy when you have a 500-year enemy of white supremacy that is killing, destroying, and doing everything it can to undermine you? Individual achievement will never overcome structural violence. We have to change the structures. You never want to talk about the bucket the crabs are in. You just want to blame the crabs for fighting in the bucket.Three: that we’re not our ancestors. When people say “I’m not my ancestors,” Solomon-Simmons’ response is perfect. He says: “You’re right. You’re not your ancestors. Because your ancestors went through so much more and they were able to overcome. They went through the Nadir. They went through Jim Crow. They went through enslavement. They went through redlining and lynchings and were still strong enough for your Black butt to be here today.”When you say you’re not your ancestors, you’re telling on yourself. You’re saying you don’t know your history and you don’t respect your history. Our ancestors endured obstacles and opposition far beyond what we face, and they got us here. Honor that.Greenwood Was Not Just a Place. It Was a State of Mind.Attorney Solomon-Simmons’ book, Redeemer Nation: The 100-Year-Old Battle for the Soul of America, is coming out May 12th. And in it, he makes a point that I think is critical for where we are right now. He says America does not have a soul. America has never had a soul, because it was built on the exploitation of African labor and the genocide of Native Americans. The book is about how we get to a place where we can actually have one. And that can only happen through reparatory justice.He also talks about the five Think Greenwood Principles: community love, freedom mind state, ownership, wealth circulation, and willful resilience. And he’s clear — when he says ownership, he’s not just talking about tangible assets. He’s talking about owning our own mind, owning our own history, owning our own culture. Owning our own everything.Greenwood was not just a physical location. It was a state of mind. And that state of mind is what we need to rebuild.Through his nonprofit, Justice for Greenwood, there are concrete ways to engage. The We Are Greenwood (WAG) program is doing genealogy and oral histories — over 250 descendants verified, over 100 oral histories completed. The Legacy Protection Program (LPP) provides free estate planning, free probate services, and free nuisance litigation for verified descendants in northeast Oklahoma. The Greenwood 11,000 campaign — named for the approximately 11,000 residents of Greenwood at the time of the massacre — is mobilizing people to download toolkits, complete workbooks with their families, hold discussion groups, and engage in participatory action.Paying reparations is not radical. Refusing to pay what you owe is radical.Facts over feelings.Research over MeSearch.EXPLICIT ASK TO BECOME A PAID SUBSCRIBERI’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education 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.Think about what you just read. The insurance companies that called a massacre a “riot” to avoid paying Black families are still operating today. The banks that kept Black deposits after the bank books burned are still in business. The descendants are still fighting for justice in 2026. This is the kind of history that is being actively erased from classrooms right now — and the only thing standing between erasure and education is independent work like this.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.5 KEY TAKEAWAYS1. Greenwood’s Destruction Was About Land and Oil, Not Dick Rowland. The narrative of Dick Rowland assaulting a white woman was the pretext, not the cause. The historical record confirms that white Tulsa wanted Greenwood’s land to expand the downtown industrial base during an oil boom. The same resource-extraction logic operates today in American foreign policy.2. The Language “Race Riot” Was a Legal Weapon, Not Just a Misnomer. Calling the massacre a “riot” was a deliberate strategy to activate riot clauses in insurance policies, ensuring Black families could never collect on their claims. Naming matters — it’s not just about historical accuracy; it’s about who gets compensated and who doesn’t.3. The Corporate Beneficiaries of the Massacre Are Still Operating. Insurance companies that refused to pay claims, banks that kept Black deposits after bank books burned, and businesses that developed on stolen Greenwood land continue to operate and profit in 2026. Structural violence doesn’t end with the violence — it compounds through generations of accumulated advantage.4. The Line from 1921 to 2016 Is Direct and Documented. Terrence Crutcher — a descendant of the Tulsa Race Massacre — was murdered by police with his hands up in the same city where Dr. A.C. Jackson was murdered with his hands up 95 years earlier. Qualified immunity is the modern legal mechanism that provides the same impunity that deputization provided in 1921.5. Greenwood Was Not Just a Place — It Was a State of Mind That Must Be Rebuilt. The five Think Greenwood Principles — community love, freedom mind state, ownership, wealth circulation, and willful resilience — represent an ideology of Black self-determination that predated and survived the massacre. Rebuilding Greenwood means rebuilding that consciousness, not just physical structures.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY / RELATED READINGSSolomon-Simmons, DeMario. Redeemer Nation: The 100-Year-Old Battle for the Soul of America. (2026)Ellsworth, Scott. Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. Louisiana State University Press (1982). Messer, Chris M., et al. The Tulsa Race Massacre and the Politics of Memory. Palgrave Macmillan (2021). Grann, David. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. Doubleday (2017). White, Walter. “The Eruption of Tulsa.” The Nation, June 29, 1921. Hirsch, James S. Riot and Remembrance: The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy. Houghton Mifflin (2002). Madigan, Tim. The Burning: Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. St. Martin’s Press (2001). Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. Tulsa Race Riot: A Report by the Oklahoma Commission. (2001). Gates, Henry Louis Jr. “The Truth Behind ‘40 Acres and a Mule.’” PBS: The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross. Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. The New Press (2010). Thanks for reading Education Is Elevation! This post is public so feel free to share it. 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

Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.When I tell y’all that the conservative contradictions are writing themselves at this point, I need you to understand I’m not being hyperbolic. I’m reading receipts. And this week, we got a whole dossier.Let me set the stage. We’re sitting down on The Chop Up Show — me, Toya G, and Domo aka Political Plug — and within the first ten minutes we’re touching Kristi Noem’s husband getting caught cross-dressing with an immigrant sex worker, the largest protest in American history, Pam Bondi getting fired, Donald Trump publicly embarrassing Caroline Levitt, a basketball player weaponizing Christianity to dehumanize queer people, and a legendary R&B singer laughing on camera about the statutory logistics of sleeping with a teenager. And somehow, all of these things are connected. That’s the part I need y’all to sit with.Research over MeSearch. Always.The Conservative Contradiction MachineLet’s start where the contradictions are loudest. Kristi Noem’s husband, Bryon Noem, got caught in a scandal involving cross-dressing — the very behavior that the conservative movement has spent the last several years criminalizing through legislation targeting drag queens and transgender individuals. We’re talking about actual laws that were passed. Legislation that criminalized the very act that the DHS Secretary’s husband was engaging in privately with an immigrant sex worker.Now here’s the play. I believe the Trump administration already knew this was coming down the pipeline. That’s why Noem was being repositioned before the story broke. But the hypocrisy doesn’t stop at the personal scandal — it’s structural. The Supreme Court just ruled that conversion camps are protected under freedom of speech. So my question becomes: does Kristi Noem’s husband now have to attend the conversion camps that his wife’s political allies championed? Probably not. And that selective moral outrage is the whole game.What we’re witnessing is not inconsistency. It’s architecture. The cisgender conservative white man believes he has the right to do everything he wants while criminalizing those same behaviors in others. That’s not a contradiction — that’s a feature of the system.And it’s not just Noem. Pam Bondi — Trump’s attorney general — was fired. If you recall, Trump fired Jeff Sessions in 2018 because Sessions wouldn’t obstruct the Mueller probe. Same pattern, different pawn. Then Trump publicly humiliated Caroline Levitt, his own press secretary, joking about his 97% negative press coverage being her fault. Three prominent white women in the Trump administration, and all three treated as disposable.Let’s not forget: 53% of white women voted for Donald Trump — the only majority of women to do so. And he showed them exactly what that loyalty purchases: a front-row seat to your own disposability. You praise a king, you get treated like a pawn.No Kings Day 3.0 and the Underutilization of ProtestEight million people showed up for No Kings Day 3.0 — the largest protest in United States history. And the first thing I heard from folks was: what’s the point?I want to challenge that. I’ve been rethinking the utility of protests, and here’s where I’ve landed. Protests are big-ass meetings. They’re not just about standing next to each other singing and chanting the same phrases. They should be networking opportunities. Communication hubs. Strategic planning sessions. Especially when we know the internet has been infiltrated and surveilled.The problem isn’t that protests don’t work. The problem is that we don’t have the organizational infrastructure to capitalize on what happens when millions of people are physically together. We’re underutilizing the capacity of collective presence. The question is always going to be: whose directions are we following? What structures are we legitimizing? Those are questions about moral conscience, ethical compass, and strategic viability — and they require a level of intentionality that most protest movements haven’t achieved yet.Jaden Ivey and the Anatomy of Christian PsychosisNow let’s talk about Jaden Ivey, because this situation is a case study in everything I’ve been warning about at the intersection of religion, nationalism, and the recruitment of Black athletes.The Chicago Bulls released Ivey for conduct detrimental to the team. The specifics: he went on 40-minute Instagram rants steeped in anti-queer rhetoric. He categorized teammates as “righteous” and “unrighteous.” He told team doctors that Jesus healed his knee injury — an injury the MRI confirmed was still present. He destroyed locker room culture with persistent, condemnatory preaching that the Bulls organization formally described as “weirdness in the workplace.”Now, here’s where it gets nuanced, and this is the part I want y’all to think deeply about because we’re thinking deeply about shallow s**t on this one.Everything Ivey was criticized for — the witnessing, the bearing testimony, the sacred declaration, the chastising of the unrighteous — these are actual tenets of evangelical Christianity. Bearing witness is what Christians are called to do. The Bible talks about the fire burning at the altar and never going out. Many Christians interpret themselves as the altar — mobile vessels carrying the fire and the fear of Christ to share with the world. Sacred declaration — speaking life and not death, the whole notion that life and death are in the power of the tongue — that is foundational doctrine. Even the righteous-versus-unrighteous classification has biblical license. The text gives believers authority to chastise and bring people into the faith.So here’s the question I posed to the crew: is this religious psychosis, or is this a man living his faith? And the distinction matters.Religious psychosis involves hallucinations and fixed false beliefs with religious themes — believing one is a deity, a prophet, or possessed. It’s not a specific diagnosis, but a recognized form of psychosis. Now, I do think Ivey is displaying attributes consistent with religious psychosis. But here’s the critical move: I’m not diagnosing him. Psychosis and diagnosis are not the same thing. You can identify the attributes of a phenomenon without pretending you’re a clinician.And here’s where Domo brought the fire. He said something I want everyone to sit with: one of the biggest issues with religion is that it gives people excuses to be bad people. They wrap their “fucked-up-ness” in the guise of holiness. Because there are Christians who can hold their beliefs without condemning another person’s lifestyle or identity. That type of Christian exists. Which means the bigotry is not unique to Christianity — it’s that bigoted people find Christianity a convenient vehicle for their bigotry.What’s extremely dangerous about Ivey’s jersey sales skyrocketing after his expulsion is what it reveals: we’ve entered an era where bigots view the rejection of bigotry as oppression. Folks are framing pushback against hate as persecution. And Ivey’s situation folds perfectly into the white Christian nationalist playbook. He can now claim he was persecuted by the NBA, which feeds directly into Trump’s “anti-Christian bias” narrative. This is how Christian nationalism recruits Black folks — specifically Black athletes — into a movement that was never designed to protect them.Freedom of Speech Is Not What You Think It IsA lot of people conflated this with freedom of speech, and I had to set the record straight live on the show. So let me lay it out:First, you can have freedom of speech without that speech entailing the condemnation of an entire group of people. Second, freedom of speech protects you from the federal government — not from private entities. The NBA is a private organization. Third, I dare any of y’all to walk into your job tomorrow and declare an entire group of people unrighteous. You’ll be in HR before lunch, if not fired on the spot. Fourth, a lot of people are being loud, proud, and wrong when they try to play pseudo-intellectual with First Amendment arguments.And as Domo put it: rights don’t exist in a vacuum. Your rights are bounded by their interaction with other people’s humanity. When your speech creates an environment that produces material outcomes detrimental to another group, people have the right to push back. Hate speech turns into real-life material violence. It starts in the language and then it turns into people doing things. Freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences. Bernie Mac told you: there gon’ be some consequences and some repercussions.Brandy, Wanya Morris, and the Predator PlaybookNow let me transition to the part of the conversation that requires a trigger warning, because we’re getting into grooming, age of consent, power imbalance, and the infrastructure that allows grown men to secretly date teenage superstars in plain sight.Brandy confirmed in her 2026 memoir Phases that she dated Wanya Morris of Boyz II Men beginning around 1994-1995, when she was 15-16 years old and he was 22. Before I even get into the analysis, let me ground this with definitions, because I don’t play the game where we’re debating things without agreeing on what words mean.Grooming: a deliberate process where an older or more powerful person builds trust, emotional dependency, or secrecy with a younger or less powerful person to exploit them, often sexually.Age of consent: the legally defined age at which a person can consent to sexual activity, varying by state, typically 16 to 18.Informed consent: agreement that is freely given by someone with the maturity, knowledge, and autonomy to understand what they’re agreeing to and its consequences.A 16-year-old navigating fame under the guidance of a 22-year-old mentor is, by definition, operating within limited capacity for informed consent.Now, in a 2014 Breakfast Club interview, Wanya Morris was asked directly about the relationship’s legality. When the interviewer noted Brandy was young, Morris said, “She wasn’t that young.” When pressed that Brandy said she was 15, he corrected to 16 or 17. When asked if the relationship was legal in the state they were in, he joked — joked — “We did it in the states where it was legal.” He said they had a “nomad relationship.” And his Boyz II Men bandmate Shawn sat there wide-mouthed laughing through the whole exchange.Let me tell you what that interview revealed about this man’s character. At the height of his career — “I’ll Make Love to You,” all the sex music, could have had any woman in the country — he decided to pursue a 16-year-old. And his defense was jurisdictional shopping. That tells you everything. When someone treats statutory age-of-consent laws as loopholes to navigate rather than boundaries designed to protect children, you’re not looking at a love story. You’re looking at a predator who did the research.As I told the crew: we’ve all done research to figure out loopholes and workarounds for things we knew weren’t above board. There was a level of consciousness about both the act and the potential consequences. The same logic applies here. You don’t accidentally research which states have lower ages of consent. That level of intentional contemplation about the act and its consequences, followed by proceeding anyway, is what separates a mistake from predation.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The Mentor-to-Lover PipelineBrandy wrote in her memoir: “What began as admiration had transformed into something else. It seems to me that he weaponized my admiration, shaped my friendship into dependence, my respect into desire.”That right there is the grooming playbook articulated by the survivor herself.The mentor-to-lover pipeline is especially dangerous for child entertainers because of the adultification baked into the industry. These kids aren’t living regular teenage lives. They’re not being socialized normally. They’re isolated from their peers and surrounded by adults. When you’re 16, you’re looking for your equals — your clique, your people. But celebrity strips that away. So you pivot to non-familial relationships with the adults around you. And when one of those adults is young, attractive, successful, and willing to “put you on” — the manipulation is almost baked into the infrastructure.Domo broke it down perfectly: you think he’s giving you game, but he’s grooming you. You think he’s putting you on, but he’s shaping you to hang on his every word. He’s telling you how the game goes, how to move, how to think — and he’s programming you with the emotional and sexual expectations of the 22 and 25-year-old women he should be dealing with. That’s grooming par excellence.And celebrity worship is the lubricant that makes it all frictionless. We are too trusting of celebrities because they are celebrities. We are too quick to suspend our logic to justify the people we’re fans of. And when it comes to children in Hollywood, that’s where the greatest danger lives — because celebrity becomes a shield for predatory behavior.The Epstein ParallelI drew a direct line on the show, and I’m drawing it here: the Epstein files revealed a network of powerful men who exploited their access, wealth, and fame to prey on minors while an entire ecosystem of assistants, managers, and media looked the other way. What structural similarities exist between that ecosystem and the 1990s music industry that allowed grown men to secretly date 16-year-old superstars in plain sight?Every argument Wanya Morris made on The Breakfast Club — the jurisdictional maneuvering, the age minimization, the “she wasn’t that young” deflection — those are the same arguments that defenders of Epstein-adjacent figures deploy. The ability for people to defend what Wanya did to Brandy is the same hubris that makes it hard to hold anyone in those files accountable. And it wasn’t just Wanya. Aaliyah was also being passed around as a child by overgrown men who felt entitled to possess her beauty. The industry infrastructure facilitated all of it.The “Fast Girl” Narrative and Adultification BiasBrandy wrote: “I was not a fast girl with a crush. I was not a dramatic teenager who couldn’t handle rejection. I was not an unstable, obsessive fan. I was a child, and he was an adult.”The “fast girl” narrative has been weaponized against Black girls specifically to justify the sexual behavior of adult men. And the scope is staggering. Girls are labeled “fast” for wearing shorts, having nail polish, understanding their own bodies, posting pictures, walking with a natural hip movement, being interested in fashion, or simply existing as developing human beings.Here’s where the double standard gets lethal: boys are encouraged — sometimes by their own parents — to pursue, to date, to prove their masculinity. But if a girl initiates or reciprocates any of the same behaviors, she’s automatically “fast.” We’re raising hypersexual young boys and then policing the very girls they’re pointed toward. And the fastest way to silence a victim is to say she brought it on herself.Research from the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality in 2017 documented what scholars call adultification bias — the finding that Black girls are perceived as needing less nurturing, less protection, and more accountability than white girls of the same age. That’s not opinion. That’s data. And it maps directly onto how Brandy’s experience was processed by the culture — minimized, laughed about, normalized.What This Moment DemandsIf you got a problem with either conversation — the Jaden Ivey situation or the Brandy-Wanya accountability discussion — and you think there are “more important things to talk about,” I think you’re speaking from a position of privilege. People who experience homo-negative violence don’t have the luxury of saying this doesn’t matter. People who experience the gender violence embedded in these age-gap dynamics don’t have the privilege of dismissal.We are the generation shaping the next generation. We’re not the kids anymore. And a lot of these conversations matter to us precisely because they didn’t matter when they should have mattered for us. We had to grow up and realize that the traditions we inherited produced a lot of harm. That the things people were okay with in the ‘80s and ‘90s — things we witnessed — are things we refuse to adopt and pass forward.F**k celebrity worship. If you don’t get anything else from this piece, get that.And as Alicia Marie reminded us in the live chat: while the adultification of young girls is a critical issue, it is even more so the refusal to hold the patriarchy accountable for their own thoughts, their own decisions, their own actions — which equal and equate to abuse. Being perceived as “fast” does not equal sexual entitlement for the person doing the perceiving. The question is always what she had going on instead of what he had going on. And no, it’s not all men — but it’s always men. Until we redirect the gaze from what the victim was wearing to what the perpetrator was choosing, we are maintaining rape culture, not dismantling it.We have to talk about how young girls get a chance to see themselves and understand themselves. And we have to talk about how young boys are programmed to participate in the negative ways they see feminized beings, if not women in particular. These are not separate conversations. They are the same conversation.Research over MeSearch. Always.BECOME A PAID SUBSCRIBERI’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education 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.This week alone, we broke down the legal architecture of age-of-consent loopholes, the Georgetown research on adultification bias, the First Amendment distinctions between government and private entities, and the structural parallels between 1990s industry predation and the Epstein ecosystem. That’s the kind of work that takes hours of preparation and years of study. If this work fills a gap in your understanding — if it arms you with language and evidence you didn’t have before — I’m asking you to invest in its continuation. Subscribe. Share. And if you’re already here, upgrade to paid. This is how we build the thing that replaces the thing they took away.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.5 KEY TAKEAWAYS1. Conservative contradictions are structural, not accidental. The same political movement that criminalized cross-dressing and championed conversion camps now quietly absorbs the scandal of Kristi Noem’s husband engaging in those very behaviors. Meanwhile, three prominent white women in the Trump administration — Noem, Bondi, and Levitt — have been publicly discarded by the man 53% of white women voted for. Selective moral outrage is not hypocrisy; it’s the operating system.2. Jaden Ivey’s expulsion exposes the Christian nationalism recruitment pipeline for Black athletes. Every behavior Ivey was criticized for — bearing witness, sacred declaration, classifying people as righteous or unrighteous — has roots in evangelical doctrine. But when those practices are deployed to dehumanize queer people, they serve the same function as white Christian nationalism’s broader project. His expulsion becomes a “persecution” narrative that feeds directly into Trump’s “anti-Christian bias” rhetoric, revealing how Christian nationalism recruits Black bodies to advance a white supremacist political agenda.3. The rejection of bigotry is not oppression. Freedom of speech protects citizens from government censorship — not from consequences imposed by private entities, employers, or communities. The NBA, like any workplace, has the right to enforce standards of conduct. When bigots frame accountability as persecution, they are constructing a victimhood that empowers further harm. Hate speech produces material violence. Pushing back against it is not censorship; it’s self-preservation.4. Wanya Morris’s Breakfast Club interview is a masterclass in how predators narrate their own behavior. The jurisdictional maneuvering (”we did it in the states where it was legal”), the age minimization (”she wasn’t that young”), and the casual laughter from his bandmates all reveal a system where powerful men can publicly confess to predatory behavior and have it processed as entertainment. The mentor-to-lover pipeline that Brandy describes — admiration weaponized into dependence, respect groomed into desire — is the same infrastructure that protected figures in the Epstein files.5. The “fast girl” narrative is a weapon of adultification bias that protects predators by blaming children. Georgetown Law’s 2017 research confirmed that Black girls are perceived as needing less nurturing, less protection, and more accountability than white girls. That bias turns every natural adolescent behavior — fashion interest, body awareness, social media presence — into a justification for adult male predation. Brandy’s memoir declaration — “I was a child and he was an adult” — is the corrective the culture desperately needs. The question should never be what she had going on. It should always be what he chose to do.BIBLIOGRAPHY / RELATED READINGS* Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality. Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood. 2017. [Available at law.georgetown.edu]* Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Routledge, 2000.* Whitehead, Andrew L. and Samuel L. Perry. Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States. Oxford University Press, 2020.* Butler, Anthea. White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America. University of North Carolina Press, 2021.* Gorski, Philip and Samuel Perry. The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy. Oxford University Press, 2022.* Epstein, Rebecca, Jamilia J. Blake, and Thalia González. “Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood.” Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, 2017.* Morris, Monique W. Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools. The New Press, 2016.* Crenshaw, Kimberlé, et al. Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced, and Underprotected. African American Policy Forum, 2015.* American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5). 2013. [Relevant sections on psychotic disorders and religious/cultural considerations.]* Davis, Angela Y. Women, Race & Class. Vintage, 1983. [Historical analysis of the intersection of sexual exploitation and racial oppression.]* hooks, bell. Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. South End Press, 1981.* Brandy Norwood. Phases. [Memoir, 2026.]* The Mann Act (White-Slave Traffic Act). 18 U.S.C. §§ 2421–2424. 1910, amended. [Federal law on transportation of minors across state lines for sexual purposes.]* Marsh v. Alabama, 326 U.S. 501 (1946). [Foundational case on First Amendment application to private entities.]* Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck, 587 U.S. ___ (2019). [Recent ruling clarifying First Amendment constraints apply to government, not private organizations.] 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

Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Native Americans are presented to us as a conquered people, but we never talk about how the United States federal government has broken over 500 treaties — and no war was fought. Let that sit with you. No declaration of war. No battlefield. Just paper, pens, and power. The weapon wasn’t a rifle. It was a contract. And the violence wasn’t in a single moment — it was stretched across centuries, administered through bureaucracy, and dressed up as progress.1948 was one hell of a year in history, wasn’t it? That’s when one of the most devastating photographs in American history was taken — and most of y’all have never seen it. It’s the story of George Gillette, the chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. In that photo, Gillette is covering his face, weeping, while Secretary of the Interior Julius Krug signs a contract — not an agreement, a contract — that would forcibly transfer over 155,000 acres of the most fertile, productive tribal land to the United States federal government for the construction of the Garrison Dam. A damn dam.And I need y’all to understand why that image hits different when you know the full story. Because it’s not just a man crying. It’s a man being forced to watch the legal destruction of his people’s homeland in real time, knowing he had no power to stop it. That’s the part they leave out of the history books. That’s the part that makes this Research over MeSearch.The Land Before the TheftBefore we unpack the theft, let’s talk about what was taken. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 recognized nearly 12 million acres belonging to the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations — territory spanning across what we now call North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, and Wyoming. Twelve million acres. By the time the federal government formally created the Fort Berthold Reservation in 1870, that territory had already been slashed dramatically. But what remained was still rich. Still alive. Still theirs.The Three Affiliated Tribes — the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara — had survived smallpox epidemics in the 18th and 19th centuries that nearly wiped them out entirely. These epidemics, brought by European settlers, devastated their population so severely that the three nations consolidated for survival, eventually settling together at Fort Berthold along the Missouri River. And they rebuilt. They recovered. They created a self-sustaining economy based on agriculture, ranching, and the abundant resources of the Missouri River bottomlands. They had farms. They had cattle. They had a hospital. They had tribal headquarters. They had a way of life.And then the Army Corps of Engineers showed up.The Pick-Sloan Plan: Infrastructure as Colonial WeaponHere’s where you have to understand the machinery behind the theft. In 1944, Congress authorized the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program — a massive infrastructure project designed to control the Missouri River through a series of dams. The plan was the brainchild of Colonel Lewis A. Pick of the Army Corps of Engineers and William Glenn Sloan of the Bureau of Reclamation. The stated goals were flood control, navigation, irrigation, and hydroelectric power.But here’s what the history books don’t emphasize enough — the Missouri River States Committee that selected the dam sites had zero Native American members. None. The locations were chosen based on topography, minimal impact to major cities and towns, and cost-to-benefit ratios. And because there were no Indigenous voices at the table, the impact to reservations simply wasn’t a “large consideration.” That’s not my language — that’s the historical record.The Garrison Dam was one of five massive main-stem dams built along the upper Missouri River. And here’s the kicker — the original Sloan plan actually assessed the situation and recommended leaving tribal holdings alone. But when the plans merged into Pick-Sloan, that recommendation was ignored. White support of Native opposition to the dam declined radically once Congress accepted the combined plan. As somebody that knows a lot about history in this country, urban development and government projects have always been about how can we preserve white institutions and comfort and efficiency at the expense of people of color. Every. Single. Time.Historian Vine Deloria Jr. — one of the most important Native American scholars in history — called the Pick-Sloan Program “the single most destructive act ever perpetrated on any tribe by the United States.” Read that again. The single most destructive act. Not the Trail of Tears. Not the Indian Removal Act. This. And most Americans have never heard of it.They Started Building Before They Even AskedThis is the part that should make your blood boil. The Army Corps of Engineers began construction on the Garrison Dam in 1946 — two years before the tribes even signed the contract. Two years. When the Corps arrived at Fort Berthold to start construction, the Three Affiliated Tribes had no idea they were coming. Nobody told them. Nobody consulted them. The Bureau of Indian Affairs made no objections while the project was debated in Congress, and none of the tribes were consulted during the legislative process.And you from the hood or you know how it works in terms of urban development. Hey, we don’t give you the option to sell it under value or it’s eminent domain — you don’t get a damn thing. You don’t get nothing at all. That’s the reason why George Gillette is crying in that photograph, because he didn’t have a real option. He had to sell over the land to get something because it was better than nothing. But the entire time, it was coercion and not consent.The tribes knew that if they failed to agree to the outlined terms, they would receive even less compensation in the future — or nothing at all. The construction was already happening. The dam was already being built. This wasn’t a negotiation. This was a mugging with paperwork.On May 20, 1948, George Gillette, fighting back tears, watched Secretary Krug sign the contract. In his own words, Gillette said: “The truth is, as everyone knows, our Treaty of Fort Laramie and our constitution are being torn to shreds by this contract.” He said, “We will sign this contract with a heavy heart. With a few scratches of the pen, we will sell the best part of our reservation. Right now the future doesn’t look too good to us.”He was right.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.What Was LostThe flooding of Fort Berthold was catastrophic. The Garrison Dam created Lake Sakakawea — the second-largest man-made lake in the United States — and it drowned the heart of the reservation. Let me give you the receipts on what was destroyed:156,000 acres of the most fertile farmland on the reservation — gone. Tribal headquarters — gone. The hospital — gone. Approximately 90% of the tribal population was forced to relocate to higher ground — barren, dry, wind-swept land with poor soil and no timber for protection from North Dakota winters. 325 families displaced. 80% of tribal members forced to move. An entire self-sustaining economy, decimated overnight.And here’s what makes this even more sinister — the compensation the tribes received was well below market value and significantly less than what non-Indian landowners received for comparable land. The initial offer was $5.1 million. It was eventually increased to $12.6 million, but that was still $9 million less than what the tribes calculated as fair compensation. And the final settlement legislation denied them the right to use the reservoir shoreline for grazing, hunting, fishing, or any other purposes. It also rejected their requests for irrigation development and royalty rights on subsurface minerals. They took the land, flooded it, and then told the original owners they couldn’t even use the shoreline of the lake that destroyed their home.The dam now generates over $40 million worth of hydroelectric power every single year. The tribes saw almost none of it. It took until 1992 — forty-four years later — for Congress to finally provide additional compensation of $142 million to the Three Affiliated Tribes. Forty-four years of poverty, displacement, and health devastation before the government acknowledged what it had done.The Health Crisis Nobody Talks AboutBefore the Garrison Dam was built, there wasn’t a single known case of diabetes on the Fort Berthold Reservation. Obesity was almost unheard of. Let that sink in. These were people who farmed, ranched, hunted, and lived off the land their ancestors had cultivated for a millennium.After the dam? The loss of agricultural land decimated their food sources. Natural foods were replaced with processed government commodities. Drinking water now came from wells with high-alkaline content. The construction project triggered long-term unemployment, intense poverty, and a decades-long descent into obesity, hypertension, diabetes, alcoholism, and drug abuse. Today, the population suffers diabetes at more than double the national average. This is what happens when you destroy a people’s ability to feed themselves and then hand them commodity cheese and call it assistance.This is how coloniality works. We’re going to force you on a reservation and take the majority of your land. And then when you own that reservation because white folks are losing their houses, we’re going to make you lose your land and your house to make sure they don’t lose theirs and build a dam because we can’t have this Missouri River threatening the descendants of settler colonizers while you, the colonized subjects, lose everything. Give me that.This Wasn’t Just Fort BertholdAnd here’s what blows my mind — the Garrison Dam wasn’t an isolated incident. Under the Pick-Sloan Plan, the Army Corps of Engineers built five main-stem dams that destroyed more than 550 square miles of tribal land across North Dakota and South Dakota. The projects devastated multiple reservations — Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Crow Creek, Lower Brule, and Yankton. The Oahe Dam alone flooded over 200,000 acres on the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Reservations. In total, more than 900 Native American families were displaced. Over 1.6 million acres of fertile bottomland were flooded — and a massive percentage of that was Indigenous land.The Pick-Sloan Plan reduced the total land base of five Sioux reservations by 6% and forced one-third of their population to relocate. And here’s the pattern — the best land on every reservation was flooded, and residents were moved to barren, dry uplands. Every time. The fertile land was taken, the people were pushed to the margins, and the benefits — the cheap power, the flood protection, the recreation lakes — flowed downstream to non-Native communities.That ain’t development. That’s dispossession with an engineering degree.Stop Thinking Deeply About Shallow S**tPeople want to act like treaty violations and land theft are ancient history. Something that happened “back then.” But the Garrison Dam was completed in 1953. My parents were alive. Your grandparents were alive. This ain’t ancient — this is modern American policy. And the health consequences, the poverty, the displacement? Those are happening right now. Today. Unemployment on Fort Berthold remains around 42%. Communities that were once connected by the river are now separated by a lake they never asked for, with a single bridge connecting them.And this is what I need y’all to understand about the difference between how we’re taught history and how history actually operates. It’s presented to you as if these people consensually agreed. Look what they signed. Look what they agreed to. But they signed under force. Under coercion. Under the threat of getting nothing if they didn’t take something. That’s not consent. That’s extortion.The Garrison Dam is a case study in how the United States federal government uses infrastructure as a weapon of colonial dispossession. Highways through Black neighborhoods. Dams on Native reservations. Urban renewal that’s really urban removal. The machinery changes, but the logic doesn’t — sacrifice communities of color to preserve white comfort, white property, and white profit.And until we teach this in every classroom, until we name it for what it is, we’re not doing education. We’re doing propaganda.EXPLICIT TO BECOME PAID SUBSCRIBERThis article took hours of research, cross-referencing primary sources, legal records, and historical archives to produce. And I did it without a single corporate sponsor telling me what I can and can’t say.I’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education 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 this article taught you something your school never did — if it made you think differently about the photograph of George Gillette, about dam construction, about what “eminent domain” really means for colonized people — then I’m asking you to put your money where your education is. A paid subscription isn’t charity. It’s an investment in the kind of independent, fearless, receipts-based education that no corporation will fund and no government wants you to have.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.BIBLIOGRAPHY & RELATED READINGS* Parker, Angela K. Damming the Reservation: Tribal Sovereignty and Activism at Fort Berthold. University of Nebraska Press, 2023.* Lawson, Michael L. Dammed Indians: The Pick-Sloan Plan and the Missouri River Sioux, 1944–1980. University of Oklahoma Press, 1994.* Deloria, Vine Jr. Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto. University of Oklahoma Press, 1969.* Wilkinson, Charles. Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations. W.W. Norton & Company, 2005.* Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne. An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. Beacon Press, 2014.* “For the Taking: The Garrison Dam and the Tribal Taking Area.” Cultural Survival Quarterly, February 2010.* “Dam Floods Hospital, One-Quarter of Reservation.” National Library of Medicine, Native Voices Timeline, 1948 Entry. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices/timeline/489.html* Ferrell, John R. Big Dam Era: A Legislative and Institutional History of the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District, 1993.* VanDevelder, Paul. Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes, and the Trial That Forged a Nation. Little, Brown and Company, 2004. This is a public episode. 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Thank you Reda Rountree (she/her), Rosie Riverter, Education is a lamp, Patricia, Evan, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.Y’all ever notice how every election cycle, somebody grabs a microphone and tells you to “save democracy”? Save it from what? Save it for whom? And more importantly—has democracy ever been something Black people were included in enough to save?Let that marinate.Because when I sat down with Political Plug (Domo) and Toya G on The Chop Up Show to have a real conversation about democracy—not the bumper sticker version, not the “vote blue no matter who” version, the actual historical, philosophical, epistemological version—what we found was a system that, from its very first breath in 508 BC Athens, was designed to exclude the majority of human beings from participation. Women. Slaves. Foreigners. The people who actually built the society were locked out of deciding how it functioned.And here we are in 2026. Who’s still getting locked out? Descendants of slaves. Immigrants. Women fighting for bodily autonomy. The same categories. The same exclusions. Two and a half thousand years later. That’s not a glitch in the system, y’all. That’s the system working exactly as intended.The Greek Myth: Democracy’s Origin Story Is a Story of ExclusionLet’s start where they always want us to start: Athens. The Athenian politician Kleisthenes is widely credited as the “father of Athenian democracy” around 508 BC. But Domo brought up something essential—before Kleisthenes, you had Solon, who introduced the reforms that made Athenian democracy possible. And here’s the part they leave out of the textbooks: according to Herodotus, Solon traveled to Egypt, specifically to the Saite dynasty, and observed how multiple tribes existed under a unified structure where different groups contributed to collective decision-making. He took that concept back to Athens and started removing hereditary barriers to political participation.Read that again. The so-called “father” of Western democracy borrowed the concept from Africa. Then the Greeks took credit for it, called the people they learned from “barbarians,” and built a system that only allowed roughly 30,000 adult male citizens to participate—excluding women, slaves, and foreigners, who comprised the majority of the population.From the very beginning, democracy was a system of collective governance for some, built on the exclusion and exploitation of the many. That’s not me editorializing. That’s the historical record. Facts over feelings.The Debate We Had to Have: Is Democracy the Problem, or Are the People Running It?This is where The Chop Up Show got heated—and I mean heated in the best way possible because Domo made a compelling argument that I want y’all to sit with: the problem isn’t democracy as a concept. The problem is the ideology of the people who deploy it.His position was this: the idea that people should have a say in governance is not inherently flawed. What’s flawed is when racists, white nationalists, and patriarchal power structures get to decide who counts as “people.” He pointed to ancient Igbo societies in West Africa, where decentralized power structures included village assemblies, councils of elders, and—crucially—women’s councils that regulated markets and resolved disputes. These were sophisticated forms of collective governance that predated Athens and, in many ways, were more democratic than what the Greeks built.And I hear that. I respect that. But here’s where I pushed back.You cannot separate the tool from the hand that built it. When Kleisthenes or Solon or whoever we want to credit with formalizing Athenian democracy constructed this system, they explicitly excluded women, slaves, and foreigners. That wasn’t an accident. That wasn’t a limitation they planned to fix later. That was the design. The very civilizations that practiced collective governance—the ones Solon learned from in Egypt—were subsequently labeled “uncivilized” by the same Greeks who borrowed their ideas. Democracy, as a term and as a practice formalized by Athens, was always already defined in opposition to the governance models of non-European peoples.Think about that. The Athens that built “democracy” simultaneously built a civilization hierarchy that positioned democratic nations as morally and politically advanced, granting them the rhetorical right to intervene in, guide, and impose systems on what they called “less developed” states. That’s not a footnote. That’s the blueprint for every imperialist project that followed.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The Epistemology Problem: Who Gets to Define What Democracy Means?Now here’s where the conversation got philosophical, and this is the part that’s going to make some people uncomfortable. Domo made an epistemological argument that I think deserves serious engagement. He said: if we acknowledge that the concept of collective governance existed before the term “democracy” was coined, then the Greeks don’t own the concept—they own the term. And if we’re committed to decolonizing our thinking, we should be willing to understand these principles outside the epistemology of whiteness.That’s a strong argument. And as someone who studied epistemological violence under scholars like George Yancy, Arnold Farr, Charles Mills, and Linda Alcoff, I take that seriously. The idea that Western thought has monopolized how we understand governance—and that this monopoly serves the interests of white supremacy—is not controversial in critical theory. It’s foundational.But here’s my counter, and I stand on this: the epistemology of democracy IS patriarchal. Not just American democracy. The concept as formalized, named, and exported is inseparable from the patriarchal, slaveholding, xenophobic context that produced it. You can’t transplant a term that carries 2,500 years of exclusionary baggage and pretend the baggage doesn’t come with it. African communalism is not democracy. It’s something distinct, something in many ways superior, and collapsing the two does the work of Western thought by erasing that distinction.As I told the audience: African communalism and Athenian democracy represent two distinct approaches to governance. The former emphasizes consensus, holistic community well-being, and relational existence—“I am because we are.” The latter focuses on direct majoritarian rule by a minority of male citizens. Conflating them is an act of epistemological violence in itself.Slavery and Democracy: Co-Constitutive From Day OneHere’s where I’m going to say what a lot of people don’t want to hear: slavery is not a bug in democracy. It’s a feature. In Athens, the entire economic foundation that allowed male citizens to participate in the agora—debating where to put the sewage, deciding how to educate children, voting on policy—was built on slave labor. The leisure to practice democracy depended on someone else doing the work.Fast-forward to America. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery “except as punishment for a crime.” That exception isn’t a loophole. It’s a continuation. The convict lease system, mass incarceration, felon disenfranchisement—these are the mechanisms through which democracy and slavery continue to function as co-constitutive systems. If you go through the prison-industrial complex—the neo-slavery that the Constitution explicitly permits—you come out the other side disqualified from voting. Your democracy is suspended. Any residue of slavery on you complicates your ability to participate in the system.Toya G put it plainly: in order to have civilized society, in order to have a democracy, you always already have to have some population of people being exploited in order to have the organization and development of those societies. That’s not cynicism. That’s the historical record examined without the rose-colored glasses.I challenged the audience: show me one iteration of democracy in world history that is not co-constitutive with slavery. I’m still waiting.Democracy as a Geopolitical Weapon: From CRT Panic to Regime ChangeDomo made one of the sharpest observations of the night, and I want to make sure y’all catch it. He compared the weaponization of democracy to the weaponization of terms like “woke” and “critical race theory.” Remember how people who actually study CRT watched in horror as the term was co-opted by bad-faith actors who had no idea what they were talking about? That’s exactly what happens with democracy.The democratization efforts of Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama, even Joe Biden—these weren’t about spreading self-governance. They were about opening markets, securing neoliberal control, and facilitating the kind of neocolonialism that allows Western powers to dictate the internal politics of other nations. The language of democracy was the cover story. The reality was resource extraction and geopolitical domination.And here’s the part that should make you sit up straight: the same civilizing mission that justified European imperialism—the “duty” to bring governance to “savage peoples”—is the direct descendant of Athens calling African communalism “uncivilized.” The line is unbroken. From 508 BC to the Iraq War to AFRICOM. Education is elevation, y’all. Once you see the pattern, you cannot unsee it.Can American Democracy Be Reformed? The Honest Answer.We closed The Chop Up Show with the hardest question: can American democracy be reformed?Toya G said no. She said we missed the window. She pointed to Project 2025, to the unraveling of voting protections, to Democrats capitulating on ICE funding—the very party supposed to “save democracy” caving to authoritarian demands to avoid political blame. She said corruption is too high. And she’s not wrong.Domo said no—but for a different reason. American democracy can’t be reformed because its foundation is white supremacy. As long as the society that deploys democracy is entrenched in whiteness, no reform will produce genuine liberation. But he argued that if we reconceptualize governance—if we return to the pre-Greek, African models of collective decision-making—there’s something worth building. Not reforming the existing house. Building a new one.And I land here: democracy is a broke-down house that’s been standing since 508 BC. It’s given some people shelter. It’s given others splinters. But the foundation is cracked, the walls are crumbling, and every time Black people try to build something better—Tulsa, Rosewood, the MOVE family in Philadelphia—that house sends someone to burn ours down. The cling to European ideas of governmentality, this insistence that this mode of government is the best we have and can always be made better—that’s the ideology I’m exposing. We have innovated everything else. Why is this one sacred?Malcolm X said it: you can change the government peacefully if you want to. You don’t have to be violent. You can change it by using the ballot. But if you don’t use the ballot, you gotta use the bullet. That ain’t a threat. That’s a diagnosis. When democracy is for sale, when it’s being stripped limb from limb, when the people who control it have no interest in the models of governance that actually originated with us—at some point, you have to stop asking whether the system can be saved and start asking what replaces it.EXPLICIT PAID SUBSCRIBER CALL TO ACTION ASKThis article exists because I refuse to let the real history of democracy get buried under talking points and campaign slogans. From Solon borrowing governance concepts from Egypt to the Igbo women’s councils that Athens never acknowledged to the 13th Amendment’s slavery exception that still functions today—this is the kind of reporting that requires research, time, and independence from the institutions that benefit from your ignorance.I’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education 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.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.5 KEY TAKEAWAYS* Athenian democracy (508 BC) was built on the exclusion of women, slaves, and foreigners from the start—and according to Herodotus, Solon borrowed core governance concepts from Egypt’s Saite dynasty before the Greeks formalized and took credit for “democracy.”* African communalism—including Igbo village assemblies and women’s councils—predated and in many ways exceeded Athenian democracy in inclusivity, yet was labeled “uncivilized” by the same civilization that borrowed from it.* Slavery is co-constitutive with democracy, not incidental to it: from Athens’ slave economy enabling citizen participation to America’s 13th Amendment exception to the prison-industrial complex’s felon disenfranchisement, exploited populations have always underwritten democratic societies.* Democracy has functioned as a geopolitical weapon—from the Greek “civilizing mission” to U.S. “democratization efforts” under multiple administrations—to justify imperialism, open markets, and impose Western governance on societies that already had functional collective systems.* American democracy cannot be reformed within its current framework because its foundation is white supremacy, but the principles of collective governance that predate Athens offer a roadmap for building something new—if Black communities are empowered to self-determine outside the structures designed to exclude them.BIBLIOGRAPHY & RELATED READINGS* Aristotle. Politics. Translated by C.D.C. Reeve. Hackett Publishing, 1998.* Carmichael, Stokely, and Charles V. Hamilton. Black Power: The Politics of Liberation. Vintage Books, 1967.* Du Bois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk. A.C. McClurg & Co., 1903.* Frank, Thomas. What’s the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. Metropolitan Books, 2004.* Hansen, Mogens Herman. The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes. University of Oklahoma Press, 1999.* Herodotus. The Histories. Translated by Robin Waterfield. Oxford University Press, 1998.* Malcolm X. “The Ballot or the Bullet.” Speech delivered April 3, 1964, Cleveland, Ohio.* Mbiti, John S. African Religions and Philosophy. Heinemann, 1969.* Mills, Charles W. The Racial Contract. Cornell University Press, 1997.* Nzegwu, Nkiru. “Recovering Igbo Traditions: A Case for Indigenous Women’s Organizations in Development.” In Women, Culture, and Development, edited by Martha Nussbaum and Jonathan Glover. Oxford University Press, 1995.* Ober, Josiah. Democracy and Knowledge: Innovation and Learning in Classical Athens. Princeton University Press, 2008.* Robinson, Cedric J. Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. University of North Carolina Press, 1983.* Wilderson, Frank B. III. Red, White & Black: Cinema and the Structure of U.S. Antagonisms. Duke University Press, 2010.* Wiredu, Kwasi. “Democracy and Consensus in African Traditional Politics.” In A Companion to African Philosophy, edited by Kwasi Wiredu. Blackwell, 2004.* Yancy, George. Black Bodies, White Gazes: The Continuing Significance of Race in America. Rowman & Littlefield, 2008.* Alexander, Michelle 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

Thank you Tope Eletu, Sherell, Sherri Nourse, Heather A Murphy, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.Education is Elevation and I know a lot of us are lost in the sauce of capitalism. I know a lot of us are so deep in how this system has commodified our human relationships that we can’t even see the water we’re swimming in. But I need y’all to sit with me on this one, because the question I’m posing today isn’t hypothetical. It’s not academic. It’s the most material, most practical, most urgent question facing every single person reading this right now.Is socialism the answer?Now, before you have that knee-jerk reaction — before the programming kicks in and you start typing “but Venezuela” or “who’s gonna work the factory?” — I need you to breathe. I need you to sit in the discomfort. Because that discomfort? That’s the system working exactly as designed. That emotional response you’re about to have? Capitalism put that there. And if you stick with me through this piece, I’m going to show you exactly how.The Monstrous Critique: What Capitalism Actually IsLet me start here, because I think before we can even talk about an alternative, we need to be honest about what we’re living in right now.Socialism is not the government just doing things. It’s not just free healthcare and free childcare. Socialism is an entire restructuring of life around human needs. Right now — and I need you to really hear this — life is structured around profit. Around money. When you say “I need a house,” you don’t actually go get a house. You say, “I need enough money for a house.” When you say “I need a car,” you don’t go get a car. You say, “I need enough money for a car.” Capitalism bars your access to the things you need to survive, and to get access, you have to slave. You slave for the factory, you slave for the corporation, or you slave for yourself as a small business owner, sacrificing meals and health and time to attract enough currency to justify your existence.For others to have more, you must have less. That is exactly how this system works.And here’s what people don’t understand: what I’m describing when I talk about socialism is how human beings lived for 95% of our existence. This idea of one person hoarding everything while the rest of us fight over scraps? That’s a brand new thing. Because in the past, when humanity first emerged, if we did not share what we had, we all died. Survival was cooperative. That wasn’t idealism. That was biology. That was the default state of humanity — surviving collectively.From Farming to Fascism: The Historical Architecture of ExploitationThen we started farming. And we started having surplus. And to protect that surplus, you needed patriarchy. You needed violence. You needed separation. This is where we see the nuclear family born — not out of love, but out of property protection. This is where we see the subjugation of women to the household. And that household? One of the first prisons.Sylvia Federici documents this brilliantly in Caliban and the Witch. We learn in school that the witch hunts were religious hysteria. That’s the sanitized version. The truth is that the witch hunts were the centralization of power. Women held communal power in their communities — power that didn’t arise from money. It arose from fertility, from veneration, from spirituality, from a connection to land and culture. There were common lands where people farmed, lived, gathered. The church sat on common land. During the witch hunts, they took those common lands. And the women who were called “witches” were the influential community leaders whose power threatened the emerging capitalist order.This is where we see domestic labor — reproductive labor like raising a child — treated as non-work. You could take care of a baby all day and under capitalism they’ll treat you like you never put in an hour of work. Because under this system, your purpose as a human being is to reproduce labor. You become a machine. Everything the system does is designed to extract from you. Even having fun. Even joy itself is commodified and used to extract from you.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Socialism Defined: A Transition, Not a FantasySo what is socialism? Let me be precise, because precision matters.Socialism is a transition. It’s a transition toward communism, which is a kind of endpoint — a society where there is no race, no class, no money, no state. Just human beings living among each other as we once did. And to get there, we need socialism because there is so much extraction embedded at every point of this system that you have to dismantle it piece by piece.The way you dismantle it is by first identifying the contradictions. A contradiction works like this: the slave owner needs me to build his house, but I have no house. That’s a contradiction. We work every day, yet we can’t pay our bills. That’s a contradiction. We work every day, yet we don’t have medicine. That’s a contradiction. We work every day, yet we’re undereducated and can barely read. These contradictions are not bugs in the system. They are the system.Karl Marx talked about this using the terms “lower communism” and “fuller communism.” Communism is both a process and an endpoint at the same time. The same way a square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not a square. We have to get to a point where we’re not worried about money, about race, about the thousand divisions capitalism manufactures to keep us from seeing each other clearly. And to do that, people need to not be worried about survival first.Under capitalism, for you to get food in America, you either have to slave at CVS, slave in a prison, slave for the system, or steal it. Under socialism, for you to get food, all you’d have to do is be alive. That is the difference. Socialism is allocating the resources we already have — taking the factories that capitalism built through exploitation and turning them into production systems that serve human needs. As simple as that.Alienation: How Capitalism Captured Your MindFrantz Fanon was an author, a psychologist, and a revolutionary who studied colonized peoples in Algeria during the civil war. He realized something profound: the colonized wanted to become the colonizer. They had their own language but wanted to speak the colonizer’s language. They had their own culture but wanted to adopt the colonizer’s culture. And yet, on the other hand, the colonizer would never accept them. So as a colonized person, you exist in a limbo. This is why we have these desires. This is why we carry a hatred for communism and socialism that we can’t even explain rationally — because the system cannot survive without that hatred.Karl Marx calls this alienation. He outlines it in Das Kapital. Capitalism alienates you from four things: the people around you, your labor, what you make, and eventually yourself. This alienation makes us feel like we’re in constant danger, like we’re not safe, like we need the system. And the system plays daddy — it comes along and says, “It’s gonna be okay. Just let me do the exploitation and you’ll get your bag of chips and your DoorDash.”I saw this playing out in real time during a live conversation. People in the comments were asking, “Who’s gonna work the factory?” and “Who will you sell the products to?” and “Who’s gonna learn how to operate everything?” Every single one of those questions is framed through the perspective of alienation. They can’t imagine a factory existing to provide products for people. They can only imagine a factory existing to generate transactions. That’s how deep the programming goes.But think about this: is anyone getting paid to read this article right now? No. You’re here because you chose to be. People go to school for hours studying subjects that capitalism says have no market value — that’s proof that human beings are motivated by more than profit. The very people who mock “worthless degrees” are conceding that people pursue knowledge for its own sake. You’ve already disproved your own argument.Late-Stage Capitalism: The System Is CrumblingThe German economist Werner Sombart coined the phrase “late-stage capitalism.” It describes the current, often absurd phase of the modern economy, characterized by extreme income inequality, massive corporate influence over government, and the commodification of daily life. If you’re in denial that this definition describes exactly where we are right now, you’re confused about which country you live in.Look around you. People have three, four jobs in a household and can’t afford to live. My friend spent $10,000 on his son’s Little League baseball at a public school. Just for a kid to go have fun outside, they extract from you. Just for you to get food, medicine, to drive down the road — they extract from you. Every single moment, they are extracting from you.Every seven to ten years, we see a stock market crash. 2008 was the housing crisis. 2020 was COVID. And they could have operated the economy in a way where COVID didn’t completely destroy it. Instead, they operated in a way where they could shut your business down and buy it. They destroy the economy for people like you and me so the ultra-rich can buy everything we have until we’re all debt slaves. This is what they want with techno feudalism. Elon Musk wants to own Texas and have you buying things with Tesla coins. The American dollar is crumbling, and they know it. The end is coming because they don’t pay you enough, they won’t invest in the infrastructure to keep society running, and they don’t care if the world ends as long as they can fly away and preserve their power.And then you see fascism. Fascism is capitalism defending itself. It’s an animal backed into a corner, scratching and clawing. The industrial factory owners put Hitler in power because communists and socialists were demanding better pay and more rights. To preserve their power, the capitalist class will always turn to fascism. You don’t even have to reach for historical examples — everybody watching American politics right now understands we’re dealing with fascism, and it exists solely to protect the capitalist interests of corporations. Every war America has fought since World War II has been in the interest of corporations. You’re not fighting for American freedom if you’re blowing up Iranian schools or going into Iraq to steal oil.Commerce Is Not Capitalism: The Lie You Keep RepeatingHere’s the homework I’m assigning y’all, and I need you to take this seriously.A lot of people conflate commerce with capitalism. Commerce is defined as the activity of buying and selling, especially on a large scale. That’s it. Commerce predates capitalism by hundreds and hundreds of years. The Aztec empires traded. The Inca empires traded. The Silk Road existed centuries before anyone conceived of capitalism. You don’t need slavery, rape, murder, pedophilia, or a military-industrial complex to buy and sell things.According to Britannica and the Harvard Gazette, capitalism began to emerge between the 16th and 18th centuries in Europe, particularly in England, through the transition from feudalism via market practices and agrarian changes. That means capitalism is not even 500 years old. Human beings have been here for approximately 300,000 years. The claim that the whole world has always practiced capitalism is empirically false. It’s historically wrong.And here’s the contradiction that should keep you up at night: capitalism tells you it breeds innovation and that we should always be advancing everything. But when it comes to the economic system itself? Suddenly we’re stuck at what Europeans came up with in the 1500s. You believe we should innovate everything — technology, medicine, transportation — but not the system of governance that organizes all of it? That’s not logical. That’s programming.Capitalism was born out of the enclosure movement, where common lands were privatized and worked by tenants for market production. It was born out of slavery, out of colonialism, out of the most abhorrent violence imaginable. It was born out of unsustainability — European feudalism was collapsing, resources were depleted, and colonialism was a desperate, violent expansion to steal what they couldn’t produce. And the democracy we practice now? That didn’t come from Greece. It came from the Six Nations, the Iroquois Confederacy. The native nations already had democratic governance. We stole it, exploited it, and erased it so we could tell our own origin story.Socialism vs. Capitalism vs. Communism: What Black Academics Have to SayNow let me take a moment to address this directly, because this is a conversation that Black scholars have been having for over a century — and it’s one that mainstream discourse consistently ignores.Cedric Robinson, in Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition, argued that Marxism alone was insufficient to explain the experience of Black people under capitalism because capitalism itself was always already racial. Robinson coined the term “racial capitalism” to demonstrate that capitalism didn’t just exploit labor — it required the invention of racial hierarchy to function. For Robinson, communism as Marx described it was a necessary intervention, but it needed to be filtered through the Black radical tradition that predated Marx — through the maroon communities, the slave revolts, the quilombos of Brazil.W.E.B. Du Bois, in Black Reconstruction in America, documented how the formerly enslaved carried out what he called a “general strike” — the largest labor action in American history — and attempted to build cooperative, socialist institutions during Reconstruction. Du Bois argued that it was not the failure of socialism that ended Reconstruction but the violent reassertion of white capitalist power through the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow. Later in life, Du Bois became an open socialist and eventually joined the Communist Party, arguing that capitalism and white supremacy were structurally inseparable.Angela Davis has consistently argued that the prison-industrial complex is the logical extension of plantation capitalism — that mass incarceration is not a failure of the system but a feature of it, designed to warehouse surplus labor and generate profit from captive Black bodies. For Davis, abolition is inherently a socialist project because you cannot dismantle the prison without dismantling the profit motive that sustains it.Walter Rodney, in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, demonstrated that African economies were systematically dismantled by European capitalism, not because they were “backward” but because their destruction was necessary for European capital accumulation. Rodney argued that socialism was the only viable path to genuine African development precisely because capitalism’s relationship to Africa was always extractive by design.And Claudia Jones, the Trinidad-born activist and intellectual, argued in her foundational essay “An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman” that Black women occupied a position of “super-exploitation” under capitalism — exploited by race, class, and gender simultaneously. Jones was a committed communist who understood that no amount of reform within capitalism could address the interlocking systems of oppression that defined Black women’s lives.The throughline among these thinkers is consistent: capitalism was not built to include Black people. It was built on our exclusion, our exploitation, and our dehumanization. Communism and socialism, while imperfect in their historical applications, represent the only theoretical frameworks that demand the total reorganization of economic life around collective human needs rather than private profit. The question for Black communities is not whether capitalism has “worked” — the racial wealth gap alone answers that — but whether we have the courage to imagine and build something entirely different.There Is No Ethical Consumption Under CapitalismAnd for the people who love to say, “How can you be against capitalism if you’re wearing capitalism?” — I need you to think about what you’re actually saying. That’s like asking a slave how they can critique the plantation while eating the master’s food. We don’t exist outside the system. That’s the whole point of the critique. A lot of us criticize capitalism precisely because it forces us to survive within it.You make the iPhone. You make the shirt. The worker creates the product. Capitalism just exploits the labor that creates it. The things you think wouldn’t exist without capitalism — technology, art, infrastructure — all of it existed before capitalism. The pyramids were built before capitalism. The Indus Valley civilization had sewers, grid roads, temples, and what we’d call fast food restaurants. Pottery, art, music, language — all of it predates the 1500s. Things are not made because of capitalism. Things are made because of people. And people have always created, always innovated, always built — because that’s what human beings do.If something can be built, it can be destroyed. And capitalism was built. Not out of necessity. Out of greed, unsustainability, and violence. And if it was built, it can be replaced with something better.The Call to Action: Unplug, Organize, BuildSo where do we go from here?First, reject their reality. Unplug from the matrix. The first step is understanding that the world as it’s been presented to you is not the world as it actually is.Second, get into your community. Real life. Capitalism alienates you from real life, so you have to go out of your way to read books, to learn trades and skills that are valuable to your community. If you know electricity and your neighbor’s lights are messed up, go help. If you’re a mechanic and you hear grandma’s car struggling every morning, go fix it. This is the first step.Third, educate yourself and others. Paulo Freire wrote in Pedagogy of the Oppressed that the system trains you to be passive about your oppression — and not just passive, but active in oppressing others by training you to accept information without question. Instead of learning through conversation and challenge, you’re taught to shut up and memorize. That’s the first step in training docility. So read. Question. Challenge. That’s how we get free.And fourth — and this is the one that really matters — organize. The Bolsheviks didn’t have a majority of their country. They had 30%. All we need is the people who see the truth to come together, get organized, strategize, and build. Because as my man the Chain Slayer said: to leave you powerless, they will leave you knowledgeless. And knowledge is power.Capitalism has a lot of y’all lost in the sauce, and you don’t realize how much it impacts how you value learning and what you value learning. The Heritage Foundation that created Project 2025 employs people with degrees in Women’s and Gender Studies — the very discipline they tell you is worthless. They build think tanks to defund and discredit the same ideologies they use to consolidate their own power. They know the value of this knowledge. They just don’t want you to have it.So I’ll leave y’all with this: capitalism has a lot of us lost in the sauce. It impacts how we value learning, how we value knowledge, and how we value each other. The racial wealth gap has only widened over the past 70 years. No matter how many Black billionaires or Black millionaires you can count, the system wants you to sensationalize these individualistic examples to distract from how the collective is suffering. Any Black man with a billion dollars — his billion is making a hundred billion for a white man. That’s math, not emotion.I don’t care if you disagree with me. I don’t care if you say f**k me. Whether you hate me or love me, I believe education is elevation. And that discomfort you feel? That’s not weakness. That’s growth. That’s how you start to push yourself into action and build on your understanding.5 KEY TAKEAWAYS* Socialism is not “the government doing things” — it’s a complete restructuring of society around human needs rather than profit. Under capitalism, your access to housing, food, medicine, and education is gated behind money. Under socialism, access to those things requires only being alive. That’s not a utopian fantasy — it’s how humans organized survival for 95% of our existence.* Capitalism is not even 500 years old, and commerce predates it by millennia. People conflate buying and selling with capitalism, but markets existed long before the enclosure movement privatized common lands in 16th-century England. The Silk Road, the Aztec trading networks, the Indus Valley’s urban economies — all of this predates capitalism. You don’t need exploitation to have exchange.* Late-stage capitalism is not a theory — it’s a description of right now. Coined by German economist Werner Sombart, the term describes extreme income inequality, corporate capture of government, and the commodification of daily life. When people work 80 hours a week and still can’t eat, the system’s own promises have been broken. The cyclical crashes — 2008, 2020 — aren’t accidents. They’re features designed to consolidate wealth upward.* Fascism is capitalism defending itself, not an alternative to it. Every historical instance of fascism — from the German industrialists backing Hitler to the current corporate capture of American politics — represents capital choosing authoritarian violence over sharing power with workers. Understanding this connection is essential to understanding why “reform” within capitalism consistently fails.* The emotional resistance you feel to this analysis is itself a product of capitalist conditioning. Marx’s concept of alienation, Fanon’s analysis of the colonized mind, Freire’s critique of banking education — all describe how the system programs your responses before you even encounter the argument. The discomfort isn’t a sign you’re wrong. It’s a sign the programming is being challenged.EXPLICIT PAID SUBSCRIBER ASKI’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education 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.Think about what we just broke down together — the history of capitalism from the enclosure movement to techno feudalism, the way alienation programs your emotional responses, the scholars like Cedric Robinson and Angela Davis who’ve mapped the architecture of racial capitalism for decades.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.BIBLIOGRAPHY / RELATED READINGS* Marx, Karl. Das Kapital, Volume 1 (1867)* Marx, Karl. Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844* Federici, Sylvia. Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation (2004)* Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks (1952)* Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth (1961)* Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970)* Robinson, Cedric. Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition (1983)* Du Bois, W.E.B. Black Reconstruction in America (1935)* Davis, Angela. Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003)* Rodney, Walter. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972)* Jones, Claudia. “An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman” (1949)* Mills, Charles. The Racial Contract (1997)* Varoufakis, Yanis. Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism (2023) 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

Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.A man sat on a nationally syndicated radio station in 2014 and told the world—laughing, mind you—that he was sexually involved with a 16-year-old girl when he was 22 years old. His bandmates were right there next to him, giggling. The host was entertained. The audience was amused. Nobody flinched. The man was Wanya Morris of Boyz II Men, and the girl was Brandy Norwood—the same Brandy who was America’s sweetheart, whose debut album was still warm on the shelves, whose entire career was being built under the supervision of the very man who was sleeping with her in secret.His exact words: “We did the thing when she was like 16, 17.” Then, when someone asked whether she was too young, he said: “She was old enough to get it.”A whole 16-year-old girl. A child. And a room full of grown men decided that was comedy.This week, Brandy released her memoir, Phases, and she confirmed what the whispers always said. The relationship was real. It started when she was 16 and he was 22. He was her mentor. He called himself her boyfriend in private and denied it to the world. She lost her virginity to him. She hid the relationship from her parents. She carried the shame for thirty years while he controlled the narrative on Instagram Lives and podcast couches.What I want to do in this piece is something that most of the coverage is not doing. I don’t want to rehash the gossip. I want to give you the framework—the legal architecture, the clinical definitions, the historical pattern, and the structural parallels—that make this story not just a celebrity scandal but a case study in how the exploitation of Black girls was industrialized, normalized, and protected by every institution that was supposed to prevent it. Thinking deeply about shallow s**t, as always. Research over me searching. Let’s get into it.What Brandy Actually WroteIn Phases, Brandy described meeting Wanya Morris through industry connections around 1994, shortly after she began opening for Boyz II Men on their national tour. She was a teenager stepping into a world of grown folks’ money, grown folks’ schedules, and grown folks’ access. Wanya was six years older and already one of the biggest R&B stars on the planet. He positioned himself as a mentor—someone who could guide her through the industry, help her navigate fame, protect her from the machinery that chews up young artists.Brandy wrote that by 1995, when she was 16, the relationship had crossed from mentorship into a secret sexual relationship. Wanya would call himself her boyfriend in private but maintained a public fiction that nothing romantic was happening. The plan, she said, was to reveal the relationship once she turned 18. In the meantime, everything was hidden—from her parents, from the press, from the public.She described the experience with a clarity that only comes from decades of processing. She wrote that he weaponized her admiration for him. She said he saw a 15-year-old girl with rising fame and admiration for his talent and, in her words, “deliberately took advantage.” She described the relationship as involving a significant power imbalance and said she was “too young to recognize she was being used.”And then she wrote something that should be printed on billboards in every entertainment district in America: “I was not a fast girl with a crush. I was not a dramatic teenager who couldn’t handle rejection. I was not an unstable obsessive fan. I was a child. And he was an adult. And it’s time the world understood the difference.”That is not gossip. That is testimony.What Wanya Said—and How It Contradicts EverythingIn 2021, Wanya Morris went on Instagram Live to get ahead of the narrative. He told his followers that Brandy was his “little protege,” that her mother had asked him to guide her through the industry, and that nothing romantic happened until she was of legal age. He said it with the kind of confidence that only comes from believing the other person will never speak.His exact words: “There’s no lie going on here. You can ask Brandy and she will tell you the same story.”Brandy told her story. It directly contradicts every word that came out of his mouth. She said the relationship started at 16. He said it started at 18. She said it was secret, coercive, and shaped by a power imbalance. He said it was organic and mutual. She said she was hiding from her parents. He said her parents allowed him to “guide Brandy.”That’s not a misunderstanding. That’s not a “difference of perspective.” That is a man who spent years constructing a public narrative designed to pre-empt and discredit the testimony of the girl he exploited. And it worked—until she wrote a book.The Grooming Framework—By the BookI need to give you the clinical definition here because too many people are treating this like it’s a matter of opinion. It is not.Grooming is defined in clinical psychology as a deliberate process by which an older or more powerful person cultivates trust, emotional dependency, and secrecy with a younger or less powerful person in order to exploit them—often sexually. The process typically moves through identifiable stages: targeting a vulnerable individual, gaining trust through mentorship or protection, filling an emotional need, isolating the target from other support systems, sexualizing the relationship, and maintaining control through secrecy and shame.Now read Wanya’s own description of the relationship back through that framework. He said he was introduced to Brandy through industry connections. He described himself as her mentor. He said her parents entrusted her career development to him. He said they grew close over time. And then—by his own admission on a public podcast—they became sexually involved when she was 16.That is not a love story that went through normal stages. That is the grooming playbook executed step by step, in order, on camera, with the perpetrator narrating it himself and not even recognizing what he was describing. When you go from “I was guiding this young woman through her career” to “we were intimate when she was 16,” you are not describing mentorship that blossomed into romance. You are describing exploitation that used mentorship as its delivery mechanism.And every single person in that studio who laughed—every member of Boyz II Men who sat there and smiled while he said “she was old enough to get it”—participated in the normalization that makes the next Brandy possible.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Coerced Consent and Consent vs. CoercionThis is where I need everybody to slow down, because this is the part that most people get wrong and the part that matters most.There is a difference between consent and the absence of force. The fact that nobody held a gun to Brandy’s head does not mean she consented. Consent—informed, meaningful consent—requires three elements: maturity to understand what is being agreed to, knowledge of the consequences, and autonomy to freely accept or refuse without coercion. A 16-year-old navigating sudden fame under the guidance of a 22-year-old mentor who controls her access to the industry is, by definition, operating with a compromised capacity for all three.Coercion does not require physical force. Coercion can be structural. When the person you are sleeping with is also the person who introduced you to the industry, who has relationships with every producer and label executive you need, who your own parents have entrusted with your career—the power differential itself becomes the coercive mechanism. You don’t have to threaten someone when the architecture of their entire professional future runs through your approval. The imbalance does the work.Brandy wrote that she “genuinely believed it was true love.” That belief is not evidence of consent. It is evidence that the grooming worked. The entire purpose of grooming is to manufacture the appearance of consent—to make the victim believe they are choosing freely when the conditions of that choice have been engineered by the person exploiting them. When a 16-year-old says “I was in love,” that does not retroactively validate the behavior of the 22-year-old adult who cultivated that feeling while occupying a position of authority over her career and emotional development.Brandy also wrote that she believed having sex with Wanya would “cement their bond”—that she convinced herself it was her choice, only to later realize she never really had one. This is the hallmark of coerced consent: the victim internalizes the groomer’s framing so completely that they experience the exploitation as their own decision. The coercion is invisible to the person being coerced because the entire environment has been shaped to make compliance feel like desire.And let me be precise about the legal dimension here. Neuroscience has established that the prefrontal cortex—the brain region responsible for decision-making, impulse control, and evaluating long-term consequences—does not fully mature until approximately age 25. At 16, a person’s brain is not equipped to evaluate the long-term emotional, psychological, and social consequences of a secret sexual relationship with an adult authority figure. This is not opinion. This is neuroanatomy. This is why age of consent laws exist in every jurisdiction in the country—not because teenagers lack all judgment, but because the law recognizes the developmental asymmetry between adolescents and adults, especially adults who hold power over them.So when people say “she knew what she was doing,” I need you to understand: knowing what you are doing and having the developmental capacity to meaningfully consent to it are two entirely different things. A 16-year-old can understand the physical mechanics of a sexual relationship and still lack the cognitive architecture to evaluate the power dynamics, emotional consequences, and long-term damage of a secret relationship with a mentor who is six years older and infinitely more powerful in the only world that matters to her. Consent without capacity is not consent. It is compliance with extra steps.The Legal Loophole ConfessionThis should have been the headline on every news outlet in America. On that podcast, when pressed about whether the relationship was legal given Brandy’s age, Wanya Morris laughed and said: “We didn’t do it in the states where it was illegal.”I need you to sit with that. A grown man described flying a teenager around the country and calculating which jurisdictions would allow him to have sex with her—and he said it as a joke. The room laughed. Nobody stopped the tape.The age of consent in the United States varies by state: 30 states set it at 16, seven states at 17, and 13 states at 18. What Wanya described—moving a minor between states while navigating this patchwork of laws—is jurisdictional arbitrage. It is the same strategy documented in the Epstein files, where minors were transported between Florida, New York, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and international destinations to exploit gaps in consent law and prosecution.Under 18 U.S.C. § 1591 and the Mann Act provisions of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2421–2423, transporting a minor across state lines for the purpose of sexual activity is a federal crime. When the victim is under 18, the law does not require proof of force, fraud, or coercion. The minor’s age alone establishes the crime. This is a strict liability framework—the same framework that was used to prosecute the Epstein network.When a 22-year-old man treats the statutory age of consent as a legal loophole rather than a boundary designed to protect children, he is not being romantic. He is not being adventurous. He is doing precisely what federal trafficking law was written to prevent. And he told on himself on a podcast.The Epstein Parallel Is Structural, Not MetaphoricalThe Epstein Files Transparency Act was signed into law on November 19, 2025. By January 30, 2026, the Department of Justice had released over 3 million pages, 2,000 videos, and 180,000 images. UN human rights experts described the contents as evidence of a “possible global criminal enterprise” involving systematic sexual abuse, trafficking, and the commodification of women and girls. The UN statement specifically noted that these crimes occurred against a backdrop of racism, extreme misogyny, and dehumanization.I am not saying Wanya Morris is Jeffrey Epstein. Brandy’s case did not involve trafficking or a criminal network. But what the Epstein revelations taught us—and this is the part that everybody wants to skip past—is that exploitation operates on a spectrum. On one end, you have organized criminal networks flying children on private jets. On the other end, you have a 22-year-old R&B star flying a 16-year-old mentee between states, joking about which jurisdictions permit him to have sex with her, while the entire industry looks the other way. The mechanism is the same: access, fame, power imbalance, secrecy, legal maneuvering, and a culture of complicity that punishes the victim for speaking and rewards the perpetrator for silence.The structural similarities are not accidental. They are the product of the same system—one in which powerful men exploit their access to young women and girls while institutions that are supposed to protect those girls instead protect the revenue streams those girls generate.Rest in Peace, AaliyahI cannot write this article without talking about Aaliyah. In August 1994—the same year Brandy began touring with Boyz II Men—R. Kelly secretly married 15-year-old Aaliyah Haughton. Kelly was 27. He was her mentor and producer. He had produced her debut album, which was titled, with a cruelty that only makes sense in retrospect, “Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number.”A fake ID was obtained to list Aaliyah’s age as 18 on the marriage certificate. Kelly’s former tour manager later testified that Kelly knew her real age, that the relationship began when she was in her early teens, and that the marriage was arranged after Kelly feared she was pregnant. Federal prosecutors eventually charged Kelly with paying a bribe to obtain the fraudulent identification document.Two teenage Black girls. Two adult male mentors. Two secret relationships. The same industry. The same decade. The same silence. Aaliyah died in a plane crash in 2001 at 22 years old. She never got to write her memoir. She never got to reclaim her story. The industry that failed to protect her spent decades framing her as a teen seductress rather than recognizing her as a victim.Brandy got to write the book. Aaliyah did not. That alone should tell you how high the stakes are when we talk about believing survivors on their timeline.The Pushback—and Why Every Objection Collapses“He was young too.” He was 22. She was 16. At 22, you have graduated college, you are paying taxes, you can legally drink, sign contracts, and serve on a jury. At 16, you cannot vote, you cannot sign a contract, and in 20 states you cannot legally consent to sex with a 22-year-old. The developmental gap between a 16-year-old brain and a 22-year-old brain is documented by every neurological study on adolescent development published in the last three decades. This is not a gray area.“It was a different time.” Statutory rape laws existed in the 1990s. The age of consent was codified in every state. These laws were enforced—against non-celebrity defendants—regularly. What was different about the 1990s is not the law. It was the enforcement gap. Celebrity and wealth created a de facto exemption from accountability. That is not an argument for tolerance. That is an indictment of complicity.“Why is she bringing this up now?” Because survivors get to choose their own timeline. Because Brandy carried this for 30 years while Wanya controlled the narrative. Because the question was never “why is she talking now?”—the question is “why did we let him lie for this long?”And for the people who want to protect Wanya’s legacy—what about hers? What about Brandy’s family watching him joke about this on podcasts? What about her children hearing “she was old enough to get it” from a man their mother trusted as a teenager? When you center the perpetrator’s comfort over the survivor’s truth, you are telling every exploited girl in America that her story matters less than his reputation. And that is exactly how the cycle perpetuates.What This Demands of UsNext time you share an Epstein file and perform outrage—next time you quote-tweet a document dump and say “protect the kids”—I need you to remember that the exploitation of children did not require a private island. It did not require a billionaire’s black book. It happened on tour buses and in hotel rooms and between studio sessions, in an industry that turned children into products and then blamed those children when grown men consumed them.The 1990s music industry had a child exploitation problem that we glamorized as romance, buried under VH1 specials, and allowed powerful men to narrate from their own perspective for three decades. Brandy just took the pen back. The least we can do is read what she wrote. The least we can do is believe her. The least we can do is stop laughing.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.5 Key Takeaways1. Grooming is a structural process, not an opinion.When a 22-year-old mentor initiates a secret sexual relationship with a 16-year-old protege, the textbook definition has been met. Wanya Morris’s own description of the relationship—mentorship, trust-building, secrecy, then sexual contact—maps onto every clinical stage of the grooming process regardless of anyone’s feelings about the individuals involved.2. Consent without capacity is not consent.The absence of force does not equal the presence of consent. A 16-year-old operating under the professional authority and emotional influence of a 22-year-old mentor lacks the developmental capacity and structural autonomy to meaningfully consent to a secret sexual relationship. Coercion can be structural—built into the power imbalance itself—without a single threat being spoken.3. Legal loopholes are not moral defenses.Wanya’s joke about avoiding states where the relationship was illegal reveals a predatory calculus that treats age of consent laws as obstacles to navigate rather than protections for children. This is the same jurisdictional arbitrage that federal trafficking statutes were designed to prosecute, and it mirrors the geographic maneuvering documented in the Epstein files.4. The 1990s music industry had a systemic child exploitation problem.Brandy’s story exists alongside Aaliyah’s experience with R. Kelly and a broader documented pattern of adult male artists pursuing teenage female artists under the cover of mentorship and career development. This is structural, not incidental. The industry created the conditions, the culture provided the cover, and the silence ensured it could repeat.5. Survivors own their timeline.Brandy carried this story for 30 years while Wanya controlled the public narrative. Her memoir reclaims it on her terms. The appropriate question is never “why is she speaking now?” It is “why did we let him lie unchallenged for three decades?”Explicit Ask to Become a Paid SubscriberI’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education and 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.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bibliography & Related ReadingsPrimary SourcesNorwood, Brandy. Phases: A Memoir. Hanover Square Press, 2026.Surviving R. Kelly. Directed by Dream Hampton. Lifetime, 2019–2023.DeRogatis, Jim. Soulless: The Case Against R. Kelly. Abrams Press, 2019.Epstein Files Transparency Act, Pub. L. No. 119-XX (2025). Released documents: justice.gov/epstein.Legal & Policy Sources18 U.S.C. § 1591 – Sex Trafficking of Children by Force, Fraud, or Coercion.18 U.S.C. §§ 2421–2423 – Mann Act provisions on Transportation of Minors for Illegal Sexual Activity.Andreozzi + Foote. “15-Year-Olds Are Children: The Law, the Epstein Files, and the Lie of ‘Barely Legal.’” January 2026.United Nations OHCHR. “Flawed ‘Epstein Files’ Disclosures Undermine Accountability for Grave Crimes.” Press Release, February 17, 2026.Thanks for reading Education Is Elevation! This post is public so feel free to share it. 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

Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.I need y’all to hear me on this one.I don’t say things to be provocative. I say things because the data demands it. Right now, Senator Cory Booker is out here on a nationwide book tour, sitting on Meet the Press telling Kristen Welker he’s “definitely not ruling out” a presidential run in 2028. I’m not here to bash him and yes we disagree on alot, however I hope this video and piece written by me is something he and his team can sit on. Process and digest.Let’s start where everybody wants to start. The speech.On March 31, 2025, Cory Booker took to the Senate floor and spoke for 25 hours and 5 minutes. He didn’t eat. He didn’t sit. He didn’t use the restroom. His staff removed his chair so he wouldn’t be tempted to sit down. And when he was done, Democrats gave him a standing ovation, Chuck Schumer shed a tear, and the internet lost its collective mind. It was a cool moment, though I remained critical. He broke the record previously held by Strom Thurmond—the segregationist senator from South Carolina who filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1957 for 24 hours and 18 minutes trying to stop Black people like Booker from ever sitting in the United States Senate.Now, the symbolism of a Black senator breaking the record of a white supremacist senator? I see the power in that. I’m not going to negate the historical symbolism of what he did. On my PawPaw grave here’s where I need y’all to think deeper than the optics.What did the speech actually accomplish?Zero bills passed. Zero votes stopped. Zero policy changes. Let me say that again for the people in the back who confuse applause with legislation: zero. Stated simply, Conscious Lee will not substitute my cultural pride for political accountability. Yes we can celebrate that cultural moment in history while also not separating it from political accountability and critique. As a Public Educater and Edutaining Content Creator, I’m critiqued best in this very framework nonetheless I’m no policy maker.See, I know political theater when I see it. And just like Strom Thurmond’s historical act didn’t stop the Civil Rights Act from passing the very next day by a vote of 60–15, Booker’s speech didn’t stop a single thing either. Matthew Whitaker—a man with no significant foreign policy experience who served briefly as Trump’s acting attorney general—was confirmed as the U.S. Ambassador to NATO by a vote of 52–45 the same evening Booker stopped talking. The Senate literally waited for him to sit down and then proceeded with business as usual. Feel me?Pay attention and read closely. Here’s what nobody wants to talk about. What Booker did after the speech.The ReceiptsReceipt number one. The very next month after his marathon performance, Booker voted to confirm David Perdue—Trump’s pick for U.S. Ambassador to China—joining 15 other Democrats in handing Trump a 67–29 victory. This is during an active trade war that Trump started with his reckless 145 percent tariffs on Chinese imports. You just stood on your feet for 25 hours telling America how dangerous this administration is, and then you handed them a confirmation vote on a critical diplomatic post in the middle of an economic confrontation? Make that make sense.Receipt number two. In May 2025, Cory Booker was the only Democrat—the only one—to vote to confirm Charles Kushner as the United States Ambassador to France. Who is Charles Kushner? He’s Jared Kushner’s father, Ivanka Trump’s father-in-law, a convicted felon who pled guilty to tax evasion, illegal campaign donations, and—this is the part that should disqualify any senator’s vote—witness tampering. The man hired a sex worker to seduce his own brother-in-law, had it filmed, and sent the tape to his sister as retaliation for cooperating with federal investigators. He was sentenced to two years in prison. Trump pardoned him in 2020. And Cory Booker—Mr. 25-Hour Moral Stand—was the lone Democrat to say, “Yeah, that’s fine with me.”Why? According to the New Jersey Globe, Booker and Kushner have a relationship going back decades. Charles Kushner provided financial support for Booker’s first mayoral run in Newark back in 2002. So when the moment came to choose between principle and patronage, Booker chose patronage. Every single time.Receipt number three. Booker himself stood on the Senate floor later in 2025 and said—and I’m paraphrasing here—”This is a problem with Democrats in America right now. We’re willing to be complicit with Donald Trump. We are standing at a moment where our president is eviscerating the Constitution, and we’re willing to go along with it.” He said that. On the record. About his own party. But Senator, you are the party. You are the complicity you’re describing. Because when the votes came, you went along with it too.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The Historical Context You NeedLet me give you the history that most people won’t, because this pattern didn’t start with Booker.Strom Thurmond’s 1957 filibuster is instructive not because of its length but because of its futility and its function. Thurmond stood for 24 hours and 18 minutes reading state election laws, the Declaration of Independence, and George Washington’s Farewell Address—not because he believed he could stop the Civil Rights Act, but because the performance of resistance served his political brand. Even his fellow Southern Democrats—men like Richard Russell and Herman Talmadge, committed segregationists—were furious with Thurmond. Russell called it “personal political aggrandizement.” Talmadge called it grandstanding. They had agreed as a caucus not to filibuster the bill, and Thurmond broke ranks for the spectacle. The bill passed the next day.Now I’m not drawing a moral equivalence between Thurmond’s cause and Booker’s. Thurmond was fighting to stop Black people from voting. Booker was ostensibly fighting to protect democratic institutions. But the structural function of both speeches is identical: a marathon performance that stopped nothing, changed nothing, and primarily elevated the speaker’s national profile. Thurmond used his filibuster to become a national figure in Southern politics. Booker used his speech to launch a book tour and fuel 2028 presidential speculation. The pattern is the pattern.And this is where the deeper history gets uncomfortable. The Democratic Party has a long tradition of what I call performative resistance—gestures designed to signal opposition without actually disrupting the machinery of power. When Hakeem Jeffries and Booker sat on those stairs together for their viral moment, I said at the time: that’s what me and my content creator friends do. We sit down and have conversations and hope they reverberate through the culture because we don’t have levers of power. But Booker does. He’s a United States Senator. He has committee assignments, voting power, the ability to place holds on nominations, and the procedural tools to actually obstruct. He chose the performance instead.This is the difference between Frederick Douglass and the Black faces in high places that Malcolm X warned us about. Douglass didn’t just speak—he organized, he built institutions, he demanded structural change. Malcolm drew the distinction clearly: there’s a difference between the house Negro and the field Negro, between the entertainer and the leader. The entertainer performs resistance. The leader produces it. And if we’re being honest—facts over feelings—Booker’s record is that of a performer, not a producer.He’s Voted Nice Before—But This Moment Demands MoreNow, let me be fair. I want to be fair because that’s what we do at Education is Elevation. We don’t deal in caricature. We deal in complexity. We leave the pathology and antiblack tropes for them other folks.Cory Booker has cast votes I respect. He was the first senator in history to testify against a fellow senator during Jeff Sessions’ 2017 attorney general confirmation hearing. He co-sponsored the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in 2013. He has spoken powerfully about criminal justice reform, and he’s introduced legislation around environmental justice that reflects genuine concern for marginalized communities. He showed moral courage during the Kavanaugh hearings. I see that. I acknowledge that.In Bryan, Texas we have the saying about “dry ass hating” which means exactly how it sounds. I’m not dry ass hating.But here’s what I need the culture, my neighbors and kinfolks to understand: a voting record built in calmer waters does not predict performance in a storm. How that pipe functions when’s its easy flow will not tell negate how pressure bust pipes. Bro is just not piped up to be President. And right now, we are in a Category 5 hurricane. We have an administration that has, by Booker’s own admission on the Senate floor, “inflicted harm after harm on Americans’ safety, financial stability, the foundations of our democracy.” We have DOGE dismantling federal agencies. We have ICE operating with expanded impunity. We have tariff wars destabilizing working families. We have an assault on public education, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security happening in real time.And in this climate… this specific, unprecedented, constitutional crisis climate—Cory Booker has shown us who he is. He speaks for 25 hours and then votes to confirm the nominees of the very administration he just railed against. He writes a book called Stand while sitting down on the votes that matter. He talks about being part of “a new generation of leadership” while practicing the oldest form of political careerism there is: building a brand on the backs of people’s pain without delivering material results.The current moment doesn’t need someone who can rise to a podium. It needs someone who can rise to the moment. And Cory Booker, based on his own record, has illustrated that he cannot rise to the moment for the American people—only for himself.The “I Am Spartacus” ProblemRemember the Kavanaugh hearings? Booker had his dramatic “I am Spartacus” moment where he claimed to be risking expulsion from the Senate by releasing confidential documents. The White House had actually already cleared those documents for release. It was theater. Effective theater, maybe—but theater. And the White House knew it then, which is exactly why their spokesperson responded to the 25-hour speech by saying Booker was “looking for another ‘I am Spartacus’ moment.”When your opponents can predict your playbook because your playbook is always the same—performative resistance followed by institutional compliance—you are not a threat to power. You are a relief valve for it. You give people the emotional catharsis of resistance without the material consequences of it. And that is not leadership. That is content creation with a Senate salary.What His Own State Is SayingLet me bring this home. New Jersey—Booker’s own state—shifted significantly toward Republicans in 2024. Kamala Harris won the state by less than six points after Biden won it by sixteen. Booker’s approval ratings have been a subject of concern among New Jersey Democrats for years. His 2026 reelection is not the guaranteed victory it once would have been. And according to my New Jersey sources and multiple reports, there is genuine frustration among constituents who feel that Booker has prioritized national ambitions over the needs of the state that elected him.This is a man who has raised $10 million—with a major fundraising bump directly after the 25-hour speech—for a campaign account and affiliated joint fundraising committee. He released a book the same month he went on Meet the Press to not rule out a presidential run. The timeline isn’t subtle, y’all. The speech was the launch pad. The book is the campaign literature. And the presidential campaign is the destination that every single one of these moves has been designed to reach.The question isn’t whether Cory Booker wants to be president. He’s told us he does. The question is whether his record justifies that ambition. And based on the receipts—zero bills passed, confirmation votes for Trump nominees including a convicted felon, a speech that stopped nothing, and a book tour that started immediately after—the answer is no.The Standard We Should DemandI want to have a respectful conversation about this. I hope this article has showcased that I have the ability to be respectful and analytical while still being direct. I’m not here to assassinate anyone’s character. I’m here to evaluate a public servant’s record against their stated ambitions.Because if we’re serious about 2028—if we’re serious about building a Democratic Party that can actually defeat Trumpism and not just perform opposition to it—then we need candidates whose records match their rhetoric. We need leaders who don’t vote to confirm convicted felons to ambassadorial posts because of two-decade-old political debts. We need senators who understand that a 25-hour speech means nothing if you hand the opposition a confirmation vote 24 hours later.Thinking deeply about shallow s**t is what we do here. And the shallow s**t in this case is the 25-hour speech. It looks deep. It feels powerful. It moved people to tears. But when you dig beneath the surface—when you pull the receipts and lay the voting record next to the rhetoric—what you find is a politician who is exceptionally skilled at performing the aesthetics of resistance while maintaining the practice of compliance.That’s not a president. That’s a brand.Thanks for reading Education Is Elevation! This post is public so feel free to share it.5 KEY TAKEAWAYS1. The 25-hour speech produced zero legislative results. No bills passed. No votes stopped. Matthew Whitaker was confirmed as NATO Ambassador the same evening Booker stopped speaking. The speech was a physical feat, not a legislative one.2. Booker’s voting record contradicts his rhetoric. After publicly opposing the Trump administration for 25 hours, Booker voted to confirm David Perdue as Ambassador to China and was the sole Democrat to confirm convicted felon Charles Kushner as Ambassador to France—a man who financially supported Booker’s first campaign.3. The historical pattern of marathon Senate speeches is clear. From Thurmond in 1957 to Cruz in 2013 to Booker in 2025, lengthy Senate speeches have almost never changed legislative outcomes. They change narratives and build personal brands. Thurmond’s own allies called his filibuster “personal political aggrandizement”—a criticism that applies equally today.4. Booker’s post-speech trajectory reveals his priorities. A book release, a national tour, $10 million in fundraising, and a public refusal to rule out a 2028 presidential run all followed the speech. The speech was a launchpad for personal ambition, not a catalyst for collective action.5. The current moment demands legislators who produce results, not performances. With DOGE dismantling agencies, tariff wars destabilizing the economy, and constitutional norms under unprecedented assault, the Democratic Party needs leaders whose voting records match their stated opposition—not senators who speak for 25 hours and then hand the administration confirmation votes.Explicit Ask To Become Paid SubscriberI’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education 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.The article you just read—pulling Senate voting records, historical analysis of the filibuster tradition from Thurmond to Booker, cross-referencing confirmation votes with public statements, and contextualizing all of it within the history of performative resistance in American politics—this is the kind of independent, receipts-based on investigative education that doesn’t exist on cable news. They’ll show you the 25-hour speech. They’ll let Booker promote his book unchallenged. They won’t pull the Kushner vote, the Perdue confirmation, or the Whitaker timeline and lay it all out for you in one place. That’s what your paid subscription makes possible. That’s what Education is Elevation is building. If this work matters to you, become a paid subscriber today. We’re building the media we deserve—together.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

Thank you Reda Rountree (she/her), Mandy Ohman, PJ Schuster, Andrews, Martha, Molly Z, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.Huey P. Newton said that power is the ability to define the phenomenon and make it act in a desired manner. Today the phenomenon is this: how does small-town politics spill over into the global? Or, if you flip it, how does global politics trickle down and root itself inside the local? Because I’m going to tell you something — when I go back to Bryan, Texas, the town I was raised in, I don’t feel like I’m going home. I feel like I’m walking back into plantation politics.And I mean that structurally. Not metaphorically. Structurally.I recently sat down with my homie Ethan Brisby — a brother from Bryan who went to Morehouse College, got his master’s in land and property development from Texas A&M, and has spent the last fifteen years building an organization called SHIFT Enterprise Academy. SHIFT stands for Save your money, Help your family, Imagine your goals, Follow directions, and Think accurately. It’s a mindset framework, an ecosystem, and a material response to the oppressive conditions Black people face in small-town America — and increasingly, across the African continent. What Ethan is doing is real work. Ground-level, community-rooted, globally conscious work. And our conversation cracked open something I’ve been sitting with for a long time about what small-town Texas politics really is, where it comes from, and why it never seems to change.Let me give you the receipts.The Name on the City Is a Slaveholder’s NameLet’s start with the very name of the city. Bryan, Texas is named after William Joel Bryan — the nephew of Stephen F. Austin, the so-called “Father of Texas.” William Joel Bryan was born in Missouri in 1815, moved to Texas with his family, and grew up on Peach Point Plantation in Brazoria County, where his family managed the plantation, cattle, and property holdings of Stephen F. Austin himself. After Austin died in 1836, William Joel Bryan inherited massive land holdings across the region. By the 1860 census, Bryan owned real property valued at $176,000, personal property worth over $62,000, and held thirty-eight enslaved people. His Durazno Plantation raised cotton, cattle, and sugar using the labor of enslaved Africans. Four of his seven children went on to fight for the Confederate Army.In 1859, William Joel Bryan granted right-of-way through his inherited land in Brazos County to the Houston and Texas Central Railroad, and the projected townsite was named in his honor. In 1860, he deeded 640 acres for the original Bryan townsite to railroad officials for $3,200 — land that enslaved people had cultivated and maintained. The city of Bryan was literally formed by former Confederate soldiers after the Civil War ended in 1865. That is not ancient history. That is the foundation beneath the streets.So when I say I’m walking back into plantation politics when I go home, I need you to understand the literalness of that statement. The city is named after a slaveholder. The land the city sits on was inherited through the machinery of Anglo-colonial land theft and chattel slavery. And the neighborhoods where Black people live today — what folks call “the Bottoms,” what sits along the east side — those are the same areas where formerly enslaved people were relegated after emancipation.Freedman Town and the Geography of Anti-BlacknessAfter the Civil War, one of the earliest Black communities in Brazos County was Freedman Town. Records indicate lots were being sold to African Americans in what was called Hall’s Addition as early as 1867. The Bryan School for Colored Youth was established on that site in 1885 and was later destroyed in a fire. Washington Elementary was built in its place, then burned again in 1971 — the same year, finally, that Black students were integrated into Bryan’s public school system. Think about that. 1971.And this is the part that triggered me in my conversation with Ethan: the way that political consciousness gets suppressed in small-town Texas. It is not the same as the East Coast or the West Coast. When you start talking about white supremacy, anti-Blackness, challenging the legitimacy of government structures — the response from your own community is often: “Man, don’t do that.” Not because they disagree, but because the good old boy system has people psychologically conditioned to believe that defiance is dangerous and compliance is divine.The Normalization of Suffering and the Divine TrapThis is what I call the divine trap. In small-town Texas, particularly in Black communities, there is a deep cultural tendency to make suffering sacred. “The toughest battles go to the strongest soldiers.” “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle.” Now, I’m not attacking faith. I’m a spiritual person. But I am saying this: when you take the various structural ways that a system has caused your reality — the over-policing, the underfunded schools, the disinvestment, the geographic containment — and you make that divine, you have just absolved the structure of accountability.God didn’t put you on the east side of Bryan. Stephen F. Austin’s land grants did. William Joel Bryan’s railroad deal did. Post-Civil War Freedman Town designations did. Jim Crow zoning did. And the Klan’s resurgence in early twentieth-century Bryan — which the historical record documents as limiting the overall upward mobility of the African American community through segregation and terror — that did it too.Ethan mapped this same dynamic onto the colonization of Africa. He broke it down in sequence: first came the explorers, who were welcomed. Then the missionaries, who introduced spiritual frameworks that softened resistance — turn the other cheek, your heaven is in the afterlife. Then the mercenaries, who took the land by force. And finally the merchants, who control the markets to this day. That sequence — explorer, missionary, mercenary, merchant — is not just the story of continental colonization. That is the playbook. And small-town Texas has been running the same play since the 1820s when Jared Groce arrived from Alabama with ninety enslaved people and set up a cotton plantation on the Brazos River, in Stephen F. Austin’s colony.Machine Politics and the Good Old Boy SystemEthan said something that crystallized it for me: small-town politics is the epitome of machine politics. When you can redraw a district line today and already know who is going to win next year, that is a machine. That is not democracy. That is engineered outcomes. And machine politics runs on what Ethan called the good old boy system — people, places, and things that pull strings you never see.In Bryan-College Station, this machinery operates in plain sight if you know where to look. Every drug under the sun can be found on the Texas A&M campus. We all know this. And yet the east side and west side of Bryan — where the Black people live — get policed at a categorically different intensity than the university. They justify the over-policing of Black neighborhoods through the rhetoric of drugs and crime, while the same substances flow freely through a predominantly white institution five miles away. So how is correlation equals causation for the Black community but not for the affluent white people at Texas A&M University? That is not just structural inequality. That is anti-Blackness baked into the infrastructure.Ghislaine Maxwell, Federal Prison Camp Bryan, and the ContradictionAnd then there is this. I’m on the east side of Bryan, visiting family. I’ve been making videos about the Epstein files, about Ghislaine Maxwell, about the entire trafficking apparatus. And I look across the street from my auntie’s house and there is a federal prison. Federal Prison Camp Bryan — a minimum-security facility that sits right there in the hood, in Bryan, Texas.Ghislaine Maxwell is incarcerated there. Serving a twenty-year sentence for conspiring to sex traffic minors. And she is getting preferential treatment. The facility houses mostly non-violent white-collar offenders. Maxwell got transferred there from a low-security prison in Florida after meeting with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for two full days. Bureau of Prisons policy says sex offenders should not be housed at minimum-security facilities — but she got a waiver. She was praised in her own emails for the cleanliness and orderliness of the facility. Other inmates were warned by prison staff to use discretion talking about Maxwell. One inmate who spoke to the media was pulled out of a puppy-training program and transferred to a federal detention center in Houston.Meanwhile, I’ve got family members from that very neighborhood who got locked up for moving narcotics and are sitting in rougher federal institutions than a woman who trafficked children. Think about the moral architecture of that. Think about the fact that Greg Abbott brings the hammer down on communities like east side Bryan while Ghislaine Maxwell gets an emotional support dog at a facility that locals used to call “Club Fed.”This is what plantation politics looks like in 2026. The geography hasn’t changed. The hierarchy hasn’t changed. The relationship between who gets punished and who gets protected hasn’t changed.Epigenetics, Programming, and the SHIFT ResponseI’ve been working on a video about epigenetics — about how suffering, trauma, and modes of emotion get passed down through DNA. Dr. George Yancy’s work on the elevator effect, on how anti-Black racism operates at the level of bodily encounter, has been central to how I think about this. And when I connect that to small-town Texas, I think a lot of our epigenetics are still captured within the plantation. The way Black people in Bryan relate to each other, measure each other’s success, police each other’s defiance — it is still structured by proximity to whiteness.This is why what Ethan is doing with SHIFT matters. His response to the intellectual alienation of going back home — after attending Morehouse, after getting his master’s at A&M, after seeing the world differently — was not to lecture. It was to build. SHIFT started in 2010 as a college access program. By 2014, it pivoted to homeownership and first-time homebuyers. In 2021, after a radio appearance in eastern Uganda went viral and his phone rang with over thirty missed calls, Ethan launched SHIFT East Africa — running five cohorts of fifteen students across eight countries, training over 112 alumni, and funding pitch competition winners with $500 of his own money to start businesses.And here is what hit me hardest about Ethan’s story: he could have stopped at the vibes. He could have been the small-town kid from Bryan who went to Morehouse, showed up in Africa, dropped his number on the radio, and bathed in the feeling of impact. But he didn’t. He said he couldn’t just give them language. He had to give them something material. That distinction — between emotional satisfaction and material impact — is everything.The Emotional Economy and Whose Feelings Have ValueThis made me think about what I’m going to call the emotional economy. Not just emotional intelligence, though that matters. I’m talking about the political economy of feelings. Whose emotions get to be mobilized into policy? Whose anger creates action? Whose anger gets criminalized?When white colonists were angry at King George, “give me liberty or give me death” became a founding principle. That was an emotional argument that built a nation. When white men feel economic anxiety, politicians respond with policy — tariffs, tax cuts, border walls. But when Black people express anger at structural conditions, that anger gets coded as criminality, defiance, danger. When women express emotion, patriarchy says they cannot lead. But whose emotional decisions have led us into more wars?The Afro-pessimists talk about the libidinal economy — the economy of feelings and desire. I think what I’m adding is that in the attention economy, in social media, in the entire structure of how we process information, there is a hierarchy to whose emotions get to count. White male anger generates legislation. Black anger generates incarceration. Trans visibility generates erasure. Women’s emotion generates dismissal. And in small-town Texas, this emotional hierarchy is enforced through every institution — from the church to the courthouse to the police department.From Doers to Beings: The Capitalism of Black BodiesThere’s a distinction I’ve been sitting with between being a doer and being a being. Capitalism reduces Black people to doers — your value is what you can produce, what you can perform, what your body can generate for someone else’s profit. If you can’t do anything, you don’t have value. But being — being a full person, being allowed to show emotion, being seen as an individual with interiority — that is a luxury reserved for those whose humanity is already assumed.This is what makes plantation politics so persistent. On the plantation, your value was your labor. In the modern economy, your value is your productivity. In the emotional economy, your feelings don’t count unless they serve someone else’s agenda. And in small-town Texas, the programming runs so deep that people don’t even see it operating on them. They think the machine is just the way things are.But it’s not the way things have to be. And that’s what Ethan’s mantra — build, create, evolve — is about. The way we get trapped in machine politics is that we’re not willing to create anything new. We don’t think we’re creators. We think whatever was handed to us is what we rock with. But when you make the commitment to build something new, you have to be creative. And as you create, you evolve.That’s all life is. Evolution. The studies say one thing, but your evolution can say another.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Research Over MeSearch: What the Historical Record ShowsHere is what the historical record tells us about the soil beneath Bryan, Texas:Stephen F. Austin wrote in 1824 that “the principal product that will elevate us from poverty is cotton, and we cannot do this without the help of slaves.” Jared Groce arrived from Alabama in 1822 with ninety enslaved people and established a cotton plantation on the Brazos River. By the first census of Austin’s colony in 1825, there were 443 enslaved people in a total population of 1,800. By 1860, enslaved people constituted over 70 percent of the population in Brazoria County — the heaviest concentration of enslaved people west of the Mississippi. In Brazos County, the lands along the Brazos River and the Navasota River had been claimed and assigned titles by 1824. By 1860, the average price of a prime male field hand was $1,200, while good Texas cotton land could be bought for six dollars an acre. The institution of slavery in Texas was not incidental. It was foundational.Brazos County proclaimed April “Confederate History and Heritage Month” as recently as 2016, with 161 Confederate battle flags marking graves at Bryan Cemetery. The lone African American commissioner was absent and unable to sign the carefully worded proclamation that said the county “acknowledges that slavery was one of the causes of the war.”One of the causes. The audacity.How to Support SHIFT Enterprise AcademyEthan Brisby and his team are doing the real work — from Bryan, Texas to East Africa and back. You can support their mission by visiting www.shiftenterpriseacademy.com, joining their mailing list, purchasing Ethan’s books (Five Proven Strategies on How to Pay for College and The Roaring 30s), and staying locked in for upcoming training sessions in college strategy, home buying for smart buyers, and capacity building for small business developers.PAID SUBSCRIBER ASKI need to be direct with you.This article exists because I sat down with a brother from my hometown and we chopped it up about the structures nobody wants to name. About machine politics. About plantation geography. About a convicted child sex trafficker getting preferential treatment at a federal prison camp sitting in the middle of a Black neighborhood in Bryan, Texas. About the emotional economy that decides whose pain gets a policy response and whose pain gets a prison sentence.I’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education 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.When you become a paid subscriber, you are not just reading articles. You are funding the kind of investigative, historically grounded, structurally literate journalism that the mainstream won’t touch. Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.5 KEY TAKEAWAYS1. Bryan, Texas is named after a slaveholder — and that’s not a historical footnote, it’s an operating system. William Joel Bryan, nephew of Stephen F. Austin, owned thirty-eight enslaved people and granted the land for the town. The Black neighborhoods that exist today sit on the same geography where enslaved and later freed Black people were contained. Plantation politics isn’t a metaphor in Bryan — it’s a map.2. Machine politics and the good old boy system are not relics of the past — they are the active infrastructure of small-town governance. When you can redraw a district line and already know the outcome, that is not democracy. That is engineered power. And in Bryan, this machinery intersects with racialized over-policing, differential investment, and the suppression of political consciousness.3. The normalization of suffering through divine framing is a tool of political control. When communities are conditioned to see their structural oppression as God’s plan, the system that created those conditions is absolved of accountability. This mirrors the colonial playbook: explorers, missionaries, mercenaries, merchants — in that order.4. Ghislaine Maxwell’s preferential treatment at Federal Prison Camp Bryan exposes the racial architecture of the justice system. A convicted child sex trafficker resides in a minimum-security facility in a Black neighborhood where residents’ own family members serve harder time for lesser offenses. The contradiction is the point.5. Material impact must follow emotional connection — and SHIFT Enterprise Academy models what that looks like. Ethan Brisby’s fifteen-year journey from Bryan, Texas to Morehouse to East Africa demonstrates that consciousness without material action is incomplete. Build, create, evolve is not just a slogan — it’s the counter-program to plantation politics.BIBLIOGRAPHY & RELATED READINGSCampbell, Randolph B. An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821–1865. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989.Torget, Andrew J. Seeds of Empire: Cotton, Slavery, and the Transformation of the Texas Borderlands, 1800–1850. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015.Kelley, Sean M. Los Brazos de Dios: A Plantation Society in the Texas Borderlands, 1821–1865. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2010.Barr, Alwyn. Black Texans: A History of African Americans in Texas, 1528–1995. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996.Lundberg, John R. The Texas Lowcountry: Slavery and Freedom on the Gulf Coast, 1822–1895. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2024.Rothstein, Richard. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. New York: Liveright, 2017.Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta. Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019.Katznelson, Ira. When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America. New York: W.W. Norton, 2005.Yancy, George. Black Bodies, White Gazes: The Continuing Significance of Race in America. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.Wilderson, Frank B. III. Afropessimism. New York: Liveright, 2020. 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

Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Let me ask y’all something, and I want you to sit with this for a second. Is Jaden Ivey being persecuted for his faith? Or is there a difference between using your love for Jesus Christ and using it to justify hate for somebody else? Because I need us to be very clear about that distinction right now. The Chicago Bulls waived Ivey on March 30, 2026, for conduct detrimental to the team after he went on Instagram and called the NBA’s celebration of Pride Month “unrighteousness.” And immediately, the internet lit up with people screaming persecution. Christians are under attack. They’re silencing believers. And I’m sitting here like—no, we’re not doing this. Not today. Not with this history.Because here’s what I need y’all to understand: this is not about one basketball player having an opinion about the Bible. This is about the machinery of white Christian nationalism actively recruiting Black people to be its foot soldiers, and a 24-year-old man who either doesn’t know the history or doesn’t care. Either way, we have a problem. And I’m going to walk y’all through the receipts.It Is Not Religious Persecution. Full Stop.Number one, I’m going to answer the question for y’all in the back. It is not religious persecution. You cannot use your religion or faith to justify calling another group unrighteous or saying their mere presence goes against the righteousness of God. That is oppression. Period. Ivey said his conduct was detrimental to the team, and he asked why they didn’t just say they disagreed with his stance on LGBTQ people. I’ll tell you why. Because it was detrimental to the team. Instead of talking about the Bulls’ performance on the court, we’re talking about his antics, his ignorance, the way he’s trying to justify oppression in the name of Jesus.Number two, most of the time selective moral outrage comes from ignorance. Do you know that in 2016, the NBA and the WNBA became the first professional sports leagues to march in the New York City Pride Parade? That was headline news. Commissioner Adam Silver was on the float. The WNBA had already established the first league-wide Pride campaign in 2014. Jaden Ivey was born in 2002. That means the NBA has been celebrating Pride since he was approximately 13 or 14 years old. He was drafted in 2022. He signed contracts. He cashed checks. He played in a league that had been celebrating Pride for years before he ever put on a jersey. This is not a surprise. This is a choice to ignore the environment you voluntarily entered.The History They Don’t Want You to KnowNow let me give y’all the history, because this is where the consciousness comes in. Christian nationalism is not new. It is not a fringe movement. It is one of the oldest political ideologies in the Western hemisphere, and its roots are soaked in blood. In 1493, the Doctrine of Discovery gave European Christians papal authority to colonize, convert, and enslave non-Christian peoples. That single document became the legal and theological foundation for the transatlantic slave trade, the genocide of Indigenous peoples, and the construction of the racial hierarchy that still governs this country today.The New England Puritans carried this ideology to North America. They saw themselves as God’s chosen people, North America as their Promised Land, and Indigenous peoples as the Canaanites who needed to be conquered. Manifest Destiny wasn’t just a political slogan—it was a theological claim. The idea that white Christians had a divine right to rule this continent is not a distortion of Christian nationalism. It is the definition of it.By the 1930s, anti-New Deal business interests were linking American capitalism to Christianity. In 1956, Congress adopted “In God We Trust” as the national motto during the Cold War—not because of devotion, but to distinguish America from communist atheism. Christianity became a tool of geopolitics. Then in the 1960s, the Supreme Court banned school prayer, and in 1971, Green v. Connally threatened the tax-exempt status of racially segregated Christian schools. That is what birthed the modern Religious Right. Not prayer. Not abortion. Segregation. The defense of white Christian institutions that refused to integrate. That is the origin story they will never tell you.Trump’s Relationship with Christian NationalismAnd now let’s talk about the present, because Christian nationalism is no longer just a cultural phenomenon. It is federal policy. On February 6, 2025, Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias.” It established a federal task force under the Attorney General to investigate alleged anti-Christian persecution in government agencies. The next day, he signed a second order creating the White House Faith Office, led by televangelist Paula White-Cain. On May 1, 2025, he launched a Religious Liberty Commission.Let’s pause and process that. Russell Vought, a self-described Christian nationalist and key architect of Project 2025, was appointed to run the Office of Management and Budget—the agency that oversees the implementation of presidential policy across the entire federal government. The architect of the blueprint is now the builder of the house. Project 2025 is over 900 pages long. It calls for a biblical definition of marriage and family, the rollback of LGBTQ protections, the elimination of the Department of Education, and the defunding of what it calls “woke progressivism.” Mariko Hirose of Americans United for Separation of Church and State called it “a road map for Christian nationalism.”And when journalists pointed out that all of this violates the separation of church and state, Trump said—and I quote because I cannot make this up—during a Rose Garden event celebrating National Prayer Day: “They say separation between church and state. I said, all right, let’s forget about that for one time.” The President of the United States said let’s forget about the First Amendment. On camera. In the Rose Garden. And somehow Jaden Ivey thinks he’s the one being persecuted? Come on, man.Antiblackness and White Supremacy: Baked Into the FoundationHere’s the part that should make every Black person reading this stop and think for a second. Antiblackness is not a side effect of Christian nationalism. It is a foundational ingredient. The Confederacy wrote God into its constitution explicitly—the U.S. Constitution does not mention God. The Confederate project was a Christian nationalist project, and its central institution was the enslavement of Black people.Southern theologians constructed entire theological frameworks to justify slavery. They used the “Curse of Ham” from Genesis 9, claiming Black people were cursed by God and destined for servitude. The text says nothing about skin color. The curse was on Canaan, not all of Ham’s descendants. It was a fabrication—a lie built on a misreading and upheld by white supremacist power. They created a Slave Bible that literally removed every liberation story from Scripture—including the Exodus—and kept only the passages about obedience. If that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about how this works, nothing will.The Southern Baptist Convention was founded in 1845 because Northern Baptists refused to accept slaveholders as missionaries. The Methodist Episcopal Church split over slavery in 1844. The Presbyterians split in 1861. These denominations were literally born from the defense of chattel slavery using the Bible. And after slavery ended, the same theology propped up Jim Crow. White pastors preached that racial mixing violated God’s natural order. The Klan burned crosses—that wasn’t a random choice of symbol. Christianity was the scaffolding for American apartheid.Today, PRRI research shows that 66% of white evangelical Protestants—the demographic most aligned with Christian nationalism—believe discrimination against Christians is as serious as discrimination against other groups. Meanwhile, Black people face documented disparities in housing, healthcare, education, criminal justice, and wealth. Christian nationalism has always needed a racial hierarchy. It needs Black people at the bottom or, increasingly, Black people willing to participate in their own subjugation. When a Jaden Ivey parrots Christian nationalist talking points, he’s not exercising faith. He’s being recruited.It Always Blows My MindIt always blows my mind when people that look like me try to use the Bible to justify denying the humanity of somebody else. Like we ain’t experienced that. Like that ain’t our history. The same book that was used to tell our ancestors to obey their masters. The same book that was edited—literally edited—to remove the stories of liberation. And now we’re using it to target someone else? The amnesia is the emergency.Number five on my list of receipts: Christian nationalism is thriving and we should all be concerned. What you see is all the ways that the Christian nationalists—the white folks, the white supremacists—use the Bible to justify the denial of a whole bunch of things. Like Black education. They’re going to use what’s happening with Jaden Ivey to say look at this, Christians are being persecuted because we believe we have the right to say messed up things about entire identities because it goes against our beliefs. Because their beliefs have to conform to your identity.And to the Christians of all colors who are watching this: the entire government in America is run by Christians. Every branch of government. Every entity and industry in this country is dominated by Christians. That means not only is nobody oppressing you or persecuting you for your religious belief—it means the claim is delusional. And that takes me to a very important point. Jaden Ivey is either engaging in selective moral outrage out of ignorance, or this man might be experiencing a mental health crisis. His coach, Billy Donovan, acknowledged as much, saying he’s not a doctor but that mental health is a real issue. Ivey himself has spoken about dealing with depression. I say this not to mock him but to be honest: the behavior was spiraling, and the people around him need to make sure he’s okay.Chex Mix ChristianityA lot of y’all treat the Bible like a bag of Chex Mix. You love the pretzels but you don’t like the croutons, so you throw those out. Where is the outrage when folks are mixing their polyester with their silk? That’s in Leviticus. Where is the outrage when y’all got that swine on your mind? That’s in the Bible too. But none of these folks are on Instagram condemning the bacon cheeseburger. They’re only interested in the parts that let them target someone else.Christian nationalism sounds great until you realize it means Christian supremacy. It’s bad because the people who want to make you live by Christian values don’t follow those Christian values themselves. The people who use your religion corruptly to try and persuade the masses to do what they want—that’s why it’s bad. One of the cornerstones of this experiment called America was religious freedom. The idea that you wouldn’t be persecuted for practicing your religion. It’s the first line of the First Amendment. All your different books that you follow—you’re allowed to do that in America without the other one establishing laws over you. That’s the whole point.Consciousness Precedes TransformationSo where does that leave us? It leaves us with a choice. You can be recruited into a movement that was built on the subjugation of your ancestors, or you can educate yourself about why that movement exists and who it actually serves. The Slave Bible is in a museum. The executive orders are on the White House website. Project 2025 is available to read in its entirety. The receipts are everywhere. The only question is whether you’re willing to look at them.This is why I do what I do. Research over me searching. Facts over feelings. And the fact is, Christian nationalism has never been about Christ. It has been about power. It has been about control. And it has always—always—depended on Black people not knowing their own history. That’s why they’re banning books. That’s why they’re defunding public education. That’s why Project 2025 calls for the elimination of the Department of Education. Because an educated populace cannot be recruited. An informed community cannot be fooled and a conscious people cannot be weaponized against themselves. Education is elevation. Explicit Ask to become Paid Subscriber Everything you just read—the history of the Slave Bible, the receipts on Trump’s executive orders, the connection between the Doctrine of Discovery and today’s Christian nationalist policy agenda, the data on who actually runs every branch of government—this is the kind of research, documentation, and teaching that is being systematically erased from public education. This is the work that nobody else is doing at this scale, with this level of specificity, and with this commitment to telling the truth about what’s really happening.I’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education 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.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.5 Key Takeaways1. This Is Not Religious Persecution — It Is Selective Moral OutrageJaden Ivey was not persecuted for his faith. He was held accountable by his employer for conduct detrimental to the team. The NBA and WNBA have been celebrating Pride since 2014 and 2016 respectively. He entered a league with established values around inclusion and then publicly condemned those values. That is not martyrdom. That is a contractual and professional consequence.2. Christian Nationalism Is Federal Policy Right NowBetween Trump’s “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias” executive order, the White House Faith Office, and the Religious Liberty Commission—all launched in 2025—Christian nationalism has moved from the margins to the machinery of government. Project 2025 is the blueprint, and its architects are now in charge of implementation.3. Antiblackness Is Structural to the Christian Nationalist ProjectFrom the Doctrine of Discovery to the Slave Bible to the founding of the Southern Baptist Convention in defense of slaveholding, white Christian nationalism has always required a racial hierarchy. When Black people are recruited into this movement, they are being asked to serve a system that was designed to subjugate them.4. The Bible Has Been Weaponized Before — And Black People Were the TargetThe same selective, proof-texting method being used to condemn LGBTQ people today was used to justify chattel slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation. The methodology has not changed. The target has shifted. But the people wielding the weapon remain the same.5. Consciousness Precedes TransformationUnderstanding the history of Christian nationalism is not an academic exercise. It is a survival skill. When you know that the Confederacy wrote God into its constitution, when you know that they made a Slave Bible, when you know that the modern Religious Right was organized around segregation—not prayer—you can see the pattern. And once you see it, you can’t be recruited into it.Thanks for reading Education Is Elevation! This post is public so feel free to share it.1. Gorski, Philip S. and Perry, Samuel L. The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy. Oxford University Press, 2022. A data-driven examination of how white Christian nationalism operates as a political ideology, its correlation with racial resentment, and its role in the January 6 Capitol insurrection.2. Jones, Robert P. The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future. Simon & Schuster, 2023. Traces white Christian nationalism to the Doctrine of Discovery in 1493, connecting papal authority, colonial ideology, and contemporary racial politics.3. Du Mez, Kristin Kobes. Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. Liveright Publishing, 2020. Documents how white evangelical culture weaponized masculinity and militarism, creating the foundation for today’s Christian nationalist movement.4. Tisby, Jemar. The Color of Compromise: The Truth About the American Church’s Complicity in Racism. Zondervan, 2019. A history of the American church’s active participation in racial injustice from slavery through the civil rights era and beyond.5. Whitehead, Andrew L. and Perry, Samuel L. Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States. Oxford University Press, 2020. Defines Christian nationalism through survey data and examines its relationship to attitudes on race, gender, immigration, and authoritarianism.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

There’s a clip from the 1950s that every single American needs to see. A white woman in Levittown, Pennsylvania, looking dead into a camera, saying the quiet part loud: “I just could not live beside them. I don’t feel that they should be oppressed. But I moved here. One of the main reasons was because it was a white community. And that’s the only place I intend to live.”Let that marinate for a second. She didn’t say she hated Black people. She didn’t use a slur. She said she didn’t think they should be oppressed — and then in the very same breath explained that she chose her home specifically to avoid living near them. That’s not extremism the way most people picture it. That’s mainstream American ideology. That’s the moderate. That’s the liberal. That’s the person Martin Luther King Jr. warned us about in his Letter from Birmingham Jail — the white moderate who prefers order over justice, who agrees with the goal but not the method, who says “I support your rights, just not next door to me.”And y’all, that wasn’t some fringe figure. That was the average Levittown resident. Feel me? She was the demographic.Now let me give you the context that your school probably skipped over, because this matters.Levittown: The Blueprint for American SuburbiaLevittown, Pennsylvania wasn’t just a neighborhood. It was one of the first and largest planned suburban communities in the United States, developed by William Levitt and his company Levitt & Sons beginning in the late 1940s and expanding through the 1950s. Levitt built thousands of affordable, mass-produced homes for returning World War II veterans and their families, and the development became the model that suburbs across the entire country would follow for the next half century.But here’s the receipt they don’t put in the brochure: Levitt’s company had an explicit policy. No homes would be sold to Black families. This wasn’t informal, wasn’t a wink-and-nod arrangement. It was written into the contracts. Levitt himself said publicly that he could solve a housing problem or he could solve a racial problem, but he couldn’t combine the two. In other words, the prosperity of white American families was built on the contractual exclusion of Black ones. That’s not opinion. That’s the historical record.In 1957, when William and Daisy Myers became the first Black family to move into Levittown, Pennsylvania, they were met with mobs. Hundreds of white residents gathered outside their home. Crosses were burned. Rocks were thrown through windows. Confederate flags were raised. The police stood by and watched. And the woman in that clip — the calm, composed one who just couldn’t live beside them — she was the moderate version.The “Class Not Race” LieA lot of folks today will tell you it’s more about class and less about race. I hear this constantly. It’s one of the most persistent deflections in American discourse. But Levittown dismantles that argument in real time. The Myers family had the economic means to purchase a home in that community. William Myers was a college-educated veteran with a professional career. By every metric of class status that white America claimed to value, the Myers family qualified.It didn’t matter. Not one bit. Because when that woman said “I just could not live beside them,” she wasn’t talking about income brackets. She wasn’t evaluating credit scores. She was talking about Blackness itself. The disqualification was ontological — it was about being, not about having. You could have the job, the education, the military service, the down payment. You could check every single box. And they still didn’t believe you was worthy enough.That’s ideology. That’s not a policy failure. That’s a belief system operating exactly as intended. And we need to be precise about that distinction because it changes everything about how we understand the present.The Wealth Transfer You’re Not Supposed to TraceNow here’s where the thinking deeply about shallow stuff comes in. The suburbs of today were created back then, in the 1950s and 1960s. Every cul-de-sac, every homeowners association, every property tax-funded school district — those structures trace back to this moment. And the wealth that was generated through homeownership in those communities? That wealth didn’t just sit still. It compounded. It transferred. It moved from generation to generation to generation.The GI Bill — one of the most celebrated pieces of social legislation in American history — was administered in a way that systematically excluded Black veterans from its full benefits. White veterans got low-interest home loans, bought homes in places like Levittown, built equity, passed that equity to their children, who used it to fund college educations, start businesses, and buy their own homes. Black veterans were denied those same loans, steered into redlined neighborhoods where property values were suppressed, and locked out of the single greatest wealth-building mechanism in twentieth-century America.The Federal Housing Administration didn’t just allow this. The FHA’s own underwriting manual explicitly warned against “inharmonious racial groups” and instructed appraisers to lower property values in neighborhoods with Black residents. The Home Owners’ Loan Corporation drew maps — literal maps — color-coding neighborhoods by perceived risk, and the “riskiest” designation, marked in red, correlated almost perfectly with where Black people lived. That’s where the term “redlining” comes from.So when somebody tells you “that was a long time ago,” ask them to do the math. My grandmother was born in the 1950s. Her mother was born in the 1930s. We’re not talking about ancient history. We’re talking about the people who raised the people who run the system right now. Two generations. That’s it.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Ideology Outlasts PolicyThis is the part I need y’all to really sit with. When we talk about white flight, gentrification, or redlining, it’s crucial to acknowledge that it wasn’t just policy — it was ideology. Policies can be repealed. Laws can be rewritten. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 technically made housing discrimination illegal. But ideology? Ideology lives in the culture. It lives in school funding formulas tied to property taxes. It lives in zoning laws that mandate single-family homes to keep density — and by extension, certain populations — out. It lives in HOA covenants and real estate steering and the algorithmic bias baked into modern mortgage lending.The woman in that Levittown clip didn’t need a policy to tell her to exclude Black people. She had an ideology. And that ideology didn’t die with the Civil Rights Act. It adapted. It learned new language. It stopped saying “I just could not live beside them” out loud and started saying “I just want to live in a good school district.” It stopped saying “this is a white community” and started saying “this is a safe neighborhood.” The function is identical. The vocabulary evolved.Research from scholars like Richard Rothstein, whose work The Color of Law meticulously documents how government policy created and enforced residential segregation, confirms what Black communities have always known: this was deliberate, this was systematic, and this was bipartisan. Rothstein demonstrates that residential segregation in America was not the result of private choices or market forces. It was engineered by federal, state, and local governments through explicit racial policy. And the effects compound daily.Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s Race for Profit extends this analysis into the post-civil rights era, documenting how the very policies designed to expand Black homeownership in the 1960s and 1970s were captured by predatory lenders and real estate speculators who extracted wealth from Black communities while the government looked the other way. The exploitation didn’t end with the Fair Housing Act. It shape-shifted.The Throughline to NowToday, the Black-white homeownership gap is larger than it was in 1960. Read that again. After the Civil Rights Movement, after the Fair Housing Act, after decades of supposed progress, Black homeownership rates have actually declined relative to white homeownership rates. According to the National Association of Realtors, the Black homeownership rate sat at approximately 44 percent as of recent data, compared to roughly 73 percent for white households. The gap is nearly 30 percentage points. That’s not an accident. That’s a system performing exactly as it was designed.And the wealth implications are staggering. The median white family holds roughly eight times the wealth of the median Black family. Homeownership is the primary vehicle for wealth accumulation in this country, and Black Americans were systematically locked out of it at the exact moment when it mattered most — when the suburbs were being built, when equity was compounding, when generational transfers were being set in motion.So when people say “just work harder,” when they say “pull yourself up,” when they say “it’s about class not race” — they’re either ignorant of this history or they’re invested in you not knowing it. Either way, the function is the same: it protects the status quo by making structural inequality look like individual failure.The Sound of the Modern ModerateLet me bring it back to that woman one more time. “I don’t feel that they should be oppressed. But I moved here because it was a white community.” That sentence structure — the acknowledgment followed by the but — is the grammar of American racial liberalism. It’s the syntax of complicity dressed up as compassion.You hear it today in every debate about affordable housing. You hear it in the resistance to zoning reform. You hear it when parents fight against school integration proposals. You hear it when neighborhoods organize against public transit expansions that would connect lower-income communities to suburban job centers. “I’m not racist, but...” “I support equality, but...” “I believe in diversity, but not in my backyard.”That woman in 1957 is not a relic. She is a prototype. And until we confront the ideology — not just the policy, but the belief system that animated the policy in the first place — we will keep reproducing the same outcomes in new packaging.Consider Becoming A Paid SubscriberI’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education 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.Every paid subscription directly funds the research, production, and distribution of work like this article — work that traces the ideological roots of segregation from Levittown to your zip code. If this history matters to you, if you believe education is elevation, become a paid subscriber today. This is how we build the infrastructure for the truth.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.5 KEY TAKEAWAYS* Levittown was a prototype, not an anomaly. The exclusionary model that Levitt built — affordable homes for white families, contractual exclusion of Black families — became the template for suburban development across the country. Understanding Levittown means understanding the ideological DNA of American suburbia itself.* The “class not race” argument collapses under historical scrutiny. The Myers family met every economic standard for homeownership in Levittown and were still met with mob violence. Residential segregation was never fundamentally about income — it was about an ideology that defined Black presence as inherently incompatible with white prosperity.* Ideology outlasts and outpaces policy reform. The Fair Housing Act made housing discrimination illegal in 1968, but the belief systems that animated segregation adapted into zoning laws, school funding formulas, real estate steering, and algorithmic lending bias. Repealing a law doesn’t dismantle a worldview.* Generational wealth is generational policy. The wealth gap between Black and white families is not the product of individual choices — it’s the compound interest on decades of federally subsidized white homeownership and federally enforced Black exclusion. Two generations separate us from legal segregation. The math doesn’t lie.* The moderate voice is the most dangerous voice. The Levittown woman who said “I don’t think they should be oppressed, but I can’t live by them” is the archetype for contemporary racial liberalism — the person who supports equality in theory while actively maintaining exclusion in practice. Confronting this pattern is essential to any honest reckoning with American inequality.BIBLIOGRAPHY & RELATED READINGS* Rothstein, Richard. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. Liveright, 2017.* Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta. Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership. University of North Carolina Press, 2019.* Katznelson, Ira. When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America. W.W. Norton, 2005.* Kushner, David. Levittown: Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights. Walker & Company, 2009.* Kruse, Kevin. White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism. Princeton University Press, 2005.* Anderson, Carol. White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide. Bloomsbury, 2016. 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

Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Nick Cannon sat in that car and pointed to individual pardons as evidence that Trump is “good for Black people.” He pardoned one woman and made her a “pardon czar.” And that’s the whole case? That spoke volumes about his politics, because it showed that if Trump can save individual Black folks—even at the expense of harming the collective—he’s good with you. If your pocket’s good and your family’s good, never mind all the Black families being terrorized, losing their jobs, losing access to schools.But see, the numbers tell a different story. Black women lost over 300,000 jobs between February and July of 2025. Three hundred thousand. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Black women’s unemployment rate hit 7.3% by the end of 2025—the highest in four years. That’s equivalent to the unemployment rate white women experienced during the bleakest moments of the Great Recession. Let me say that again for the people in the back: the labor market that Black women are living in right now is what white women would consider the worst economic conditions they’ve ever experienced.And it wasn’t accidental. Black women were disproportionately concentrated in federal jobs—healthcare, education, housing, veterans affairs—the exact sectors this administration gutted. When DOGE came through slashing and Trump started executing those executive orders to dismantle DEI, Black women were the first ones pushed out the door. White women gained 142,000 jobs during the same period. White men gained 365,000. Black women lost 300,000. And you want to sit in a car and tell me he’s “cleaning house”?Yeah, he’s cleaning house. He’s cleaning us out of it.The Democratic Plantation Talking Point Is Tired. And You Know It.Black Free Thinkers like Nick Cannon say, “People don’t know that the Democrats are the party of the KKK.” You feel real smart saying that, don’t you? Here’s what I need you to understand: you can criticize the Democratic plantation without sensationalizing the Republican one. Critiquing liberalism is valid. Democratic policies deserve scrutiny. But you do not have to glaze or push Republican propaganda to do that. And the moment you start reciting Dixiecrat history like you just discovered a cheat code, you tell on yourself.Because here’s my question: if you go to a rally today—right now, in 2026—where are you most likely to see a Klan flag? The Democratic rally or the Republican one? You already know the answer. So why are we playing this game?Trump was endorsed by the KKK in 2016. In 2020. In 2024. What does that say about his politics and how he deploys them? He called the Confederate flag a “proud symbol of the U.S. South.” As somebody who is also proud of being a Southerner, I ain’t never had a Confederate flag around me. Not once. Not ever.And my question to you, Nick Cannon: how in the hell did you go from being a pan-Africanist to aligning yourself with Confederate-flag-toting, white-supremacist-sympathizing politicians? How did Amber Rose go from building political capital with Black women through the SlutWalk—talking about reproductive justice, reproductive freedom—to being a reformed Republican whose logic sounds like that of a white patriarch? You were one of the ones pushing for bodily autonomy. Now you’re supporting a man who is systematically stripping away every mechanism Black women have to say they have rights over their own bodies. And you ain’t said nothing about the Epstein files. Not a word. In that whole car ride. You telling on yourself.The DEI Receipts Don’t LieThey love saying DEI stands for “Didn’t Earn It.” That everybody in these positions is a product of diversity handouts. But the numbers show that white women were the ones who benefited the most from DEI. That’s documented. That’s researched. That’s not debatable. So the real question becomes: who lost the most when Trump dismantled DEI?Black women.Federal DEI funding cuts threatened the work of the few remaining Black farmers in East Texas. My state. Where I’m from. Black farmers who were already fighting for survival now watching their resources evaporate in the name of white Christian nationalism. And you’re aligning yourself with the people doing this?Nick, I know you love the women from the Caribbean islands. The Dominicans, the Cubans, all of that. How do you feel about those communities right now being terrorized by mass deportation policies? How do you reconcile that with “he’s so good for Black people”?You can’t. Because you’re not thinking about it. You’re thinking deeply about shallow s**t.The “Big, Beautiful Bill” and What It Actually DoesTrump was bragging about that “big, beautiful bill.” He was really bragging about it too. But let’s read it together, shall we? That bill left Black communities more vulnerable to predatory lending. His job policies may deepen workplace inequality. His housing policies failed to narrow the racial homeownership gap. He’s criminalizing Black history.Let me pause there. He is criminalizing Black history. The histories I teach, the frameworks I document, the cultural knowledge I preserve—this administration is actively working to erase and distort all of it. And you want to talk about how he was at Russell Simmons’ parties in the 90s?Speaking of which—you brought up Russell Simmons like it was a flex. My brother, I don’t know if you noticed, but Russell Simmons wasn’t exactly cleared in the Epstein files. That was not the gotcha you thought it was. What it showed is that a lot of the creepy predators stick together regardless of race. They want the rhythm, but they damn sure don’t want the blues.The Great Malcolm X Already Told UsMalcolm X said white folks don’t pick the entertainers, the trumpet players, the comedians to be the leaders in their community. And what that car ride showed is that all of those entertainers Trump was rubbing elbows with back in the 90s—they probably had the same politics he did. And I imagine they are all closet Trump supporters. I imagine. Because when you already align yourself with these folks on an ideological level—with their values, with their morals—you trying to sensationalize your skin color don’t mean s**t. You feel me?It was a whole bunch of enslaved folks who also aligned themselves with the people that ran the plantation from an ideological and values level. “They make me feel at home. They don’t even trip. They like family.” It’s game. Yeah, we see you.The comfort you feel in those spaces isn’t because they’re not looking at you like you’re Black. It’s because they need you to not look at yourself like you’re Black. That’s the trade. That’s the transaction. You get access, proximity, a seat at the table—and in exchange, you cosign the violence being done to your own people. You become the illustration. The prop. The proof they point to when someone calls them racist: “But look, Nick Cannon f***s with us.”And when the music stops? When the political winds shift? When they don’t need your endorsement anymore? You don’t inherit the plantation. You never did.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Dismantling Public Education Is the EndgameSince he’s been in office, this man has been working to dismantle public education. Multiple reports documented four administration actions to watch. And do you know how disproportionately Black people are impacted when this happens? Public schools are the backbone of Black communities. They are where our children learn. They are where our teachers work. They are where our histories—however incomplete—are at least partially preserved. And he is tearing it apart.This is personal to me. As an educator, this is not abstract policy. This is the ground I stand on. And every time somebody like Nick Cannon goes on a platform with millions of viewers and says “I f**k with Trump” without a single piece of policy analysis to back it up, it makes the work of educators harder. It gives cover to the people dismantling the very institutions that keep us informed, employed, and connected to our own histories.The Logic of the Car Ride Is the Logic of the PlantationLet me bring this home.The entire car ride was nothing but propaganda. Y’all been around these folks, probably drinking champagne and bumping tea crumpets or whatever the hell, and now you think proximity to power is the same as power itself. It’s not. It never was.When you cherry-pick examples—a pardon here, a party appearance there—and use them to justify a presidency that has measurably and statistically devastated Black communities, you are not being a free thinker. You are not being independent. You are being a tool. Some would even argue a fool and tools get used up.The data is clear. The policies are public. The harm is measurable. And no amount of car rides, no amount of “he was on Fresh Prince,” no amount of “he had Black girlfriends” changes what the receipts say.As somebody who did competitive policy debate, who has built a career on research over me-searching, who believes that education is elevation—I need you to understand that this is not about feelings. This is about what we can prove. And what we can prove is that this man’s policies have devastated Black women in the workforce, gutted Black farmers’ funding, weaponized the dismantling of DEI against the very people it was supposed to protect, criminalized Black history, and accelerated the privatization of public institutions that serve as lifelines for Black communities.Facts over feelings. Receipts over rhetoric. And if you can’t provide them, get out. Somebody got the lights?5 Key Takeaways1. Loving Black culture and harming Black people are not contradictory—they are the architecture of American racism. Trump attending Black parties, dating Black women, and appearing on Black TV shows in the 90s does not inoculate him from the charge of racist governance. Racism has always functioned by commodifying Blackness while subordinating Black people. The rhythm and the blues are not the same thing.2. Black women are bearing the measurable, statistical brunt of Trump’s policies. Over 300,000 Black women lost their jobs in the first half of 2025. Their unemployment rate reached 7.3%—the highest in four years and equivalent to what white women experienced during the worst of the Great Recession. The dismantling of DEI, federal workforce cuts, and DOGE restructuring have disproportionately targeted Black women while white men gained 365,000 jobs in the same period.3. The “Democrats started the KKK” talking point is historically incomplete and politically dishonest. Yes, Reconstruction-era Democrats had ties to the Klan. But the Southern Strategy, the Dixiecrat exodus, and the party realignment of the 1960s are documented history. The question is not who started the Klan in 1865—it’s who the Klan endorses in 2024. That answer has never been ambiguous.4. Individual beneficiaries do not erase collective harm. Pointing to one pardon or one appointment as evidence that a president is “good for Black people” while ignoring mass job losses, gutted education funding, predatory lending policies, and the criminalization of Black history is the logic of someone whose pocket is prioritized over their people.5. Celebrity endorsements of political figures without policy analysis are propaganda. Nick Cannon and Amber Rose have platforms with millions of viewers. When they deploy those platforms to cosign a political agenda without a single policy receipt, they function as instruments of the very machine that is harming Black communities. Malcolm X warned us about entertainers being positioned as leaders. We should have listened harder.A Direct Ask: Become a Paid SubscriberI’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education 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 this article gave you something—if it gave you language, data, framework, fire—I’m asking you directly: become a paid subscriber today. This is how we build independent Black media that doesn’t answer to advertisers, algorithms, or billionaires. This is how we keep the lights on.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Related ReadingsWilson, Valerie. “Black Women Suffered Large Employment Losses in 2025—Particularly Among College Graduates and Public-Sector Workers.” Economic Policy Institute, 2026.Taylor-McGhee, Belle. “Trump-Era Federal Layoffs Hit Black Women Hardest.” Ms. Magazine, February 5, 2026.Walker, Ezekiel J. and Nehemiah Frank. “Black Women Face Record Job Layoffs Under Trump.” The Black Wall Street Times, September 8, 2025.Covert, Bryce. “To Be Black, Female, and Unemployed.” The American Prospect, December 2025.Sowers, Chabeli and Claire Lampen. “Black Women’s Unemployment Has Skyrocketed. Here’s What Happened.” The 19th, January 27, 2026.X, Malcolm. “Message to the Grassroots.” Speech, Detroit, MI, November 10, 1963.Du Bois, W.E.B. “I Won’t Vote.” The Nation, October 20, 1956.Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press, 2010.Maxwell, Angie and Todd Shields. The Long Southern Strategy: How Chasing White Voters in the South Changed American Politics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.Harris-Perry, Melissa V. Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011.Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge, 2000.Painter, Nell Irvin. The History of White People. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010’Thanks for reading Education Is Elevation! This post is public so feel free to share it. 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

Thank you Under the Golden Boot, Tamibetcha, Lee, Francisca Michel, The Depths of Justice, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.My co-host, Toya G, and I spent hours unpacking what this means: for the stalled movement for reparations in America, for the complex infighting among Black diasporic communities, and for the very real, documented playbook (Project 2025) that the current administration is using to privatize our government and police our bodies. We laughed, we raged, and we connected dots that the mainstream media refuses to touch. Political Plug aka Domo was out with a sinus infection.Here’s what I need you to understand.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.1. The Resolution Is a Mirror, and the West Is Looking AwayThe UN resolution is powerful, but it’s also the UN General Assembly is essentially a “global town hall.” It has no army, no police force, and no real enforcement mechanism. Its resolutions are recommendations—the world’s opinion, written down and recorded.The nations most responsible for the slave trade—the ones who built their industrial revolutions, their empires, and their modern wealth on the backs of enslaved Africans—are the very nations holding the keys to any international action. They abstained, pleading the fifth. The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy—they all abstained.This is where we have to be intellectually honest. Portugal, the nation responsible for trafficking more Africans across the Atlantic than any other European country, abstained. Belgium, whose King Leopold later perpetrated a genocide in the Congo that was paved by the slave trade’s infrastructure, abstained. Their abstention isn’t neutrality. It’s a refusal to be on the record for something they know, deep down, they will never be able to fully repay.2. The “Oppression Olympics” Argument Is a Smokescreen for DebtWhen the vote came down, the predictable conservative retort emerged: “Why is this the gravest crime against humanity? What about the Holocaust? What about other historical atrocities?” This is a debate tactic, not a genuine inquiry.As Toya G pointed out, this argument is a way to avoid accountability. They love to run to “whataboutism” because it creates a hierarchy of pain that they can then claim is “divisive.” But the historical weight is not the same. When you look up “blackface,” you find a history of racial caricature and violence used to dehumanize an entire race to justify their enslavement. When you look up “whiteface,” you find clowns.This is the foundation of the “Oppression Olympics” argument—it’s a tool used by those who benefit from the status quo to avoid paying their debt. The U.S. even argued that we can’t “retrospectively apply international laws” to slavery. The message is clear: “We’ll acknowledge it, but we won’t pay for it.”3. Who Gets Reparations? The FBA Conversation Exposes a Deeper DilemmaThe UN resolution’s focus on the entire Transatlantic Slave Trade—and thus the entire Black diaspora—forces a conversation that Foundational Black Americans (FBA) have been having for years: who is “black enough” to get paid?I’m not one to sit on the sidelines and dismiss the FBA conversation outright. I get it. The point they make about lineage, about the fact that their ancestors were here building this country for centuries while other immigrant groups arrived later and benefited from that struggle, is a valid historical point. But my issue has always been the political bedfellows they sometimes keep—the celebration of mass deportation, the alignment with white nationalist aesthetics.Toya G helped me articulate the central tension: the police don’t care if you’re FBA or Caribbean. If you’re Black, you’re a target. The violence is anti-Black, not just “descendants of American slaves” anti-Black. So, while the initial reparations focus should be on those with generational lineage from the chattel slavery era, the larger framework of anti-Blackness makes this conversation infinitely more complex.Max, our producer, dropped the widely cited benchmark from William Darity Jr. and A. Kristen Mullen: $10 trillion to $12 trillion to eliminate the Black-white wealth gap. That’s a starting point. But the how and the who will be the fight of our lives.4. Mark Wayne Mullin, Project 2025, and the Privatization of the StateAs we discussed, the appointment of Oklahoma Senator Mark Wayne Mullin—a man with no security experience who has publicly bragged about beating his child—to head the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is not an accident. It is a feature of the system they are building.This isn’t about incompetence; it’s about loyalty. It’s about putting people in place who will follow the playbook. And the playbook is Project 2025. We pulled it up on the stream. I typed in “TSA” (which DHS oversees) and found it mentioned 26 times. The plan is to starve the agency, cause chaos, and then privatize it.When you privatize a state function like airport security, you don’t just hand it to corporations. You create a cloak of anonymity. The government is no longer directly accountable for the violence, the harassment, and the abuse that will inevitably follow. It’s the same logic that allowed the “Gestapo” tactics of the early Trump administration to flourish.5. Seeing Black ICE Agents: The Ultimate BetrayalPerhaps the most frustrating part of our conversation was seeing the images of Black ICE agents on social media. The discourse that followed—”If you don’t want Black ICE agents, why do you defend gang culture?”—is a false binary designed to make us accept our own oppression.I was being facetious when I asked Toya G, “Why not have Black overseers on the plantation?” But the logic is the same. The desire for “representation” in institutions built on anti-Blackness is a trap. It’s identity politics commodified by the state. You don’t need Black people in the room if the room is designed to destroy Black people. It’s not representation; it’s participation in your own subjugation.As Toya G said, if you have to choose between being a slave catcher and selling drugs, those aren’t your only two options. The fact that people defend the choice to become a state agent of violence as “hustling” shows how deeply neoliberalism has consumed our identity.Explicit Ask to Become a Paid SubscriberI’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education and 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 found value in this breakdown—the UN resolution, the FBA debate, the Project 2025 analysis—please consider becoming a paid subscriber today. Your support allows me to do the deep research, produce these articles, and keep the conversations going that you won’t find anywhere else. Click the button below to join the community.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 5 Key Takeaways* The UN Resolution is Symbolic, But Important: The declaration of the slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity” is a major moral statement, even if it lacks enforcement power. It creates a historical record that future generations can use to demand justice.* The “No” Votes Are a Warning: The U.S., Israel, and Argentina voting no isn’t an anomaly. It signals a global realignment of states that are comfortable with white supremacy and the erasure of Black historical trauma.* Reparations is a Global Diaspora Question: The FBA conversation about lineage is valid, but the reality of anti-Blackness means any reparative justice framework must grapple with the interconnectedness of the entire Black diaspora.* Privatization is the Path to Fascism: Project 2025 is the blueprint. From TSA to USPS, the goal is to privatize public goods, stripping them of accountability and turning them into profit centers that can be weaponized against marginalized communities.* Representation is Not Liberation: Seeing Black faces in oppressive institutions like ICE is not progress. It is a deliberate strategy to give these institutions a veneer of legitimacy while they continue to carry out the state’s anti-Black agenda.Related Readings (Bibliography)* The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones (The New York Times Magazine): For a foundational understanding of slavery’s centrality to American capitalism and democracy.* From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century by William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen: The definitive text on the moral and economic case for reparations, including the $10-12 trillion benchmark.* “Project 2025” Presidential Transition Project (The Heritage Foundation): The primary source document outlining the conservative agenda for the next administration. A must-read for understanding the policy goals.* The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America by Khalil Gibran Muhammad: Explores how the construction of Black criminality was essential to the formation of modern policing and state violence.* “The United Nations General Assembly Resolution on the Transatlantic Slave Trade” (March 24, 2026): The full text of the resolution itself, detailing the 123-3-54 vote and the official language of the declaration. 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

Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.On March 24, 2026, the United Nations passed a historic resolution. With 123 countries in favor, it officially declared the transatlantic slave trade the gravest crime against humanity.It should have been a moment of global consensus, a long-overdue acknowledgment of a 400-year nightmare that birthed modern capitalism, funded the Industrial Revolution, and built empires. On the surface, it looks like an easy decision to make. Some would even say a finger roll.But 52 countries abstained. And three—the United States, Israel, and Argentina—voted “hell no.”When you start to see the pathology and the ratio at work, you start to see the truth: Certain groups get to decide which history counts and which history gets erased. And it is always people of European descent who get to decide which history is and which history ain’t.Let’s unpack what they’re actually denying.What Makes It the “Gravest Crime”?Before we get into the specificity of the vote, we have to sit with the claim itself. Some of y’all might not know what that actually means.The transatlantic slave trade lasted for 400 years. An estimated 12 to 15 million Africans were forcibly taken, kidnapped, chained, and shipped across the ocean. But the scale of the violence is only part of the story.This was the first time in human history that an entire system—of law, economics, and theology—was built on the complete dehumanization of a people. The world bought into the idea that a human being got on the boat as an African with a culture, a language, and a land, and got off the boat as a slave, as property, as a commodity.It was the first time we saw that your state of being property was inherited. It was passed down to your kids and your kids’ kids. It was the codification of chattel slavery: the idea of a human being as perpetual property, as three-fifths of a person.That’s the reason why it’s one of the gravest crimes against humanity. It’s not just about violence; it’s about the idea. And that system didn’t end in 1865. It transformed. It was remixed and reshaped into sharecropping, convict leasing, Jim Crow, mass incarceration, and the war on drugs.There is no American economy, no global empire, without King Cotton, without the free labor extracted on the backs of my ancestors. That’s the reason why this resolution matters. It’s about accountability, recognition, and responsibility. It’s about closing a wound that never really even healed.The United Nations: A Body of Words, Not TeethTo understand the full weight—and the frustrating limits—of this resolution, we have to understand the institution that passed it. The United Nations was founded in 1945 in the ashes of World War II, with the lofty goal of preventing future global conflicts and promoting human rights. Its charter speaks of “fundamental human rights,” “the dignity and worth of the human person,” and “equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small.”But here’s the thing about the United Nations that nobody wants to admit out loud: the UN is not a world government. It has no army. It has no police force. It has no real enforcement mechanism.The UN General Assembly, where this resolution passed, is essentially a global town hall. Every member state gets a vote, but those votes carry no binding legal weight. Resolutions passed by the General Assembly are recommendations, not commands. They are the world’s opinion, written down and recorded for history.The only body within the UN that can issue binding resolutions is the Security Council, and that body is structured to protect the very powers that built their wealth on the slave trade. Five countries—the United States, Russia, China, France, and the United Kingdom—hold permanent seats with veto power. Any one of them can kill any resolution that threatens their interests.This structural reality creates a cruel irony: the nations most responsible for the transatlantic slave trade hold the keys to any binding international action on it.So when we talk about this resolution, we have to be clear about what it is and what it is not. It is a symbolic victory. It is a moral statement. It is the collective conscience of the majority of the world’s nations saying, This crime was the worst of the worst.But it is not a court ruling. It does not compel the United States to write a check. It does not create a tribunal. It does not force Argentina to open its archives or Israel to issue an apology.And the powerful nations know this. That’s precisely why they felt comfortable voting no. Their opposition was not fear of legal consequences—there are none. Their opposition was about message. It was about refusing to validate the moral authority of the Global South to define history. It was about maintaining the power to decide which crimes matter and which crimes are swept under the rug.As my grandmother used to say: They pissing on our legs and telling us it’s raining. They give us a symbolic win while ensuring the substance remains out of reach.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The Vote: Why the U.S. Said NoThe resolution came from Caribbean and African nations—nations who understand that you cannot close a wound you refuse to name. For them, this was never just about symbolism. It was about laying the groundwork for a future where accountability is possible.But the United States pushed back. Their reasoning?They said they do not recognize the legal right to reparations for historical wrongs because slavery was “not illegal under international law at the time.”Their argument, in essence: We can acknowledge slavery was bad now, but we shouldn’t have to pay for it because back then, it wasn’t seen as bad.They said, “This ain’t Jordan. We ain’t into that retro or retroactivity.”This is the pathology. The law is always flexible when it needs to be. The U.S. has no problem applying today’s laws retroactively to maintain military power, to justify drone strikes, to maintain global order. But when it comes to the foundational crime that built their wealth? Suddenly, they are strict constitutionalists, clinging to a statute of limitations for a crime that is still actively shaping the present.They oppose reparations. They want us to “get over it.” But you can’t get over something that is still happening.The Complexity of Argentina and IsraelWhen we look at the other two “no” votes, the layers get thicker.Argentina was a major hub of the contraband slave trade in the 17th century. They have a complex history as both a slave society and an early abolitionist nation (abolishing slavery in 1853). But there is also the Zwi Migdal—a criminal organization that operated in Buenos Aires from the 1860s to the 1930s, where Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe trafficked thousands of Jewish women into sexual slavery. It’s a dark, silent chapter in both Argentine and Jewish history.Israel, like Argentina, has a history of being both victim and perpetrator. When you have a country that is currently engaged in practices that obviously genocide mixed with apartheid its a conflict of interest and you don’t want to open a door that might swing back on you.When you see these two countries vote no alongside the United States, you have to ask yourself: What are they really saying no to?They aren’t just denying history. They are protecting themselves from accountability. They don’t want to establish a precedent where nations must answer for historical crimes, because they know the spotlight might turn to the crimes they are committing right now—unapologetically.The Symbolic Win and the Hard TruthSo where does that leave us?Let’s be honest with each other. This resolution is a win, but it is a symbolic win. And in the fight for justice, symbols matter. They matter because they shape the narrative. They matter because they become the foundation upon which future legal frameworks are built. They matter because they tell the descendants of the enslaved that the world sees their pain.But we cannot mistake symbolism for substance.The UN has passed countless resolutions over its 80-year history. It has condemned apartheid. It has condemned genocide. It has condemned occupation. And yet, apartheid in Palestine continues. Genocides continue. Occupations continue. The powerful nations that vote against these resolutions do so with the comfortable knowledge that no UN peacekeeper is going to show up at their doorstep to enforce compliance.The United States alone has vetoed dozens of Security Council resolutions critical of its allies or itself. It has ignored International Court of Justice rulings. It has withdrawn from UN bodies when they became inconvenient. The language of international law is powerful, but it is only as powerful as the political will behind it.So when we celebrate this resolution—and we should celebrate it—we must also ask ourselves: What comes next?The Caribbean and African nations who pushed this through know the answer. They are not naive. They understand the limitations of the UN. But they also understand that you cannot build a house without a foundation. This resolution is the foundation. It is the official record. It is the admission, on paper, that 123 nations agree: the transatlantic slave trade was the gravest crime against humanity.Now the work is to build on that foundation. To push for a permanent UN memorial. To push for a commission on reparative justice. To push for educational curricula that teach this history in full. To push for local and national governments to act where the international body cannot.The Unbroken ChainTo the people in the back: the logic of the Black body being seen as property didn’t stop in 1865.After the plantation came sharecropping. After sharecropping came convict leasing. After convict leasing came Jim Crow. After Jim Crow came the war on drugs and mass incarceration.The U.S. says we can’t apply today’s laws retroactively, but they have no problem applying today’s laws to maintain the global order that was built on that very crime. They have no problem applying today’s laws to justify the continued extraction of wealth from Black bodies, whether through the prison-industrial complex, predatory lending, or the systematic underfunding of Black schools.This is why the Caribbean and African nations pushed this resolution. Because we cannot close a wound that we can’t even name. And we cannot heal a wound that the people who inflicted it refuse to recognize even exists.The UN gave us the name. Now it is up to us to demand the healing.Education is elevation.5 Key Takeaways* Historical Recognition is a Prerequisite for Justice: The UN resolution names the transatlantic slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity.” For nations that built their wealth on this system, refusing to acknowledge the title is a refusal to acknowledge the debt.* The UN Has No Enforcement Mechanism: The General Assembly resolution is a powerful symbolic and moral statement, but it carries no binding legal weight. The Security Council, where permanent members hold veto power, remains the only body that can compel action—and it is controlled by the very nations that benefited from the slave trade.* The U.S. Opposition is Based on a Flawed Legal Argument: The U.S. claims reparations are invalid because slavery was “legal” at the time. This ignores the fact that international law is a flexible tool used to justify military action and global order when it suits the empire.* The “No” Votes Reveal Hypocrisy and Fear: Israel and Argentina voted no likely because acknowledging the precedent of accountability for historical crimes could open the door to scrutiny of their own historical and contemporary human rights abuses.* Naming the Wound is Necessary for Healing: Caribbean and African nations pushed this resolution because you cannot close a wound you refuse to name. Global acknowledgment is the first step toward any meaningful form of repair, even if the path to enforcement remains obstructed.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 found value in this breakdown—if you understand why naming the crime is the first step to justice—please consider becoming a paid subscriber today. It allows me to continue doing the research, the writing, and the teaching that the mainstream refuses to do.Click the button below to upgrade. Let’s build this together.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)* The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones* The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist* Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi* The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander* A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by Mary Ann Glendon* The Zwi Migdal: A Story of Jewish Traffickers in Buenos Aires by Nora Glickman (Academic Articles)* The United Nations and Transnational Advocacy Networks by Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink 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

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

For years, the public discourse has been dominated by a narrative that weaponized the safety of women and children, painting entire communities as threats. But as newly disclosed FBI records reveal, the most credible threat may have been hiding in plain sight—in the highest office in the land.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriberThis is not about politics. This is about the systematic burial of evidence. The Department of Justice (DOJ) initially tried to conceal three of the four interviews a victim gave to the FBI. It was only under immense pressure from the media and Congress that these documents saw the light of day. And now, we understand why the establishment was so desperate to keep them hidden.The FBI, an agency often criticized for its handling of sensitive information, found one victim’s allegations to be unquestionably credible.The AccountBetween August and September 2019, the victim, who was between the ages of 13 and 15 at the time of the alleged incident, sat for multiple interviews with federal investigators. Her account was chillingly consistent.On August 7, 2019, she recounted being left alone with Donald Trump. According to the transcript, Trump allegedly approached her, mentioning something to the effect of, “let me teach you how little girls are supposed to be.”What followed was a violent assault. The victim stated that Trump unzipped his pants and forced her head down toward his penis. She recounted that she bit him because he “disgusted her.” In response, Trump allegedly struck her and said words to the effect of, “get this little B the hell out of here.”She provided additional, consistent details in subsequent interviews two weeks and a month later. The FBI did not dismiss her. They deemed her credible.The Context of HypocrisyLet us place this in the context of the moment. The same administration that buried this evidence spent years painting an entire demographic—specifically Black and brown men—as inherent threats to women and children. They weaponized the legal system, claiming that if people simply “followed the law,” they would not face persecution.But here we are, watching a man ascend to the role of Commander in Chief—a man already convicted of 34 felonies—while the FBI had credible evidence of sexual assault against a child in its files.As one observer noted, George Orwell would likely call this “legal doublespeak.” We are being asked to uphold the social order of the law by a convicted felon. It is a dizzying hypocrisy.A Pattern of EntitlementThis isn’t an isolated moment. The entitlement suggested by this accusation echoes statements made publicly years prior. When Donald Trump made comments about his daughter in the 2010s—suggesting that if she weren’t his daughter, he would be dating her—it was often brushed aside as “locker room talk.” Now, viewed through the lens of this credible allegation, it looks less like bravado and more like a confession of entitlement.This pattern reveals a systemic failure. The same system that will raid the homes of individuals like Breonna Taylor or Afroman based on anonymous tips refused to act on a victim who sat for multiple interviews with the FBI. The same institutions that claim to protect the vulnerable chose to bury the truth to protect the powerful.The Void We Must FillWe are living in a moment where public education media has retreated. The history we just walked through—the documents, the context, the legal hypocrisy—is not being taught. It is being distorted or erased.This work exists to fill that void. We document the histories, legal frameworks, and cultural knowledge that the establishment hopes you forget. Because if you forget that the FBI buried credible evidence of a crime, you will not understand why the justice system looks the way it does today.Explicit Ask to Become A Paid SubscriberI’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education 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 believe that a 13-year-old victim deserved to have her credible accusation taken seriously—and that we deserve to know why it was buried—then please, become a paid subscriber today. Help me continue to do the work that corporate media and the Department of Justice won’t do.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.5 Key Takeaways* The FBI Found a Victim Credible: In 2019, the FBI interviewed a victim who accused Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her when she was between 13 and 15 years old. The agency found her account to be “unquestionably credible.”* The DOJ Attempted a Cover-Up: The Department of Justice initially tried to hide reports of three of the four interviews. They were only disclosed due to media and congressional pressure.* Consistent Testimony: The victim provided the same harrowing details across multiple interviews, including that Trump allegedly assaulted her and that she bit him because he disgusted her.* The Hypocrisy of Weaponized Law: The administration that buried this evidence spent its time painting Black and brown communities as inherent threats to women and children, weaponizing legality against them while protecting a man with credible allegations against him.* A Convicted Felon Upholding “Order”: We are witnessing the paradox of a convicted felon being entrusted to uphold the social order of the law, highlighting a system of “legal doublespeak” where rules apply differently based on status.Related Readings * Federal Bureau of Investigation. *FD-302 Interview Reports (August 7, 2019; August 21, 2019; September 19, 2019).* Released under FOIA pressure from congressional oversight committees, 2023.* Orwell, George. 1984. Secker & Warburg, 1949. (For context on “doublespeak” and the manipulation of legal language).* Taylor, Breonna. Case File. Louisville Metro Police Department. 2020. (For context on raids based on anonymous tips and the disparity in legal protection).* The United States Department of Justice. Office of Legal Policy. Review of the Handling of High-Profile Investigations. 2021. (For background on DOJ protocols regarding the burial of investigative files).* The House Judiciary Committee. Memorandum on the Disclosure of FBI Interview Reports Related to High-Profile Political Figures. 2023.* The New Yorker. “The Allegations Against Trump and the FBI’s Investigation.” Staff Report. 2023. 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

Thank you Reda Rountree (she/her), Under the Golden Boot, M Hope, Evan, Judy, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.We are often taught that the Civil Rights Movement was a monolithic struggle for “integration.” We are taught that the goal was simply to sit at the same lunch counter, drink from the same water fountain, and be judged by the “content of our character.”But in 1963, during a conversation that has been largely erased from the mainstream historical record, Malcolm X offered a different diagnosis. He wasn’t just critiquing racism; he was critiquing the structure that produces it. And as I sat with this transcript in 2026, I realized that nothing has changed—except the names and the platforms.The Zionist Question as a MirrorIn the segment of the conversation I focused on, Malcolm is asked about Zionism. It’s a trap, or at least a test. He is being questioned about his Black Nationalist, Pan-Africanist politics, and the interviewer tries to corner him by asking about a different nationalist movement.Malcolm’s response, and the analysis I lay out in the transcript, flips the script. He points out the fundamental contradiction that exists then and now: Black Nationalism is criminalized, while Jewish Nationalism (Zionism) was supported and funded by Western powers.“When you throw the word black in front of nationalists, it adds a different stigma onto how we start thinking about nation building... So when we demonize black nationalists... while also simultaneously supporting the nation state of Israel, it shows there’s a contradiction.”In 1963, while the U.S. government was infiltrating, surveilling, and assassinating Black leaders who spoke of self-determination, they were actively helping “all these white Jews” establish a separate state in the midst of “dark-skinned people.”In 2026, we see the same dynamic. We are told that Black people asking for economic autonomy, separate community control, or reparations are “divisive” or “radical.” Yet the United States continues to fund a nationalist project abroad. The lesson is clear: Nationalism is only acceptable when it serves whiteness.The Black Bourgeoisie and the Puppet MastersMalcolm X didn’t just attack white supremacy; he attacked the Black leadership that enabled it. When asked about a poll showing that 90% of “Negro leaders” supported Dr. King and less than 20% supported Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm laughed.He pointed out that these “leaders” were Lena Horne, Dick Gregory, and baseball players—entertainers.“These aren’t leaders. These are puppets and clowns that have been sent up over the white community and over the black community... They genuinely say exactly what they know that the white man wants to hear.”This critique resonates deeply in 2026. We are told to rally behind Black celebrities and politicians who are “palatable” to the empire. But as Malcolm notes, the system is functioning exactly as designed. The Constitution wasn’t written for us; it was written to codify us as property.When I think about the modern Democratic Party, and the Black liberals who scold anyone critical of the status quo, I see the 1963 playbook in action. They trade in “identity politics” while ensuring the material reality of Black people—poverty, over-policing, health disparities—remains unchanged. They weaponize the tropes of “unity” and “stability” to silence those who, like Malcolm, demand autonomy, not just inclusion.The System Isn’t Broken; It’s WorkingOne of the hardest truths in the transcript is Malcolm’s dissection of the Constitution. He brings up Article 1, Section 2—the Three-Fifths Compromise.“It relates us to the level of cattle... a commodity that could be bought... It was written by whites, for the benefit of whites, and to the detriment of blacks.”I paused on this to connect it to something I recently learned about gerrymandering. There are counties in Tennessee where, for years, the electoral college counted livestock—cows, pigs, chickens—with more political weight than Black human beings. The hubris of placing animals before Black people didn’t end with the plantation; it was built into the zoning and districting maps of the 20th century.Malcolm X understood this. When we say the “system is failing,” we are wrong. It is operating exactly as the original framers intended. The only thing that has changed is the branding. The problem isn’t that America is broken; the problem is that America is doing exactly what it was designed to do. And as Malcolm warned, if you believe in reform rather than revolution, you are simply asking the arsonist to hand you a bucket of water.Separation and Self-DeterminationWhen asked for the “ideal solution,” Malcolm didn’t mince words. He proposed separation.He argued that if white people can get together and help European Jews establish a nation in the Middle East, then Black people in America should be given the resources to govern themselves. He wasn’t asking for handouts; he was asking for the machinery, the transportation, and the land to till.“If the white man doesn’t want us to go back to our own people... then since we can’t get along together in peace in this country with white people, let us separate part of this continent and migrate to that separate territory.”This isn’t about hate; it’s about autonomy. It is about the right to solve our own problems without begging the master to fix the chains. Malcolm predicted that if Black people were exposed to the truth about their history and the nature of the system, they would choose separation.In 2026, we are seeing the seeds of that truth take root. As public education is gutted and Black history is erased, we are forced to do our own research. As the “liberal” order crumbles and reveals its imperialist core, more of us are waking up to the reality that the Black bourgeoise tried to shield us from: The United States is not the Black man’s country.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Critical Conclusion: Malcolm X’s Evolution from Separation to Global SolidarityIt would be intellectually dishonest—and a disservice to his legacy—to conclude this analysis without addressing the most profound transformation in Malcolm X’s life: his break with the Nation of Islam and his shift away from strict Black separatism.The Malcolm X we hear in this 1963 interview is Minister Malcolm, the national spokesman for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. He is disciplined, sharp, and unwavering in his commitment to the Nation’s doctrine of separation. He argues that Black people should not seek integration into white society but should demand their own land, their own economy, and their own nation.But history shows us that Malcolm X did not die with those views unchanged.Malcolm X was murdered for this tenacity. The same unapologetic nature that gets a man like Donald Trump elected president got Malcolm X killed. He was targeted because he refused to let the oppressor define the terms of the struggle.We are living in the shadow of 1963. The conversations about Zionism, Black leadership, the Constitution, and self-determination are not “old news.” They are the foundation of our current reality. As we watch the erasure of Black history and the commodification of Black identity, we must return to the source.We must stop asking to be integrated into a burning house and start building our own.Related Readings * The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley and Malcolm X* Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements by George Breitman* The End of White World Supremacy: Four Speeches by Malcolm X (edited by Benjamin Karim)* Message to the Blackman in America by Elijah Muhammad* Black Bourgeoisie by E. Franklin Frazier* The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon* How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter RodneyI’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education and the 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 found value in this deep dive into Malcolm X’s evolution—if you believe that understanding his full journey is essential to navigating 2026—please consider upgrading your subscription. Your support allows me to continue this work: digging through archives, connecting historical dots, and providing the context they don’t want you to have. Together, we can build the independent, Black-centered media infrastructure that the establishment refuses to fund.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

Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.One of the most powerful parts of traveling and engaging with different communities is discovering the histories that never made it into the textbooks. Sometimes those histories exist right under our noses, hidden in plain sight, buried beneath national narratives that prefer simpler stories.A recent trip to Iowa reminded me of that.Many people imagine Iowa as farmland, cornfields, and presidential caucuses. In the popular imagination, it is not a place associated with Black history, Black institutions, or Black political struggle.Yet that assumption falls apart the moment you start digging into the historical record.Because Iowa has a deeper Black history than most people realize.And understanding that history reveals something much bigger about American politics.It reveals the contradictions that sit at the center of the country itself.The Political Puzzle of IowaOne of the things that immediately stands out about Iowa is its unusual electoral history.The state voted twice for Barack Obama.Then it voted for Donald Trump.At first glance, that pattern confuses the standard political narratives people use to understand American elections. It cannot easily be explained through simple partisan loyalty or racial backlash alone.The same electorate that supported the first Black president also later supported a candidate whose political rhetoric was built around nationalist and populist themes.Understanding that contradiction requires something deeper than partisan talking points.It requires looking at how local history, economic conditions, media environments, and institutional power shape political behavior.And Iowa offers a powerful case study for that complexity.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The Black History Hidden in the MidwestOne of the most surprising discoveries during my visit was the depth of Black history embedded in Iowa itself.Places like Fort Des Moines played a major role in American history. During World War II, the fort served as a training site for Black officers and members of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. Figures such as Charity Adams—later known for leading the historic 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion—trained there.That alone challenges the popular assumption that Black military leadership was concentrated only in coastal or southern cities.The Midwest played a role too.Iowa was also home to significant Black institutional development. The National Bar Association, created when Black lawyers were excluded from the American Bar Association, was founded in Des Moines.These institutions remind us that Black history did not only emerge from the trauma of the Jim Crow South. It also developed through migration, community building, and institutional formation across the country.Buxton: The Forgotten Black UtopiaAnother powerful example of this history is Buxton, Iowa.At the height of its existence in the early twentieth century, Buxton was a coal-mining town where Black and white residents lived in close proximity and Black professionals held significant positions in the community.Black doctors practiced medicine there.Black business owners operated stores.Black workers held stable jobs in the mining industry.For many historians, Buxton represents one of the closest examples to a racially integrated community during a period when segregation dominated much of the United States.Yet Buxton eventually disappeared after the mines closed. Residents were forced to relocate, and many of the opportunities they had in Buxton did not exist elsewhere.Black doctors who had once practiced successfully struggled to find work in other towns.The collapse of the town shows how fragile community progress can be when it depends on economic structures outside the community’s control.The Mississippi River and MigrationThe geography of Iowa also played an important role in shaping its communities.Cities along the Mississippi River became hubs for commerce, migration, and cultural exchange. Areas such as the Quad Cities developed across both Iowa and Illinois, forming interconnected economic regions.These river towns attracted a wide range of populations, including Black communities and Latino communities that helped shape the cultural landscape of the region.Today, these areas remain examples of how migration patterns and economic geography influence political and social dynamics.The Political Economy of IowaUnderstanding Iowa’s modern politics requires examining the state’s economic structure.Agriculture dominates the economy.Farming communities depend on global markets, federal policies, labor availability, and trade relationships.When those systems shift, rural communities feel the consequences immediately.Farmers have faced declining labor availability, unstable crop markets, and increasing corporate consolidation within agriculture. These pressures shape political choices in ways that are often invisible in national political debates.Economic vulnerability can make communities more receptive to political messaging that promises stability, protection, or economic revival.The challenge is that political rhetoric and political outcomes do not always align.Corporate Power and Local GovernanceAnother lesson from Iowa involves the power of institutions and corporations in shaping policy outcomes.Conversations around environmental policy reveal the influence of agricultural corporations and pesticide companies on regulatory decisions. Proposals to limit accountability for pollution and water contamination highlight how corporate interests can shape legislation even when public health concerns are at stake.This dynamic illustrates a broader truth about American politics.Political parties compete for power, but corporate influence often operates above partisan lines.Understanding that relationship is essential for anyone trying to analyze how policy decisions are made.Why Local Government MattersOne of the most overlooked aspects of American politics is the role of local government.Positions like county supervisors control budgets, oversee local services, and influence policies related to infrastructure, environmental protection, and community resources.Yet many voters know very little about these positions.Local officials help determine:* how budgets are allocated* how environmental policies are implemented* how community services operate* how public resources are distributedPaying attention to these offices can have a direct impact on everyday life.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The Lesson Iowa TeachesTraveling through Iowa reveals something fundamental about American politics.Communities contain contradictions.Places with rich Black histories can still exist alongside political systems that attempt to erase that history.States that once supported progressive candidates can later shift in different political directions.None of this is accidental.It reflects the complex intersection of economics, media environments, historical memory, and institutional power.Understanding those intersections requires curiosity.And curiosity is the first step toward political literacy.Education is elevation.Key Takeaways1. Black history exists in places many Americans overlookStates like Iowa contain rich histories of Black institutions, military leadership, and community building that are rarely taught in mainstream narratives.2. Political behavior is shaped by local conditionsEconomic pressures, media consumption, and community experiences all influence how people vote and engage with politics.3. Institutional power often transcends party politicsCorporate influence can shape policy outcomes regardless of which political party controls government institutions.4. Local government plays a critical role in everyday lifeCounty supervisors and local officials influence budgets, infrastructure, environmental policy, and community resources.5. Understanding complexity is essential for political literacySimple explanations rarely capture the realities of political behavior. Studying local histories helps reveal the deeper forces shaping national politics.Related Readings* Malcolm X & Alex Haley — The Autobiography of Malcolm X* Cedric Robinson — Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition* W.E.B. Du Bois — Black Reconstruction in America* Michelle Alexander — The New Jim Crow* Isabel Wilkerson — The Warmth of Other SunsReferences* Historical accounts of Fort Des Moines and the 6888th Battalion* National Bar Association historical archives* Transcript conversation discussing Iowa politics and history* Midwestern migration and river-town development studies 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

This piece is Sponsored by Incogni’ #ADWhen billionaires talk about replacing democracy with corporate governance, believe them. When technologists say consent is inefficient, listen. When investors build surveillance tools, connect the dots. Scifi stories are cool but, this is reality and not science fiction. This is a political economy evolving in real time right before our eyes and algorithm. I would argue that working people have two choices:* normalize oligarchy* or organize against itMaximize your online privacy. Remove your exposed personal information from Google results, public websites, and the data-broker economy that trades in your identity with the Incogni Unlimited plan because when elites start arguing that democracy itself is obsolete, control over information — especially your information — becomes a central terrain of power.Two of the most influential anti-democratic thinkers in modern tech have been preparing that terrain for years.. Curtis Yarvin and Peter Theil.Curtis Yarvin: the blogger who wants to end democracyBefore Silicon Valley venture capitalists, senators, and tech founders were repeating his ideas, Curtis Yarvin was writing under a pseudonym: Mencius Moldbug.His project was not policy reform. It was regime replacement.Yarvin’s central thesis is blunt:* Democracy produces disorder* Equality is a myth* Mass politics is irrational* Elite rule is natural* Monarchy is efficientCurtis proposes what he calls a “neocameralist” state — essentially a country run like a corporation, where sovereignty is treated as property and governance is executed by a CEO with absolute authority.Citizens become customers or employees. Rights become contractual privileges. Political participation disappears.That’s not a metaphor. That is his explicit model. For years, Yarvin was dismissed as an internet crank. Then his readership shifted Tech founders, venture capitalists, Right-wing intellectual circles and Policy-adjacent elites started riding his coattail legitimizing his ideology.His essays circulated in private forums, salons, and VC networks in Silicon Valley. Eventually, figures like Peter Thiel publicly engaged his ideas. Vice President J.D. Vance acknowledged Yarvin as an influence. Hell even major media outlets began covering his philosophy as a rising ideological current in tech conservatism.Yarvin’s thought is not novel so much as recombined. He draws from:* 19th-century reactionary monarchists* corporate managerial theory* libertarian anti-state economics* techno-futurism* colonial governance modelsThe through-line is consistent.. Society should be ordered by competence and capital, not equality.Which is why his writing repeatedly frames democracy as a historical mistake — a deviation from what he sees as the natural order of hierarchy.Peter Thiel: the financier of anti-democratic techIf Yarvin is the theorist, Peter Thiel is the executor.Thiel’s biography matters here. Co-founder of PayPal. Early investor in Facebook and Founder of Palantir. One of Silicon Valley’s most powerful venture capitalists.He has also said plainly:He no longer believes freedom and democracy are compatible.That statement is not rhetorical flourish. It reflects a coherent worldview:* mass democracy redistributes wealth* redistribution constrains capital* constrained capital limits innovation* therefore democracy obstructs progressFrom that premise, elite autonomy becomes morally justified. Thiel’s most consequential company is Palantir. Originally funded with CIA venture backing, Palantir builds data-integration and surveillance analysis platforms used by:* intelligence agencies* military operations* immigration enforcement* policing systemsIts core function is pattern detection across massive datasets — connecting identities, movements, communications, and behaviors.This is not neutral technology. It is governance infrastructure. Technology of surveillance and domination. A technology that ignores consent to violate rights materially.When a political philosophy skeptical of democracy aligns with tools capable of mapping entire populations, the implications extend far beyond business.Peter Thiel has been remarkably transparent about his own position. He has stated that he no longer believes freedom and democracy are compatible. He has also said that winning elections is unnecessary if technol\gical leverage can reshape society without public approval.That ain’t democratic persuasion. That is governance by infrastructure and look at where his capital goes:Palantir — a data analytics firm with deep ties to intelligence agencies, policing systems, and military operations. Surveillance capacity at planetary scale.When Yarvin imagines a CEO-king state, and Thiel funds tools capable of population-level monitoring, you are not looking at coincidence.You are looking at ideological alignment meeting technological capacity.This piece is Sponsored by Incogni’, ‘THECONSCIOUSLEE‘, ‘https://incogni.com/theconsciouslee‘ and get 60% off an annual plan of Incogni‘Maximize your online privacy with Incogni’s Custom RemovalsThis is where the fight for democracy meets the practical reality of data surveillance. When elites argue that democracy is obsolete, control over information — especially your information — becomes a central terrain of power. Through Custom Removals, you can submit specific URLs for more targeted removal. Just paste the link into the dashboard and their team will handle the rest.’When someone searches their name or address on Google, it’s often shocking to find how many results expose their personal information without consent. These data brokers are the invisible infrastructure feeding the surveillance economy that figures like Thiel have built empires upon.Incogni Unlimited is the most comprehensive and powerful data removal plan available. It essentially unlocks an unlimited number of removal requests to any number of websites which expose personal data without consent. With Incogni Unlimited, a majority of those results can now be removed by Incogni’s privacy specialists—even if those sites aren’t supported by their fast, efficient and automated standard removal service. That’s what makes the Unlimited Plan so much more valuable.Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code THECONSCIOUSLEE at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/theconsciousleeThe Yarvin–Thiel convergenceThe relationship between Yarvin and Thiel is ideological alignment rather than formal partnership.Yarvin supplies: a justification for hierarchical, post-democratic governance.Thiel supplies:capital, networks, and technology that expand elite autonomy from democratic constraint.One normalizes the idea that rule should concentrate upward. The other builds systems that make concentrated rule more feasible. Theory meets capacity. That is how political transformation actually occurs.When billionaires entertain anti-democratic theory, it matters. When venture capital circulates it, it spreads. When political actors absorb it, it influences governance. Ideas about hierarchy and rule do not stay academic when backed by wealth.They become institutional direction.Why data control is central to this ideologyIn a democratic system, legitimacy flows upward from people. In an oligarchic system, control flows downward from elites.Information asymmetry determines which model prevails.The more elites know about populations, the easier populations are to predict, segment, and influence.Data brokerage therefore becomes structural power.Your identity, habits, location, networks, and behavior patterns become inputs into systems you do not govern.Which is why privacy is political, not merely personal.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The stakes: democracy vs managerial ruleThe Yarvin–Thiel axis represents a broader tension shaping the 21st century:democratic governance Versus technocratic oligarchyOne distributes authority. The other concentrates it.One requires consent. The other requires compliance.One treats people as citizens. The other treats them as managed populations.Call to action: reduce exposure, build powerMaximize your online privacy. Remove your exposed personal information from Google results, public sites, and data-broker markets with the Incogni Unlimited plan. Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code THECONSCIOUSLEE at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/theconsciousleeBecause the same elite networks imagining post-democratic governance operate inside an economy built on harvesting personal data at scale.Reducing that visibility is not just self-protection. It is refusing passive participation in surveillance capitalism.Study power. Track ideology. Organize collectively.Because Yarvin is not hiding his monarchism. Thiel is not hiding his anti-democratic skepticism.They are articulating a future where authority concentrates upward and public consent becomes optional.The question is not whether they mean it. The question is whether democratic society recognizes it in time.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

Thank you Reda Rountree (she/her), CH, Deb Schein, Brittney McCarey, Katara C, 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

Thank you Mary Lummis, Rebel Guest, LBW, Eric Roth, Sherell, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.What Malcolm X Understood About Integration That America Still Refuses to FaceI’m sitting here watching a Malcolm X speech from the early 1960s. Civil rights era. NAACP conversations. Integration debates. The kind of history most of us think we already understand.Then Malcolm says something that forces you to pause and think deeper.Not surface-level thinking. Structural thinking.Because the way America teaches the history of segregation and integration has always been incomplete.What we’re taught sounds simple:Segregation was bad.Integration fixed it.Case closed.That narrative is clean. Palatable. Comfortable.It’s also incomplete.When you actually study the archives, when you actually listen to Malcolm X and many other thinkers from that era, you realize the debate wasn’t just separate versus together.The real debate was about power.And that’s the part history classrooms rarely unpack.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The Part of “Separate but Equal” We Were Never Taught to ExamineMost Americans learn about Plessy v. Ferguson like this:Separate but equal.Then teachers jump immediately to the separate part and explain why segregation was wrong.Which it was.Yet something important gets skipped.The equal part.When you look at the archives of Black political organizing in the early twentieth century, many Black leaders were focused on forcing America to actually deliver the equality it claimed existed.Schools. Funding. Infrastructure. Jobs.Equality meant material conditions.It meant power.Instead, history rewrote the story to make it sound like Black people were simply fighting to sit next to white people.That’s not what the fight was about.The fight was about justice, opportunity, and autonomy.Your transcript captures this tension perfectly when questioning how integration is taught as the ultimate solution to inequality while ignoring how power structures remain unchanged.The Illusion of InclusionWhen I used to do diversity trainings, one of the concepts I would talk about is something I call the illusion of inclusion.Let me explain it the way I explained it in those trainings.Imagine a piggy bank.Now imagine you put a penny, a nickel, a dime, and a quarter inside that same bank.They all now share the same space.They all have equal access to the container.Yet their value hasn’t changed.The penny is still worth one cent.The quarter is still worth twenty-five.Being in the same space does not automatically create equality.Access is not power.Presence is not equity.That’s the illusion.And liberal political frameworks have spent decades convincing people that integration equals equality.Malcolm X saw through that illusion sixty years ago.Integration and the Decline of Black InstitutionsThere’s another uncomfortable truth that rarely gets discussed.Integration created trade-offs.Black schools closed.Black businesses lost customers.Black professional networks weakened.Black teachers lost jobs when school districts integrated and white districts refused to hire them.When Black communities gained access to white institutions, there was often a mass exodus away from Black institutions.Why?Because white supremacy had already established the hierarchy:White spaces = valuableBlack spaces = inferiorIntegration didn’t dismantle that hierarchy.In many ways it reinforced it.Malcolm X and the Structural Analysis of PowerMalcolm X’s critique was never about interpersonal relationships between Black people and white people.It was about structures.Structures of law.Structures of economics.Structures of power.When Malcolm critiques white liberals, he isn’t talking about individual kindness or intentions.He’s talking about systems that preserve control while appearing progressive.He famously described the difference between white conservatives and white liberals like this:The wolf and the fox.Different personalities.Same appetite.That critique still resonates today because American politics often operates through two different forms of power:Hard power.Soft power.Conservatives typically represent the hard version.Liberals often represent the soft version.Both can still sustain the same system.Why Malcolm X Still Feels Dangerous TodayOne of the reasons Malcolm X is often misrepresented in American education is because his analysis was structural.Structural critiques are uncomfortable.They force people to question institutions themselves rather than individual actors within them.That’s why Malcolm X is often framed as extreme.Dangerous.Radical.Yet when you listen carefully to his speeches, what you actually hear is something else.A rigorous analysis of power.And a relentless commitment to Black autonomy.Your transcript captures this reflection well, especially the realization that Malcolm’s arguments from 1963 still apply to political debates today.Equality, According to Malcolm XIn the speech you were watching, Malcolm makes something very clear.Equality isn’t measured by proximity to white people.Equality means the ability to develop your full potential.Equality means autonomy.Equality means the power to build institutions that serve your people.That definition of equality is radically different from the one commonly taught in American political discourse.One version focuses on access to existing power structures.The other focuses on the ability to create your own power structures.Those are two very different visions of freedom.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The Pattern Recognition ProblemOne of the most important skills political education can give people is pattern recognition.When you look closely at history, you start seeing the same debates repeating themselves.Black liberals versus Black radicals.Integration versus autonomy.Reform versus transformation.These conversations happening online today are not new.They’ve been happening for generations.Understanding that historical continuity is crucial if we want to avoid repeating the same mistakes.The Real Lesson Malcolm X Leaves Us WithMalcolm X forces us to ask a difficult question:Is equality about inclusion into existing systems?Or is equality about the power to determine your own future?That question remains unresolved.And until we answer it honestly, we will continue confusing proximity to power with actual freedom.Education is elevation.Support Independent Black Education MediaI’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education 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 believe in sustaining a classroom without borders, one that empowers with truth when others look away, please become a founding paid member today.5 Key Takeaways1. Integration and equality are not the same thing.Sharing physical spaces does not automatically redistribute power or resources. Malcolm X’s critique forces us to ask whether integration changed structures or simply expanded access to them.2. American history sanitizes political debate.Many Black intellectuals during the civil rights era disagreed about strategy. The idea that everyone supported the same vision of integration is historically inaccurate.3. Institutions often maintain their original function.Legal reforms and landmark court cases may appear transformative, yet institutions frequently continue operating according to their founding logic.4. Liberalism often operates through soft power.Progressive language and reformist policies can coexist with systems that maintain inequality. Malcolm X’s critique of liberalism was structural, not personal.5. True equality requires autonomy.Malcolm X framed equality as the ability for Black communities to develop their own institutions, economies, and political power—not simply access to existing ones.Related Readings* Malcolm X — The Ballot or the Bullet* Malcolm X & Alex Haley — The Autobiography of Malcolm X* Cedric Robinson — Black Marxism* W.E.B. Du Bois — Black Reconstruction* Derrick Bell — Faces at the Bottom of the Well* Michelle Alexander — The New Jim CrowReferences* Malcolm X speeches and interviews (1960–1965)* Transcript of commentary analyzing Malcolm X speech and integration debate* Derrick Bell, Critical Race Theory scholarship* Cedric Robinson, Black Radical Tradition 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

Thank you Reda Rountree (she/her), Alisha Williams, Gilda Johnson, Kristen, Katara C, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.“I could have saved more slaves, if only they knew they were slaves.”That quote—allegedly from Harriet Tubman—has been rattling around my spirit for years. Not because I need historical verification (though Dr. Ware and I debated whether it’s apocryphal), but because it speaks to the condition we find ourselves in right now, in 2026, watching the empire burn while too many of us are still trying to figure out which arsonist to vote for.Welcome to the inaugural episode of Education is Elevation. And for this first one, I needed to go heavy. I needed to go to someone who moves through the world the way I try to: rooted in the Black radical tradition, unafraid to be unpopular, and unwilling to let respectability politics silence the truth.I’m talking about Dr. Butch Ware. Rudolph McKinley Ware III. Professor at UC Santa Barbara. 2024 Green Party Vice Presidential candidate. Current candidate for Governor of California. A brother who converted to Islam at 15 after reading Malcolm X’s autobiography in one night—the same way I found myself in them pages years later. A brother who speaks Wolof, who did oral history interviews in West Africa, who carries the weight of Ware County, Georgia—where his ancestors were held in bondage by three white men who owned 1,100 human beings.We sat down for what was supposed to be an hour. We went damn near 90 minutes. And by the time we finished, I realized we hadn’t even scratched the surface. This is Part One of what will definitely be a recurring conversation.Let me be transparent with you from the jump: I asked Dr. Ware the question my audience been screaming. I asked him about the blame. I asked him about the resentment. I asked him about the folks who still believe that he and Jill Stein handed the election to Donald Trump.His answer? “The math ain’t math.”And then he proceeded to explain why the math ain’t math—and why the Democratic Party’s refusal to stop killing children in Gaza cost them an election they could have won if they’d just shown an ounce of humanity.But this conversation went so much deeper than electoral politics. We talked about the past, present, and future of Black liberation. We talked about why the Black radical tradition is fundamentally internationalist. We talked about why Malcolm X was killed when he started building the Organization of Afro-American Unity. We talked about why Fred Hampton was killed when he started building the Rainbow Coalition. We talked about why Dr. King was killed when he started connecting the dots between Vietnam and economic justice.And we talked about what it’s going to take for us to get free—for real this time.PART I: THE PRESENT — Why the 2024 Election Wasn’t About Spoilers, It Was About GenocideLet me set the scene. My audience is... complex. I got liberals in there. I got leftists in there. I got folks who still believe the Democratic Party can be saved and folks who think I’m too soft on Democrats. I got Black folks who voted for Kamala holding their breath and Black folks who voted Green or sat out entirely feeling vindicated.So when I sat down with Dr. Ware, I had to address the elephant in the room. The comments been hot. The DMs been hot. People want to know: Why you talking to him? Ain’t he part of the reason Trump is back?Dr. Ware didn’t flinch.“Feelings are feelings and facts are facts,” he said. “Anyone that holds the Green Party ticket responsible for the Democrats losing the election? That’s not how math works. If you add up all the third-party candidates together, they won’t get commonly even one of the swing states, much less all of them.”He reminded me—and I needed the reminder—that he said this back in August of 2024. He saw what was coming because he was connected to communities the Democratic Party took for granted.“I’m a Muslim. Converted at 15 when I read Malcolm. I’m connected to the Black Muslim community, the broader Muslim community. I’ve been a speaker and lecturer in that community for decades. The Democrats went from carrying 65% of the Muslim vote in swing states to polling at about 12% in those same swing states because of the genocide in Gaza.”Let that sink in. A 53-point drop. Not because of Jill Stein. Not because of Cornel West. Because the Biden-Harris administration kept sending bombs. Because Kamala Harris stood on that stage and said her policy would not change “one iota” from Biden’s policy on Gaza.“She could have won that election if she just stopped killing kids,” Dr. Ware said. “If she had marked any distance between Biden’s genocidal policies towards Gaza, she might have had a chance. But that’s not my responsibility. They were getting paid good money by AIPAC, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, and Northrop Grumman to keep right on killing kids.”I asked him about Kamala’s recent interviews—the ones where she talks about regretting some of her 2024 decisions. I asked him if that should matter to us.His response cut deep.“As somebody that learned Black liberation from Malcolm’s teaching, I have no love for Black imperialists or for Black Zionists. I really am not interested in Kamala’s explanations about what she did or didn’t do unless and until she’s willing to reassess her overall position.”Then he said something I had to sit with:“I’m harder on Obama than I am on Trump. Because I don’t expect nothing from Trump. But if somebody is repping our culture and our tradition, there’s nothing worse to me than a Black imperialist. It’s a betrayal of the fundamental thing of what Blackness and Black liberation is about.”This is the tension we don’t talk about enough. We are so hungry for representation—so desperate for people who look like us in high places—that we let them betray us and call it progress. Obama deported more people than any president in history. Obama dropped bombs on Yemeni children. Obama bailed out the banks and let Black homeowners drown. And because he was smooth, because he was “articulate,” because he made white people comfortable, we gave him a pass.Dr. Ware isn’t giving passes.PART II: THE PHILOSOPHY — Solidarity Beyond Identity and IdeologyOne of the reasons I wanted to have this conversation is because Dr. Ware represents something I’ve been trying to articulate for years. He’s running for Governor of California as a Green Party candidate. But if you go to his website—butchwareforgov.com—at the bottom it says: “Solidarity Beyond Identity and Ideology.”That line hit me.Because the truth is, I’ve spent the last year and a half coming to a painful realization: not everybody’s goal is liberation. Some people just want to be included in the neoliberal project. Some people are cool with imperialism. They’re cool with killing babies. They’re cool with the bloodshed that keeps the empire running. They just want comfort. They want privilege. They want to be the ones holding the whip instead of being whipped.“I’ve sadly accepted that everybody’s goal is not liberation,” I told him. “Some people have a burning passion to just be included in the neoliberal project. I’m cool with the imperialism s**t, as long as you see my humanity. As long as I have comfort.”Dr. Ware nodded. Then he took it deeper.“For me, a lot of our people don’t want freedom. They just want their turn as the oppressor. I saw a lot of people that claimed abolitionists, but all of a sudden were willing to throw their credibility onto the table to defend an agent of the carceral state—somebody that locked people up in Oakland for truancy of their children, somebody that locked up a generation of Black men, somebody actively supporting an ongoing genocide.”He pointed to the Malcolm X poster behind him—El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.“Malcolm said of the Zionist entity in 1964: ‘This is a white Jewish population being empowered by white imperialists to move brown Arabs off their land.’ Malcolm understood Zionism as white supremacy. James Baldwin understood Zionism as white supremacy. In 1979, Baldwin said the state of Israel was not created for the salvation of the Jews; it was created for the salvation of Western interests.”This is the Black radical tradition. Not asking for a seat at the table. Not begging to be included in the empire. Recognizing that the table itself is the problem. Recognizing that the empire must be dismantled, not diversified.Dr. Ware broke it down: “I don’t want to be an overseer on Master’s plantation. I want us all to get free. I want Master’s plantation to be completely gone.”PART III: THE CALIFORNIA CONTEXT — Why the Jungle Primary Matters and Why the Democrats Are Fear-MongeringWe shifted gears to talk about his current race. Dr. Ware is running for Governor of California in a jungle primary. That means only the top two candidates advance, regardless of party. The primary is June 2nd. Ballots get mailed out May 4th. And right now, he’s polling at 5%—eight points off the lead.“Let me break it down,” he said. “There’s no scenario where two Republican candidates get through. The only two scenarios are either blue versus green or blue versus red. So the question is: do you want them running against me, or chasing a Republican to the right?”He contrasted his campaign with others. “Mamdani, for example, in February before his primary in June, was polling at 1%. Bro, I’m polling at 5%—five times ahead of where Mamdani was. But Mamdani had to get to 50% in a Democrat primary. I have to finish in the top two in an open primary. The leaders are at 13%. I’m eight points off the lead.”So why all the fear-mongering? Why are Democrats running ads saying that a Ware campaign will hand the state to Republicans?“They’re playing in y’all faces,” he said. “If they’re serious, they can get the Republicans out of the race on June 2nd, 2026. And it’ll just be whichever corporate Democrat is running to be the next Gavin Newsom—probably Eric Swalwell, or as I called him in my diss track, Eric Swallowwell for Israel.”That’s right. Dr. Butch Ware is the first candidate in history to do a political ad in the form of a diss track. Because he came up spitting. Because he never wanted to be anything except an emcee or a baseball player—and he did both. College baseball scholarship. Minor league ball. Ball overseas. And bars for days.I told him straight up: “I know regardless of what anybody would want to say about that performance, specifically when it comes to bars and using your position to spit Black culture—I would have been one of them little boys that would have been inspired by everything you’re doing and saying.”He’s 52. I’m 35. But the throughline is the same. We both came up on hip hop. We both came up on the golden age. We both understand that the culture is not separate from the politics.“That’s why we fell for the Obama okie doke,” he said. “We are so desperately in need of people that look like us—but they’re not all like us. Obama was setting records for deportation. Obama was bombing Yemeni kids. We need folks that not just represent our skin color and our culture, but that represent our politics.”PART IV: THE TEXAS PERSPECTIVE — Imagination, Limitation, and the Harriet Tubman PrincipleI had to be real with him about where I’m at. Texas is... Texas. We’ve been run by Republicans for decades. But the Democrats have been in power on the local level for just as long, and nothing changes. They run the same weak ads. They blame the border. They blame us. They never take responsibility.“To be honest with you, it always puts me in this weird position,” I told him. “Knowing what is possible—materially possible—but also knowing the people in my reality have a very limited understanding of what we can have.”I brought up the Harriet Tubman quote—whether it’s real or not, the sentiment is real: “I could have saved most slaves. I could have convinced them they were slaves.”“It’s a lot of things here in Texas that people just accept as a truism,” I said. “And because they accept it as a truism, it limits their imagination for how we can think about our political reality.”Dr. Ware nodded. Then he went deep.“When I was 15, I read Malcolm’s autobiography. I read that book cover to cover in one night. I could not put it down. I wanted what Malcolm had because Malcolm was honest about how badly America had broken him and what it turned him into. A hustler. In and out of foster care.”He told me about his father—a locksmith with a sixth-grade education who stayed strapped. About his mother—15 years old, pregnant with him, told by her high school guidance counselor to abort the child because she was pregnant by a Black man.“I came in in 1973 with white supremacy trying to take me out. I never lived at the same street address for a calendar year until I turned nine. Shelters. Public housing. Staying with relatives. Facing homelessness.”And then he connected it to why Malcolm mattered.“What got Malcolm free was that he escaped all of those mental chains. Malcolm said: never let your enemy tell you how many of you there are. Never let the man that you are against form your opinions for you. Malcolm was always making his own independent assessment of the situation because once he got free in here and in here—in his mind and in his spirit—then they couldn’t hold him with noose. He was able to have triumph over all of his inner demons and his external oppressors.”He looked at me and said: “Our people need the healing from the trauma that white supremacy and empire has inscribed upon us. That is actually the thing that leads us to true liberation.”PART V: THE INTERNATIONAL LENS — Why Malcolm Was Right About Congo and MississippiWe talked about the moment we’re in right now. Trump is back. The bombs are falling. Iran is in the crosshairs. And the same playbook they ran in Iraq, they’re running again.Dr. Ware broke it down with a clarity that made me lean in.“They are very clearly running the same destabilization playbook in the United States that they ran in all of their regime change operations around the globe. Once you apply a colonial lens and you understand that the problem of Black suffering in the United States is produced by a broader system of capitalism, white supremacy, and imperialism—then you are actually capable of getting free.”He quoted Julius Nyerere, the first president of Tanzania: “The United States is a single-party state. But with classic American extravagance, they have two of them.”I had to sit with that. Two parties. Same donors. Same imperial interests. Same war machine. Just different packaging.“If you were to make a Venn diagram of the donor base for the Democrat Party and the Republican Party, it’s going to be a single circle,” Dr. Ware said. “Their donor base is the same. So they stage a fake culture war between right and left. They have the so-called right and so-called left, but they’re both right-wing parties. They’re both capitalist parties. They’re both imperialist parties. They’re both white supremacist parties. It’s just that some allow a little more skin folk and others don’t.”I had to check myself. I told him: “We say the same s**t, and we believe most of the same s**t. All it is is your delivery is more matter-of-fact unapologetic, and mine is a little bit more... uh.”He laughed. “You can sweeten it for me.”He reminded me that it’s always been our culture driving liberation. Hundreds of different African ethnicities, speaking different languages, forged themselves into one people on this soil. That never happened in human history anywhere else before. The slaves of the Romans didn’t make themselves into a people. The slaves of the Greeks didn’t make themselves into a people. It had never happened.“We did that. Blackness by itself is a miracle. And the key to defeating white supremacy one good time, once and for all, is definitely going to come from us.”FIVE KEY TAKEAWAYS1. The 2024 Election Was Lost by Democrats, Not “Spoiled” by Third PartiesDr. Ware’s math is simple: third-party votes don’t add up to a single swing state victory. The real culprit was the Democratic Party’s refusal to break from a genocide that cost them 53 points of Muslim support and alienated young voters, progressive voters, and anyone with a conscience. Kamala could have won if she’d stopped killing kids. She chose AIPAC money over human life. That’s on her, not on us.2. Some of Us Don’t Want Liberation; We Want to Be the OppressorThis is the hard truth we don’t want to face. There are Black people who are perfectly fine with imperialism, with the carceral state, with genocide—as long as they get a seat at the table. As long as they get comfort. As long as they get privilege. But the Black radical tradition, from Malcolm to Baldwin to Assata, teaches us that liberation isn’t about who holds the whip. It’s about burning the whip entirely.3. The Two-Party System is a Cage Designed to Look Like a ChoiceJulius Nyerere said it best: America is a single-party state with two extravagant wings. The donor base is the same. The imperial interests are the same. The war machine is the same. The only difference is marketing. The Democrats chase the Republicans to the right, and we’re left with no one representing our interests. Voting blue no matter who is a strategy for staying enslaved, not getting free.4. An International Lens is the Only Path to LiberationYou cannot understand Mississippi without understanding Congo. You cannot understand Gaza without understanding the transatlantic slave trade. The system is global, and so must be our resistance. The colonizer breaks your connection to the past so you’ll believe whatever they tell you about who you are. Reconnecting with the Haitian Revolution, with West African anti-slavery movements, with the global struggle against empire—that’s how we get free.5. The War Will Be Won in the CultureElectoral politics alone won’t save us. Organizing alone won’t save us. The war for our consciousness will be fought in the culture—in the music, in the stories, in the images we create and consume. Black culture has always been the engine of our liberation. From the spirituals to hip hop, we have coded resistance into our art. We need to do it again. We need to tell stories that script liberation, not captivity.SOURCES AND FURTHER READINGIf you want to go deeper into the history, theory, and context we discussed, start here:Books:* The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley – The foundational text. Read it in one night like Dr. Ware did.* Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric Robinson – The essential text for understanding the Black radical tradition.* The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon – On colonialism, violence, and liberation.* Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire – On the relationship between colonialism and fascism.* Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass – Because we have to know where we’ve been.* Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur – Because the ancestors are still speaking.Speeches and Essays:7. “Message to the Grassroots” – Malcolm X (1963)8. “The Ballot or the Bullet” – Malcolm X (1964)9. “Letter from Birmingham Jail” – Martin Luther King Jr. (1963)10. “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” – Martin Luther King Jr. (1967)11. “Open Letter to the Born Again” – James Baldwin (1979)12. “The Women’s Liberation and Gay Liberation Movements” – Huey P. Newton (1970)Scholars and Thinkers:13. Julius Nyerere – First President of Tanzania, theorist of Ujamaa and African socialism.14. Walter Rodney – Author of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.15. Cedric Robinson – UC Santa Barbara professor, author of Black Marxism.16. Abdul Kader Khan – 18th-century West African Muslim revolutionary who abolished the slave trade in the Senegal River Valley.Cultural References:17. “The Message” – Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (1982)18. X-Clan – “To the East, Blackwards” (1990)19. Poor Righteous Teachers – “Holy Intellect” (1990)20. Wise Intelligent – Lectures on narrative and consciousness. 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

Thank you Reda Rountree (she/her), PJ Schuster, M Hope, Victoria Viste, Dalai Mama 💗, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.Let me break this down for anybody who’s confused about how we ended up here.February 28th: United States and Israel, in a joint effort, struck Iran. Donald Trump claimed it was to address their nuclear program.But here’s the history: there was a nuclear deal. It allowed inspections. Iran committed to using nuclear tech only for energy. Trump killed that deal. Tried to make his own—which would’ve looked basically the same—and that fell through.Now we’re here.Benjamin Netanyahu has been sounding the alarm about Iran having nuclear weapons since the 80s. Decades. They’ve been “a week away” from developing nukes for 40 years. But now we have an administration that doesn’t care about nuance, doesn’t care about diplomacy, and sees conflict as the first option, not the last.After February 28th, March 1st, Iran retaliated. Explosions all through the Middle East. Dubai. Drones flying past buildings. It’s getting wild in ways we haven’t seen in years.And then Marco Rubio said the quiet part out loud: “We knew that if Iran was attacked, they would attack us. So we attacked them first.”That’s not defense. That’s premeditated aggression dressed up in flag pins.The Jasmine Crockett Situation: Being Right About the Wrong ThingI started the night with this, and I meant every word. The outrage I’ve been seeing about Jasmine Crockett’s loss in Texas? I get it. I do. When you see Dr. Rashad Richey and other progressives pointing at the electability conversation and saying it wasn’t fair to her, they’re not wrong.But here’s the thing—and I need y’all to sit with this—they’re right about the wrong thing.Her electability was tied to her being a Black woman. Texas is the biggest state in the continental U.S. It ain’t Georgia, where you can win Atlanta and some suburbs and squeak it out. Texas has rural areas the size of small countries, and those areas don’t like Black people like that. Specifically, they don’t like outspoken Black women.People literally said, “We love her, but she’s not gonna win a statewide election in Texas on some cultural s**t.” That’s the quote. That’s the reality.Now, here’s where I need my people to hear me: we can’t abandon the electability conversation just because it’s Jasmine Crockett. Those same people shouting “electability is a dog whistle” were fine with voting for Kamala Harris because she was “more electable” than Joe Biden. You can’t have it both ways.In a winner-take-all, first-past-the-post system, if you don’t win elections, the whole thing was pointless. The policy doesn’t matter if you’re not in the room.Born and Raised in Texas: A Different ViewI’m from Texas. I live here right now. And watching this conversation unfold from outside the state has been... interesting.A lot of people are missing that this was a primary election. They’re comparing it to general elections, to Stacey Abrams vs. Brian Kemp. That’s a bad metaphor.Most people who voted for James Talarico also voted for Kamala Harris. This wasn’t about Democrat vs. Republican—it was about who we thought could win in November.And here’s the timeline people ignore: Talarico was in this race first. People had already made up their minds when it was him versus Colin Allred. When Jasmine got in, nothing she brought to the table made folks switch. Not because she’s not talented—she is. But because in a primary, you’re asking people to abandon a candidate they already believed in.I saw a TikTok breaking down legislative accomplishments: Talarico had passed 18 bills. Jasmine had passed 0. That’s not a value judgment on her potential, but in a primary where people are looking at who can actually do the job, that gap matters.Toya’s Point: Don’t Take Your Ball and Go HomeToya brought the heat on this one, and I was nodding the whole time.She said, “Don’t be the fool that’s just like, ‘Oh, another one of them is getting that chance.’ You need to show up and lock in.”Because here’s what happens when you fall in love with a candidate and they lose: you stop paying attention. You stop caring about the midterms. You let the real enemy—Ken Paxton, Ted Cruz, whoever—slide because you’re having a pity party.Jasmine conceded gracefully. She posted the text. But there were mishandlings in Dallas, people getting turned away from lines. That’s the system working exactly how it’s designed to work. And if you don’t pay attention to that—if you don’t show up for the next election because your girl lost—then the system wins.Beto didn’t get the support he needed when it mattered. Don’t let that happen again.The Constitutional QuestionHere’s where I’m going to piss some people off, and I’m okay with that.The Plug asked whether the Constitution is a real check on power or if we’ve been lying to ourselves. My answer? We’ve been lying to ourselves since 1803.Let’s talk about the Louisiana Purchase. Thomas Jefferson didn’t have Congressional approval to do that. The Constitution was less than 30 years old and already being reinterpreted by whoever had the power to reinterpret it.James Monroe? Monroe Doctrine. Set policy without Congress. Didn’t deploy troops that time, but set a precedent that allowed every president after him to stretch war powers like taffy.Harry Truman? Korean War. No Congressional approval.Dwight Eisenhower? Lebanon. No approval.JFK? Cuban Missile Crisis. No approval.LBJ? Vietnam. No approval.Every president since World War II has done military actions without Congress. The only difference with Trump is speed and shamelessness. He’s moving faster and caring less about hiding it.But here’s what I need y’all to understand: when we romanticize the Constitution, when we put it on a pedestal and pretend it’s always been this pure document that protected the vulnerable, we’re ignoring the material reality. The Constitution was written on the backs of enslaved people. It had to be amended—multiple times—to include the people it originally excluded.That’s not a bug. That’s the feature. It’s always been “good for me, not for thee.”Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Why This Matters to Black PeopleSomebody in the chat asked the question that always comes up when we talk deep politics like this: “What does this have to do with niggas? Donald Trump ain’t droning the hood.”And look, I get why people ask that. When you’re struggling to pay rent, when you’re watching your kids navigate schools that don’t care about them, when you’re dealing with police who see you as a problem before a person—international politics feels distant.But here’s the thing: Black people represent 20% of the military. We’re less than one-fifth of the population, but we’re one-fifth of the people getting shipped overseas to fight these unconstitutional wars.When the president decides to bomb another country, those bombs are being loaded by Black hands. When troops get deployed, Black bodies are on those planes. When soldiers don’t come home, Black families are grieving.And it’s not just the fighting. When the U.S. engages militarily, domestic surveillance goes up. Local police departments get more military equipment. ICE gets more aggressive. The same “national security” justification used to bomb a school in Iran gets used to raid a neighborhood in Chicago.I just came back from Iowa. Shout out to Des Moines. And while I was there, I learned something that blew my mind. The founders of the Divine Nine—the Alphas, the Ques, the Kappas—after they started those organizations on college campuses in the early 1900s, they all got recruited to go to Des Moines to be captains and sergeants leading Black folks in the military.The same pattern, different century. The best and brightest Black Americans get funneled into the military machine. That’s the pipeline. That’s the trap.So when you ask why this matters, I’m telling you: the president’s interpretation of the Constitution always has a direct impact on Black livelihood. Always.The Enemy of My Enemy Is Still My EnemyToya raised an interesting point: Iran’s leaders have acknowledged Black American struggles. They tweeted “I Can’t Breathe” during the Eric Garner protests. They released Black hostages in 1979 because they recognized the unique oppression Black people face in America.Does that create an “enemy of my enemy” dynamic?Short answer: no.Long answer: hell no.I know about Afro-Iranian history. I know about the erasure of Black Iranians in that country. You can’t convince me you care about Black folks in America when you don’t care about Black folks in your own country. That’s not solidarity—that’s performance. That’s using our pain as a cudgel against America while running the same playbook at home.The Ayatollah who was just killed in these recent attacks tweeted support for Black Lives Matter. Cool. But what about the Black Iranians who can’t live freely in Iran? What about the erasure of their history, their culture, their existence?We don’t have friends in governments. Not here, not there. Our solidarity is with oppressed people, not the people oppressing them.50 Cent and the Weaponization of TraumaWe couldn’t leave without touching pop culture, and this 50 Cent vs. T.I. situation is a perfect example of how the same dynamics play out in the culture.50 Cent posted a picture of T.I. and Tiny, saying he’s developing a “Surviving T.I. & Tiny” documentary—like the one he did on Diddy. And the caption: “Remember how quiet I got before the Diddy doc? I hope this doesn’t mess up your promo tour. You might want to talk to a crisis PR person.”Here’s my problem with this: it’s the second time somebody’s taken a rap battle somewhere it didn’t need to go. This is Drake energy—going to the law, going to the legal system, using the courts and documentaries as weapons instead of bars.Why can’t you just rap about it? What happened to the craft?And more importantly: you’re weaponizing trauma. You’re commodifying victimization to get at your opp. You don’t care about those women’s suffering—you care about the “aha, gotcha” moment. You’re moving like a sleazeball.We saw this with the Diddy doc. A lot of those claims were refuted. A lot of it wasn’t factual. But the damage was done because trauma sells.At this age, at this point in hip-hop’s history, we need to be better than this.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Where We Go From HereWe’re in a wicked time. Congress has refused to check presidential power. The House voted 219-212 against a war powers resolution. The Senate did the same, with Fetterman—remember that name—voting to block efforts to stop unconstitutional war.Parents are sending their kids to war for a president who said he wouldn’t start any. The definition of when this war ends? They said “we’ll know it when we see it.” That’s the pornography defense applied to military conflict. No clear goals, no exit strategy, just vibes and bombs.Donald Trump said four weeks. Four weeks. We all remember George Bush standing on that aircraft carrier with the “Mission Accomplished” banner. We’re still in Iraq.And while the bombs aren’t dropping on U.S. soil, we’re going to feel it. Gas prices are up. Shipping costs are up. The economic squeeze is real, and it’s going to hit the people who can afford it least.But here’s what I need you to take away from all of this: we have to pay attention. We have to stay engaged. Not because the system works—it doesn’t—but because the people who benefit from it working against us are counting on us to check out.They’re counting on us to say “politics ain’t for me” and go back to scrolling. They’re counting on us to fall in love with candidates instead of movements. They’re counting on us to let the grief of losing make us quit the game entirely.Don’t give them that satisfaction.Stay woke. Stay engaged. Stay ready.Related Readings* The Condemnation of Blackness by Khalil Gibran Muhammad* The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois (for that double consciousness conversation)* Dark Ghettos: Injustice, Dissent, and Reform by Tommie Shelby* How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwahr (for understanding U.S. military bases globally)* The Half Has Never Been Told by Edward E. Baptist (for the real history of American capitalism)Major Takeaways from Episode* Electability is class reductionist, but it’s real. We can hate the game while acknowledging we’re stuck in it. Jasmine Crockett lost because Texas rural voters weren’t ready for her. That’s not fair, but it’s facts. And facts don’t care about our feelings.* The Constitution was never pure. It was broken by Jefferson in 1803. It was written by enslavers in 1787. Every president since WWII has ignored its war powers provisions. Trump isn’t an aberration—he’s acceleration.* Black people are the tip of the military spear. 20% of the armed forces, 14% of the population. When the bombs drop, our kids are dropping them. When soldiers die, our families grieve. This is our business.* Iran ain’t our friend, even when they cosign our struggle. Performative solidarity is still performance. If you oppress Black people in your country, I don’t care what you tweet about Black Lives Matter.* The culture is sick too. 50 Cent making trauma docs to win rap beef is the same energy as the government using “national security” to start wars. It’s all weaponization dressed up in respectable clothes.* Don’t take your ball and go home. Your candidate lost? Show up anyway. The midterms matter. The local elections matter. The sheriff matters. The judges matter. All of it matters.* War costs what you don’t have. Gas prices, grocery bills, shipping—it’s all going up. We’re paying for these bombs whether we wanted them dropped or not.* Checks and balances died when partisanship won. Fetterman and company blocked war powers resolutions. That’s not a bug—that’s the system working exactly how it’s designed when party matters more than country.* The imminent threat is always manufactured. Iran can’t hit the U.S. mainland. They don’t have the missiles. So what are we really fighting for? Oil. Always oil.* Niggas ain’t got no friends in government. Not here. Not there. Our solidarity is horizontal—with the protesters, the oppressed, the people getting tear-gassed. Not the people doing the gassing. 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

Thank you Will Fullwood, Mandy Ohman, Seneca Dunmore, Reda Rountree (she/her), Frank Johnson, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.I know it’s been a minute since a livestream—about a week and a half, maybe two. But you know the deal: sometimes research requires research. I’ve been on the ground, moving through Detroit, Iowa, and Kentucky, connecting with y’all at the Charles H. Wright Museum, the Debate League, and doing a screening with the homies like Kendrick Sampson and the late great powerhouses discussing Black women’s trust. Shout out to everybody in Des Moines, Waterloo, and Brunel—I see y’all. And shout out to Lanae for taking that NAACP Image Award home. That’s the reason for the radio silence: I’ve been a one-man band with an editor and an assistant, trying to keep up with the demand for real talk.But today, we ain’t talking about travel. We’re talking about imperialism.We are officially in March of 2026, and the war machine is fully operational. While you were scrolling past the chaos in Dallas County during the primaries or watching the highlights of the “Iran situation,” I was looking at the structural engineering behind the building. Today, we are dissecting the phenomenon of American imperialism—how it deploys itself in Texas voting booths, in the boardrooms of Silicon Valley, and in the bombing of schoolgirls in Iran.THE TEXAS WARM-UP: FASCISM SOFT LAUNCHBefore we cross the Atlantic, we have to look at our own backyard. Yesterday in Texas, we saw a soft launch of what’s coming in November. In Dallas County, there was chaos at the polls—voter suppression dressed up as administrative disarray. They changed the voting destinations, made it a musical chairs game to cast a ballot, and created long lines designed to leave a nasty taste in the mouths of first-time voters.Let’s connect the dots: Donald Trump called down to Texas begging for five seats. He knows that if Texas slips, his whole house of cards falls. So what do they do? They create discord. They make sure that in Jasmine Crockett’s political home, the process is so dysfunctional that people feel disempowered.We saw it with Ken Paxton and John Cornyn going at each other’s throats. But the real story is Proposition 8—the legalization of cannabis and the clearing of past convictions. We have data that shows a direct correlation between high voter turnout and legalization. Republicans know this. So when you see high Democratic primary turnout, you know they are shaking in their boots. They have to figure out how to discourage the vote, or they lose the state.This isn’t just Texas politics. This is the American project. Whether it’s in Dallas County or Tehran, the goal is the same: control the population, suppress the opposition, and secure resources.THE INFANTILE POLITICS OF “OLD MEN”Speaking of control, we have to talk about the geriatrics running the show. We have a bunch of elders in Washington. These politicians, from Mitch McConnell to the senior citizens in both parties, have tied their political position to their personhood. They believe they are the only ones who can maintain “social order.” They are so self-centered that they think they should dictate the livelihood of people who will be living for the next 50 years, even though they are one foot in the grave.We saw it in 2025: five Democrats died in office, Republicans filled those seats, and they pushed through a “big, beautiful bill” that hurt the rest of us. This isn’t just about age; it’s about a paternalistic, selfish worldview. If you’re old enough to qualify for retirement, you shouldn’t be making decisions about a future you won’t inhabit. It’s time to impart knowledge, not hoard power.Research Over Mesearch is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.THE REAL REASON FOR THE WAR: FOLLOW THE MONEY (AND THE MEDIA)You want to know why we are going to war? It ain’t about “defense.” It’s about the merger.This weekend, the largest media merger in American history closed. One family now controls CNN, HBO, CBS, Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures—all running on Oracle’s infrastructure. That same family owns Oracle.And within the last two weeks, Oracle won brand new contracts to host Medicare and Medicaid data for 150 million Americans, and to run Air Force operations using AI.So, follow the internal link:* Your tax dollars go to Oracle via federal contracts.* That revenue props up Oracle’s stock price.* Larry Ellison uses that stock as collateral to finance his son’s purchase of the largest media company in history.* That media company now controls the narrative of the war.* Another couple billion dollars for this merger is coming from Saudi Arabia and Qatar—the same governments we are now allying with against Iran.This is the definition of imperialism. It’s not about “politically correct wars” or “nation-building.” As Pete Hegseth said, it’s about “maximum authorities” and “no stupid rules of engagement.” They are telling us they don’t care about the Geneva Convention. They are bragging about having the most lethal air power in history.We were taught that the Nazi regime was inhumane because they engaged in war without rules. We created the Nuremberg trials and the Geneva Convention to prevent that. Now, the very people who claimed to defeat that regime are bragging that they can do the same thing.THE VENN DIAGRAM OF IMPERIALISM: DEMOCRATS VS. REPUBLICANSI’m not doing the lazy “both sides” rhetoric. I’m drawing a Venn diagram.* Republicans (Hard Power): Pete Hegseth is telling you straight up: “We fight to win. No democracy-building exercise. No politically correct wars.” They are unapologetic imperialists. They want the oil, the land, and the resources, and they don’t care if you know it.* Democrats (Soft Power): Democrats care about the quorum and diplomacy while engaging in imperialism. They will wring their hands, clutch their pearls, and then drop the same bombs, but they’ll call it “humanitarian intervention” or “stability operations.”The common denominator is imperialism.And I have the receipts. During the Vice Presidential debate, Tim Walz let a Freudian slip fly. He said, “The expansion of Iran and its proxies is an absolute fundamental necessity for the United States.” He meant Israel.That slip told us everything. The expansion of Israel is fundamental to the United States. That’s why we can’t have nice things. That’s why they banned TikTok—not because of Chinese data, but because Israel was losing the narrative war. They had to control the story.From Hillary Clinton saying we would “totally obliterate” Iran, to every president since the 80s talking about the “Paperclip Theory” (Iran is always 3-5 years away from a bomb), the script has been consistent. They paint the “brown Islamic other” as an irrational actor, while Israel—the only nuclear power in the region that refuses to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty—gets a free pass.1953. Remember that number. That’s when the CIA and MI6 orchestrated a coup against a democratically elected leader, Mossadegh, because he wanted to nationalize Iranian oil. We destroyed their democracy for oil. And now we act surprised when they chant “Death to America.”Research Over Mesearch is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.THE BLACK AMERICAN CONNECTION: WHY THIS IS OUR FIGHTTo my Black American audience: if you think this doesn’t affect you, you are smoking dope and dog food.* The Military: They go into our neighborhoods and recruit our Black children with promises of scholarships and a way out, only to send them to Iraq and Afghanistan to fight for oil companies.* The Economy: Texas is the number one manufacturer of weapons in the country. Our communities are starving, but we have “money for war, can’t feed the poor.”* The Morality: Malcolm X was right. Dr. King was right. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. How can you quote MLK during Black History Month and then turn around and say “I don’t give a f**k about Iran”? That’s faker than pleather.Barack Obama was the “commander in chief.” That means he was the commander of the most lethal military in world history. He deported more people than any president before him and he drone-struck weddings. I’m not saying this to take away from the symbolism of his presidency for some, but if you let your cultural pride substitute for your political accountability, you are part of the problem.The American project doesn’t care about you. It doesn’t care about you regardless of the blackface you put on it. It is designed to operate a certain way. If you can be critical of Trump’s wars but get defensive when I mention Obama’s drone strikes, you aren’t anti-war. You’re just a fan of a sports team.KEY TAKEAWAYS* Imperialism is Bipartisan: The flavor changes (soft vs. hard power), but the meal is the same. Both parties prioritize the American empire and the security of Israel over the welfare of the American people and the sovereignty of other nations.* Follow the Internal Link: There is always a connection between the geopolitical event and your material reality. Whether it’s Oracle’s stock price, the price of gas, or the recruitment of our youth, the war machine impacts you. Don’t be infantile and say it doesn’t.* The “Paperclip Theory” is a Lie: For 40 years, we’ve been told Iran is on the verge of a nuclear bomb. The only country to ever use a nuclear weapon on civilian populations is the United States. The pathology of the “irrational brown boogeyman” is a tool to manufacture consent for war.* Israel is the Center of Gravity: The U.S.-Israel alliance is the only thing both parties can agree on. It dictates our foreign policy in the Middle East. Understanding the “Greater Israel Project” and the goal of regional hegemony is key to understanding why we are bombing Iran today.* Don’t Be a Bootlicker: Stop defending politicians because of their skin color or party letter. Hold them accountable. Malcolm X warned us about the “bootlicking Negroes” who will justify anything for a crumb from the master’s table. Prove him wrong.CLOSING THOUGHTSI’m not here to force you to follow me. If this made you uncomfortable, block me, unfollow me, unhand me. I’m an acquired taste. But if you are still here, I challenge you.Whatever you understood about American imperialism when you woke up this morning, I challenge you to know more when you go to sleep. Do better.Education is elevation. Never take my word for it. As my grandma said, “A pair of lips can tell anything.” Do the research.CALL TO ACTION #1This kind of structural analysis takes time, travel, and resources. I’m in the streets, from Detroit to Iowa to Kentucky, and I’m bringing those receipts back to you. If you value this content and want to see it continue, I need your support.Become a paid subscriber to Research over MeSearch on Substack. Your subscription allows me to stay independent, travel to where the story is, and push back against the algorithm shadow bans. It keeps the lights on and the research flowing. Link in the bio. Let’s build.COMMENTS & RESOURCESShout out to Luis Polo: You said, “Just more rich people problems, not interested.” I hear you, but that’s the point. The phenomenon we are dissecting is about how rich people’s desires dictate poor people’s lives. Don’t divorce yourself from the analysis because you hate the subjects.Related Reading & Resources:* The CIA and MI6 Coup in Iran (1953): Look up Operation Ajax.* The Greater Israel Project: Research the biblical borders and the political movement to expand Israeli territory from the Nile to the Euphrates.* Oracle & Government Contracts: Follow the merger between Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount, and look into Larry Ellison’s involvement.* Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.”* Malcolm X: “The Ballot or the Bullet.”CALL TO ACTION #2If you made it this far, you know I’m not playing with this information. The algorithms are working against voices like ours. Don’t let them silence this conversation.Upgrade to a paid subscription today. You’ll get access to exclusive threads, the sources I use for my research, and early episode drops. This is how we build an autonomous space for real talk. Don’t wait—lock in now. 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

Thank you ITS Never Happening…, Jack, Lynette, Shirley Figueroa, Mary Lummis, and many others for tuning into my live video with Andrew Yang! Join me for my next live video in the app.It ain’t every day you’re sitting in a car in Iowa, snow falling, talking to a man who ran for president. That’s the beauty of this journey—you show up, you ask questions, and the ancestors line up the conversation for you.I pulled up on Andrew Yang livestream somewhere off a highway in Iowa. We got to conversating, and man... it was one of those talks that makes your brain feel like it’s doing backflips. We talked about Dr. King, union leaders getting shot through their windows, the robots taking our jobs, and why your cell phone bill is basically legalized theft.If you think you know Andrew Yang, or you think you know American history, I promise you, by the end of this, you’ll realize you was only holding half the puzzle piece. Here is the breakdown.Research Over Mesearch is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The Real Dr. King Was a Radical (And a Futurist)We started on Black History Month, but Andrew took it somewhere deeper than the textbook. He reminded me that the image of Dr. King we get fed every January—the nice, sanitized man dreaming about content of character—is a ghost. A clean version of a revolutionary.Andrew hit me with the dots that changed my whole vibe for the rest of the day.First, he told me about Walter Reuther. Reuther was the head of the UAW back in the day. A union legend. This man got shot through his window, his brother was killed, he got beaten up multiple times—because that’s what it took to stand up for the working man back then. He was one of the speakers right before Dr. King gave the “I Have a Dream” speech. Why? Because Reuther looked at the March on Washington and said, “This is the same movement I’m in.”That blew my mind. The fight for Black lives and the fight for workers’ rights? Same family tree.Then Andrew dropped the bomb. He said, “You know Dr. King was talking about universal basic income before he was killed, right?”I had to stop him. I literally had to pause the interview because I didn’t know that. Dr. King wasn’t just marching against Jim Crow; he was looking at the future and seeing automation coming. In his book Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, he literally said that technology was going to automate jobs away. He said poor Blacks and poor whites needed to team up and abolish poverty. He was calling for a guaranteed income.So when we see his legacy getting stripped away, his name getting used to sell mattresses or whatever, it stings. Because if he was alive today, he wouldn’t be happy with just a parade. He’d be looking at the poverty, the AI taking jobs, and the data centers poisoning Iowa’s water, and he’d say, “Y’all ain’t listening.”The “Magical Asian Man from the Future” & The Politics of IdentityI had to ask Andrew the vulnerable question. You ran in 2019 talking about AI and $1,000 a month (the Freedom Dividend). People looked at you crazy. Now, everybody from politicians to your barber is talking about AI taking over. How does that feel?Andrew kept it a buck. He said, look, he ran because he saw the math. He was talking about artificial intelligence before ChatGPT was a household name. But he also acknowledged that the way people received him had a lot to do with his race.He told me a story about being on a panel with Michael Tubbs, the young Black mayor of Stockton who actually started a UBI pilot program. Mayor Tubbs told Andrew, “You can get away with saying s**t I could never get away with. If I, as a young Black mayor, said we should start giving everyone money, they’d laugh me out of the room. But if you say it, people are like, ‘Oh, the magical Asian man from the future has some interesting ideas.’”That’s that “model minority” myth in action. The same idea, coming from a Black mouth, is a threat. Coming from an Asian mouth, it’s an innovation. We gotta be real about that dynamic if we’re going to build the coalitions Dr. King and Walter Reuther were talking about.Your Phone is Making You Poor and Sad (Here’s the Fix)We pivoted to the rectangle in our pocket. Andrew’s new venture, Noble Mobile, ain’t just a phone company—it’s a protest.He dropped some stats that had me tight:* The average American pays $83 a month for wireless.* The average European pays $35 a month.* That extra $48 a month times 300 million people equals $100 BILLION a year we’re getting overcharged.A hundred billion. For a service that’s basically a utility at this point.Andrew looked at what his friend Mark Cuban did with Cost Plus Drugs (selling generics at a fair price) and applied it to phones. He cut a deal with T-Mobile to use their network (so the coverage is the same, if not better), and now he’s selling it for around $40 a month at NobleMobile.com.Here’s where the politics come in… I asked him the hard question we all scared to ask: “If I sign up, what you doing with my data? You selling it to ICE? Is Palantir backdooring my texts?”Andrew’s answer was solid. He ran on a Data Use Bill of Rights when he was campaigning. He believes we should own our data. So with Noble, they stipulate that they cannot sell or resell your data. They don’t even have access to it. They made T-Mobile agree to the same terms. It’s locked down.And the kicker? They give you money back if you don’t use data. And they pay you interest on that money. The goal is to make you look at your phone and think, “Damn, I’m rotting my brain and losing money?” It’s an incentive to touch grass.The average Noble user uses their phone 17% less. That’s a win in my book.“I Could Have Saved More If They Knew They Were Slaves”As we wrapped up, I had to leave Andrew and the audience with a thought that’s been burning in my chest. I got my degree in African American Studies, and traveling this country, I realize that a lot of folks just don’t know the history—so they keep being surprised by the present.There’s a quote, allegedly from Harriet Tubman. They asked her what she would have done differently. She said, “I could have saved more slaves if I could have convinced them they were slaves.”If you’re looking at what ICE is doing right now, or how corporations are poisoning water in Iowa, or how they’re replacing workers with AI, and you’re shocked—you haven’t been paying attention to Black history. Don’t look at Germany for the playbook; look at the Fugitive Slave Act. Look at the indigenous folks in this country who been through this before.We don’t need to map American horror onto other people’s stories. We wrote the book on it. We need to understand our own domestic history so we can see the future coming before it hits us.Andrew Yang’s Challenge to UsAndrew closed with a simple truth: Dr. King was right. The poor whites and the poor Blacks need to team up. Because right now, it’s not about us versus each other. It’s about us against the extractive industries, the megacorps, and the algorithms designed to make our kids anxious for a profit.He said America’s slogan should be “Extracting Maximum Profit.” That’s it.Andrew believes Americans are good. We want the same things. We just need to come together, put the phones down, and follow the money back to our common humanity.KEY TAKEAWAYS* Dr. King’s Final Fight Was Economic: He wasn’t just about ending segregation. In his final years, he was laser-focused on poverty, warning about automation, and advocating for a Universal Basic Income (Guaranteed Income). His assassination cut short a multi-racial poor people’s movement.* Coalitions Are Historical: The link between the Civil Rights Movement and the Labor Movement is real. Walter Reuther (UAW) and MLK Jr. stood on the same stage because they understood that workers’ rights and Black liberation are intertwined.* Identity Shapes Policy Reception: Andrew Yang acknowledged that his Asian identity allowed him to propose radical ideas (like UBI) that a Black politician like Michael Tubbs would have been crucified for. The “model minority” myth provides a permission structure that Black leaders don’t get.* We Are Being Financially Exploited by Telecoms: Americans are overpaying by roughly $100 billion a year for wireless service compared to Europe. Cell service has become a highly profitable utility with little resistance.* Data is Power: Your data is being sold and weaponized. Andrew Yang’s “Data Use Bill of Rights” and the Noble Mobile model (refusing to sell data) is a small act of resistance against the surveillance economy.* American History Repeats: To understand the current political climate (raids, deportations, corporate control), look at American history first—specifically the Fugitive Slave era and the treatment of Indigenous peoples—before looking at foreign analogs.Research Over Mesearch is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.RELATED READINGS / FURTHER STUDY* Book: Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – This is the book where he lays out his economic vision and talks about automation. Essential reading.* Essay: MLK, The Futurist by Andrew Yang – Look up Andrew’s piece connecting Dr. King to modern tech realities.* History: The Life and Times of Walter Reuther – Research the UAW’s history and the physical price paid by labor leaders.* Policy: The Data Use Bill of Rights (Andrew Yang 2020 Campaign Platform) – A blueprint for how we should own our digital selves.* Concept: Guaranteed Income – Look into the work of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income (founded by Michael Tubbs) to see how King’s idea is being piloted today.* Save Money & Protect Your Data: Check out NobleMobile.com for a phone plan that won’t sell you out.Thanks for reading Research Over Mesearch! This post is public so feel free to share it. 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

Research Over Mesearch is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Thank you Seneca Dunmore, Shirley Figueroa, Dalai Mama 💗, Tung no, Jayme Hightower, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.It’s February 21st, and we are in the middle of the 100th celebration of Black History Month. It’s a time for reflection, for education, and for holding a mirror up to the nation to see where we truly stand. In today’s session of “Research Over Me,” we have to tackle a lot. We have to move past the superficial takes and dig into the material reality of what it means to be Black in America in 2026.We started with a tragedy that didn’t trend. A white father in Texas shot and killed his daughter over an argument about Donald Trump. The media machine didn’t spin this into a narrative about white violence or white supremacy. Why? Because the framework of individualism protects whiteness, while Black people are always held collectively accountable for the actions of one. This single event is a gateway into understanding the concepts we need to break down today: Racial Literacy, the performative politics of potential presidential candidates, and the vital importance of centering Black women.Let’s get into it.The Stephen A. Smith Conundrum: Racial Illiteracy and the Pursuit of PowerStephen A. Smith is floating the idea of running for president in 2028. And in doing so, he is giving us a masterclass in what happens when bourgeois aspiration meets racial illiteracy.In the clip we analyzed, Smith argues that he wouldn’t be worried about racism if he ran for president. He posits that a “vast majority of Americans judge you on the content of your individual character” and that racism isn’t “as prevalent as someone on the left would like us to believe.” He suggests white Americans are too worried about their own suffering to be concerned with holding Black people back.This is a dangerous and ahistorical take. It’s a textbook example of weaponizing “individualism” to deny systemic reality.* The Material Reality vs. The Symbolic: Smith wants us to believe racism is fading, but the evidence screams otherwise. We are witnessing the erasure of landmark legislation—Affirmative Action, Roe v. Wade, and the gutting of the Civil Rights Act. The Supreme Court has legalized racial profiling under the guise of immigration enforcement. We see it in the story of Dr. Linda Davis, a Black educator in Savannah, Georgia, who was killed as collateral damage in an ICE chase—a story that received a fraction of the coverage of others because Black women’s humanity is perpetually marginalized.* The Good Negro Fallacy: Smith’s positioning is a classic play for white approval. By downplaying racism, he signals to a white moderate/conservative audience that he is a “rational,” “articulate” Black man who won’t make them feel guilty. He trades in the fallacy that logic and emotion are mutually exclusive, painting those who acknowledge the pain of racism as hysterical, while he remains the clear-thinking “free thinker.”* The COINTELPRO Connection: We have to connect the dots. The same 77 million people who voted for Trump are the ones quoting Dr. King’s “content of character” line. Yet, the current administration’s first “file release” wasn’t about Epstein; it was the COINTELPRO files on Dr. King, designed to smear and delegitimize him by sensationalizing his private life. They are actively erasing the legacy of the only Black man with a national holiday. So, when Smith says racism isn’t prevalent, he is actively insulting our intelligence and ignoring the war on Black history.This isn’t about being “emotional.” This is about having the racial literacy to read the situation. If you can’t see that the policies of this administration are designed to disproportionately harm Black people, you are either illiterate or lying. The Trust Black Women Roundtable: Generations Clashing in Good FaithSwitching gears, we have to talk about the incredible, viral moment from the SisterSong “Trust Black Women” roundtable featuring Clifton Powell, my brother Joseph Irvin, and others.A clip of Clifton and Joseph engaging in a tense, passionate exchange has been circulating, and as expected, the internet is reacting with a severe lack of nuance.* What Actually Happened: This was an intergenerational conversation about Black men’s accountability to Black women. Clifton Powell, speaking from his experience as an older Black man, spoke about not knowing what he didn’t know for much of his life, and the challenge of unlearning toxic behaviors later in life. Joseph Irvin, representing a younger generation, pushed back on the idea that a lack of knowledge is an excuse, especially after decades of partnership and procreation. He challenged the notion of “weaponized incompetence”—using past trauma as a shield to avoid present-day accountability.* The Homophobic Response: Immediately, the comments section filled with vitriol questioning Joseph Irvin’s “right” to speak on women because of his perceived sexuality. This reveals a profound gender illiteracy. The idea that only heterosexual men can advocate for or have a stake in the well-being of Black women is a fallacy rooted in patriarchy. It conflates sexuality with gender and assumes that the only valid relationship between men and women is a sexual or romantic one. Gay Black men have mothers, sisters, friends, and colleagues. They are just as implicated in and affected by sexism and patriarchy as straight men.* The Core Message: As David Daniels perfectly articulated, “Trusting Black women is not believing that all black women are always telling the truth, but believing that all black women deserve to be heard.” The conversation wasn’t about perfection; it was about intention. It was about Black men creating a space where Black women feel safe to be vulnerable, to be angry, and to be heard without us immediately getting defensive or “ready to play football,” as another panelist, Luke James, so eloquently put it.This conversation was a beautiful, messy, and necessary brick in the foundation of building real trust. To reduce it to a salacious clip is to miss the entire point.ConclusionWe are living in a moment of reconfiguration. We see the future slave era being drafted through policies like the Laken Riley Act, which funnels money to ICE at the expense of social services, and through the legalized terrorizing of Black and brown communities.We must be racially literate. We must be gender literate. We must reject the siren song of “individualism” that only serves to protect the powerful. And we must, as Black men, do the work to show up for Black women, not just when they are our mothers or partners, but because their liberation is central to all of our power.Education is elevation.Research Over Mesearch is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.5 KEY TAKEAWAYS* Individualism is a White Privilege Tool: When a white person commits a violent act, it’s framed as an isolated incident. When a Black person does, it’s often framed as a reflection on the entire race. This double standard is a core component of systemic racism.* Racial Literacy vs. Illiteracy: Racial literacy is the ability to read, write, and interpret situations involving race and power. Stephen A. Smith’s denial of racism’s prevalence is a prime example of racial illiteracy, which often serves to protect the status quo and appeal to white moderate sensibilities.* Symbolic vs. Material Racism: We must look beyond the “symbolic” (a racist slur, a monkey video) and focus on the “material” (policy rollbacks like Affirmative Action, funding ICE over education, Black women losing jobs at disproportionate rates). Material racism has tangible consequences on our lives, safety, and economic stability.* Gender Illiteracy & The “Trust Black Women” Conversation: Critiques of the SisterSong roundtable exposed a deep gender illiteracy. Reducing a necessary conversation about Black male accountability to a clash of personalities or dismissing a gay Black man’s contribution reveals a failure to understand that patriarchy and sexism are systems we all participate in, regardless of our sexuality.* Policy is the Proof: The prevalence of racism isn’t measured by our feelings, but by policy. From the gutting of the Voting Rights Act to the Supreme Court’s sanctioning of racial profiling, the law is actively being shaped to create a racial hierarchy. Denying this is denying reality. 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

Huey P. Newton said we must think globally and act locally. Too often, Americans do the opposite. We react locally while refusing to think globally. We talk about freedom as if it is contained inside U.S. borders. We debate human rights as if they are a domestic brand rather than a universal claim.This conversation forced me to confront that contradiction head-on.I recently spoke with Tamara Rudnev, whose husband, Konstantin Rudnev, has been held in Argentina for nearly a year without conviction, without trial, and according to her account, without even meaningful evidence. Their story moves across Russia, Montenegro, and Argentina. Their story sits at the intersection of geopolitics, migration, propaganda, and criminal justice. Their story also reveals something deeper: how state power operates across borders while ordinary people struggle to secure even the most basic legal protections.The Anatomy of Detention Without ConvictionTamara describes an arrest that happened at an airport, without explanation, without charges, and without immediate access to legal counsel. She describes being forced to sign documents in a language they did not understand. She describes prosecutors invoking a broad human-trafficking statute that, in her words, could mean “whatever they want.”Her account alleges that Argentine authorities used media articles and reputational narratives from Russia as evidence. Her account alleges that her husband has been held under preventive detention for months while prosecutors “investigate,” without trial or conviction.Preventive detention is not unique to Argentina. Many legal systems allow pre-trial detention under certain conditions. What stands out here is the duration and the alleged lack of procedural movement. Tamara claims that in Argentina some people remain jailed for years under investigation alone, even without guilt established in court.If accurate, that raises a fundamental question about due process. A legal system that allows indefinite detention without conviction erodes the presumption of innocence. A state that can hold a body without proving a crime holds power beyond accountability.Allegations, Propaganda, and Narrative ControlTamara frames her husband as a longtime dissident of Vladimir Putin. She claims Russian media spent years constructing a negative public image of him. She believes Argentine authorities relied on that reputational framing.Here lies a critical lesson about globalized information warfare. Reputation travels across borders faster than law. Allegations move faster than evidence. Headlines become proxies for truth in legal contexts that should rely on proof.Public narrative often becomes a shadow courtroom. Whoever controls the story shapes the perception of guilt long before any judge rules.The “Victim” Who Denied Being a VictimOne of the most disturbing elements of Tamara’s account concerns the alleged victim. She states that the woman prosecutors identified as a victim later declared she did not know Konstantin and did not consider herself harmed. She states that prosecutors and judges did not attend the hearing where that declaration was made, and later refused to incorporate it into the case.If accurate, that scenario challenges the legitimacy of the prosecution itself. Criminal cases depend on evidence, witnesses, and testimony. A victim’s denial does not automatically end a case. Yet ignoring exculpatory testimony raises serious due-process concerns.Justice cannot function if institutions choose which facts count.Research Over Mesearch is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Global Power, U.S. Influence, and Carceral ExpansionThis story also intersects with U.S. foreign policy. Tamara explicitly hopes U.S. influence might pressure Argentina. I connected that appeal to a broader reality: U.S. tax dollars, diplomatic leverage, and security partnerships shape institutions far beyond U.S. borders.Americans often debate domestic incarceration while ignoring the global carceral footprint of U.S. power. Security assistance, training programs, and geopolitical alliances export legal norms and enforcement models. The United States participates in building the very systems that detain people abroad.Global imperial influence rarely looks like occupation anymore. It looks like funding, cooperation, and institutional alignment.Due Process as a Universal PrincipleThis case ultimately returns to a simple principle. Even if someone is guilty, they deserve trial. Even if allegations are serious, they require proof. Even if public opinion condemns, courts must still adjudicate.I said it plainly in the conversation: if Konstantin committed crimes, prosecute him. If he is innocent, release him. The injustice lies in limbo. The injustice lies in indefinite waiting without adjudication.Preventive detention without resolution creates a category of people who exist outside justice altogether. Not convicted. Not acquitted. Not free.That condition is not justice delayed. That condition is justice suspended.Why This Story Matters Beyond One ManSome people will not care about Russia. Some will not care about Argentina. Many will not care about a man accused of leading a cult.That reaction misses the point.Legal precedents built on unpopular defendants shape the future of everyone else. Systems that ignore due process for foreigners eventually erode it for citizens. Carceral expansion abroad echoes domestically.Freedom cannot be territorial. Human rights cannot be selective. Due process cannot depend on nationality or reputation.Education is elevation. Research over me-search.This case is not only about Konstantin Rudnev. This case is about what happens when power outruns procedure and narrative outruns law.5 Major Takeaways1. Preventive detention can function as punishment without conviction.Tamara’s account describes months of incarceration without trial, highlighting how pre-trial detention can become de facto sentencing. Legal systems that allow indefinite investigative detention risk nullifying presumption of innocence. Justice requires timelines and procedural safeguards, not open-ended confinement.2. Global propaganda ecosystems influence legal outcomes.Reputational narratives constructed in one country can shape judicial perceptions in another. Media framing often travels faster than evidence. Cross-border information warfare complicates due process by importing bias into legal systems.3. Victim testimony is central to legitimacy in criminal prosecution.The alleged refusal to incorporate a victim’s denial, if accurate, undermines procedural fairness. Courts depend on evaluating all relevant testimony. Selective recognition of evidence erodes public trust in justice institutions.4. U.S. geopolitical power intersects with foreign carceral systems.International influence, funding, and alliances shape detention practices abroad. Americans cannot critique domestic incarceration while ignoring global carceral expansion linked to U.S. policy. Human rights discourse must be transnational.5. Due process is universal or it is meaningless.Legal protections lose integrity when applied selectively. The right to trial, defense, and adjudication cannot depend on nationality, ideology, or public opinion. Justice systems are measured by how they treat the accused, not the popular.Related ReadingsPreventive Detention & Due Process* David Cole — No Equal Justice* Malcolm Feeley — The Process Is the Punishment* UN Human Rights Committee — General Comment on Liberty and Security of PersonGlobal Carceral Systems & Imperial Power* Naomi Murakawa — The First Civil Right* Stuart Schrader — Badges Without Borders* Elizabeth Hinton — America on FirePropaganda, Narrative, and State Power* Peter Pomerantsev — Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible* Edward Herman & Noam Chomsky — Manufacturing Consent* Masha Gessen — The Future Is HistoryMigration, Law, and Transnational Justice* Harsha Walia — Border and Rule* Didier Fassin — Enforcing Order* Ayelet Shachar — The Shifting Border 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

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

Click here for old digital copies of Black Panther News PaperI have a 1970 issue of The Black Panther sitting right in front of me. Cost a quarter. On the front, the headline screams about imperialism. On the back, there’s an announcement about a free food rally. To the untrained eye, these look like two separate concerns—one global, one local. The Panthers understood something that many of us on social media today seem to have forgotten. You cannot fight the local battle if you ignore the global war.Public education faces systematic defunding. Black history gets legislated out of existence. Some of us engage in activism by posting infographics to stories that disappear in 24 hours. We need to sit with that 1970 newspaper for a minute. We need to ask ourselves what they knew that we’ve forgotten.The Internationalism of the NeighborhoodEldridge Cleaver sat for an interview in Algiers in December 1969. He didn’t limit his critique to Oakland. He didn’t restrict his analysis to police brutality in America. He looked at Palestine. He looked at Israel. He looked at the global structure of imperialism and saw the connecting tissue. “Israel is the creature of American imperialism,” Cleaver stated. “It is a police post in the Middle East to safeguard and protect the interests of U.S. imperialism.”Some people might ask why the Black Panthers worried about the Middle East. The answer is simple. The same system that sends police to beat Black heads in Chicago sends military aid to Israel. The same imperial logic that colonized Africa requires a domestic police force to manage the “internal colony” of Black America. Panther minister of education Raymond “Masai” Hewitt explained they weren’t interested in rigid ideological lines. They were interested in anyone fighting oppression. “We dig what they are doing,” he said of Third World revolutionaries.This was not abstract solidarity. This was strategic analysis. The Panthers understood that the CIA and FBI don’t just share intelligence. They share tactics. A lawman sent to perfect policing skills in Israel or Vietnam brings those skills back to American streets. The baton that cracks a skull in Memphis often uses techniques designed from occupations abroad.Click here for old digital copies of Black Panther News PaperThanks for reading Research Over Mesearch! This post is public so feel free to share it.We Charge Genocide: The International Court of Public OpinionThe Panthers’ internationalism wasn’t just rhetorical. They took action. They understood that if the domestic courts were compromised, you appeal to the world. William Patterson submitted a petition to the United Nations in 1951 titled We Charge Genocide. He charged the U.S. government with violating the Genocide Convention through police violence and systemic neglect. The Panthers picked up that baton.Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale explicitly petitioned the UN by 1973. They argued that “the savage police activities, based upon official policies of Federal, State and City governments” constituted genocide under international law. They demanded reparations. They demanded sanctions. They demanded that the world treat the situation of Black America not as a domestic issue of civil rights, but as an international issue of human rights.This move embodies the “think globally, act locally” slogan. You act locally—you feed the children, you patrol the police, you organize the community. You think globally. You understand that your local struggle connects to Palestine, to Vietnam, to South Africa. You force the world to bear witness.Survival Pending RevolutionThe part that often gets left out of history books and Twitter threads involves feeding local children while fighting global imperialism.The Free Breakfast for Children Program began in January 1969 at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church in West Oakland. Within a year, the Panthers were feeding 20,000 children across the country. They weren’t waiting for the revolution to start feeding people. They understood that hungry children can’t learn. Uneducated communities can’t organize.A top government official was forced to admit that the Panthers were feeding more kids than the federal government. Think about that. A self-described revolutionary organization outperformed the federal government at providing basic social services. They ran medical clinics. They tested for sickle cell anemia. They provided free busing to prisons so families could maintain contact with incarcerated loved ones.This contradiction the FBI couldn’t handle. Infiltrating a group of people with guns proves easier than repressing a group of people with breakfast programs. Yet they tried anyway.Research Over Mesearch is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.COINTELPRO: The Fear of ConnectionThe FBI’s COINTELPRO program didn’t target the Panthers because they were violent. They targeted the Panthers because they were effective. Between 1968 and 1971, the FBI engaged in a systematic campaign of counterintelligence to “neutralize” the Black Panther Party. They used infiltration, psychological warfare, and outright murder.The Panthers were connecting dots. They linked local police brutality to global imperialism. They linked conditions in Oakland to conditions in Algiers. They built coalitions across racial and national lines. The FBI understood something that many activists today forget. A connected movement is a dangerous movement.The Church Committee investigations later revealed the full scope of this repression. The damage was done by the mid-1970s. The Panthers had been decimated. Not before they built an international section in Algeria. Not before they made alliances with North Korea and China. Not before they inspired support groups in Britain, Germany, Sweden, Japan, and Israel.Click here for old digital copies of Black Panther News Paper The Takeaway for TodayHere we are in 2026. Public education faces attack. Medicaid and Medicare get gutted. Black history gets erased from curricula. What are we doing?Some of us pontificate on the internet trying to get likes and views. Some of us accuse people doing actual work of performing for clout. The indictment hits close to home for many. We post about Palestine. We post about police brutality. We post about the school-to-prison pipeline. Are we feeding anyone? Are we organizing? Are we building institutions that can survive the next election cycle?The Panthers ran the Free Breakfast Program for children, not for clout. They sold newspapers for 25 cents to fund their operations, not to build a personal brand. They took their case to the United Nations because they understood that justice requires witnesses, not just likes.I was doing this work before social media existed the way it exists now. I was doing this work before people knew my name. I was doing this work before anyone called me anything. The reason I do this connects to those years before the platform. If people stopped following me tomorrow, guess what I would be doing? The same work. This work right here.LINK OF OLD BLACK PANTHER NEWSPAPERSKey Takeaways* Think globally, act locally is a strategy, not a slogan. The Panthers connected U.S. police brutality to international imperialism. You cannot fight local oppression without understanding its global context.* Survival programs are revolutionary. Feeding children, providing healthcare, and supporting families are not distractions from the movement. They are the movement. “Survival pending revolution” means keeping people alive long enough to win.* International solidarity is strategic, not symbolic. The Panthers allied with Palestine, North Korea, China, and liberation movements worldwide because they understood that imperialism is a global system requiring a global response.* Repression targets connection. COINTELPRO succeeded not just because it used violence, but because it severed the connections between people and between issues. Movements become dangerous when they connect the dots.* Local work precedes online presence. Many of us did the work before social media existed. The work remains primary. The content comes secondary.Become a Paid SubscriberResearch Over MeSearch is a project dedicated to cutting through the noise with rigorous analysis on the education, politics, and news that shape our world. I provide the context and clarity you need in an era of overwhelming misinformation and under-reported crises.The stark reality demands attention. Black men represent only 1.5% of all public school teachers in America. Public education for Black students faces systematic defunding and politicized attacks. My content exists to dissect these urgent issues, moving beyond surface-level takes to deliver the researched truth.All my core content remains and always will remain free. No paywall exists. Whether you subscribe for free or choose to support financially, you will access every essential newsletter.Consider upgrading to a paid subscription if two things hold true. First, it must fall within your means. Second, you must believe in investing in a platform that centers evidence over echo chambers, challenges the defunding of Black education, and advocates for a more just and informed public square.People power this work, not corporations. Your support provides the engine.The truth we face cannot be ignored. The landscape of education has become a battleground. The eradication of Black history curricula continues. The diversion of public funds accelerates. The foundation of equitable opportunity faces direct threat. Research Over MeSearch dives deep into the data, history, and policies behind these trends—topics too often sidelined by mainstream media. Drawing on my experience as an educator and researcher, I connect the dots between policy, politics, and the classroom to arm you with knowledge.This mission cannot happen alone. Your support enables us to expand this crucial work.Thank you for trusting and subscribing to Research Over MeSearch. 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

LeBron.I need you to sit with something for a second.Imagine if somebody asked you about visiting Adolf’s Germany during World War II. And instead of condemning the ovens, the death camps, the industrial-scale slaughter of millions, you said: “I’ve never been there, but I’ve heard great things about it.”Think about how preposterous that would sound. The rest of the entire world is watching the newsreels, seeing the smoke stacks, knowing the bodies are piling up. And you’re out here talking about the great things you heard.That is exactly where we are right now. And this is why it’s not adding up. Respectfully, OG.You, me, Spike Lee—we all be on the same internet. We see the same things.(The Stakes - grounding it in reality)Entire families. Wiped off the registry.For those who don’t know, that means there is no living member left of that family. There will be nothing left of their DNA in this world. 902 families. Gone. Not from a virus. Not from a weather event. From bombs and bullets and a military machine doing exactly what it was designed to do.That’s what this country—the one you heard great things about—is doing right now.(The Visuals - showing, not telling)Before I even get into Kyrie’s comments, or the symbolism of what he wore to NBA All-Star Weekend, let’s talk about what Spike Lee showed up in. For you. For everybody else that don’t know.Respectfully, what Spike is wearing is called the Kufiya. It is a resistance symbol for Palestinians. Because of what the place he’s heard so much great about is doing to them. He got it on his bag. He got it on his sweater. And then he got the Palestinian flag on the strap of his bag. It’s not mutually exclusive.This is what he did for Black History Month.That’s what I call solidarity. That’s coalition building. Spike walked in with Marcus Garvey, MLK, and a side of Shakur on his fit—and the flag on his bag.Then you look at Kyrie. Kyrie Irving with the same Kufi on his head that Spike had on his bag. Crimes are being committed against humanity. And most of us? Silent.Cat got your tongue? Or are you just afraid to actually stand for something real?(The Contradiction - holding the mirror up)That’s what Kyrie was speaking on. That’s the energy behind what he’s wearing. In the same weekend, Kyrie wore a shirt with “PRESS” on it, symbolizing all the journalists—the ones trying to show us the truth—who have been taken out by the country you’ve heard so much great about.It’s baffling. The juxtaposition is right there. Kyrie wearing that. You making those statements.LeBron, you live on the internet. You’ve shown us that time and time again. You scroll. You post. You react. You see what we see.There is no way—from October 2023 to now—that you did not look at a TV screen or your phone and watch how we were being live-streamed a genocide.I can’t even say the word too loud anymore. We said it so much on these platforms that they’ve already started doing things to us. Shadowbanning. Demonetizing. Silencing.(The Hard Truth - the closing argument)Playing it safe. I get it, LeBron.You got an empire to protect. You got brands. You got contracts. You got a legacy that extends far beyond the hardwood. I understand how the machine works. I understand that standing up means you might lose something, but at what cost?Entire families. Wiped out. And we’re out here saying we’ve “heard great things.”You said, “Hopefully someday I can make it over there.” You said, “I’ve never been there before, but I heard great things.”We’ve all heard the propaganda. We’ve all heard the talking points. But we’ve also seen the kids. The tents. The churches, mosques, hospitals—all of it, obliterated.This isn’t about choosing sides in a geopolitical conflict. This is about choosing humanity when humanity is being wiped off the registry in front of our eyes.Education is elevation, but you can’t be elevated if you’re refusing to look down at the ground you’re standing on.Research Over Mesearch 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

You know it when you hear it. That classic jingle, the one promising “style, body, and shine.” Hair “so soft, silky, and free”—that look that’s “totally all mine.” Growing up, that commercial wasn’t just background noise. It was a whole era, a moment that shaped how we saw ourselves, and how the world wanted us to see ourselves. It was “Just For Me”—but who was it really for?Let me tell y’all, those box relaxers weren’t just marketed to women. They found their way onto the heads of boys who wanted hang time, too. I’m speaking from experience. When I couldn’t get the braids to cooperate, I rocked the Al Sharpton. The ad wasn’t just selling a product, it was selling belonging. And looking back, it was selling a version of us that conformed to someone else’s standard.Does that sound familiar to y’all?It should because hair is never just hair. Hair is political and it’s a lesson, a license, sometimes a liability. Those box girls on the packaging? Twitter exposed a lot of them as natural—never even touched a relaxer. They had the “look” already, and we got bamboozled. It wasn’t about hair, it was about aspirations, about creditability, about appearing “professional.” Chasing European beauty standards, just to be seen as legitimate.Marketing wasn’t just about what you buy—it was about what you become. Even now, research tells us what our community already felt in our bones. In 2021, they found Black women using these lye-containing products as little as seven times a year—over 15 years—have a 30% increased risk of developing breast cancer. Thirty percent. That’s not just expensive, that’s devastating.Let’s unpack why the box relaxer became a staple. In the 1940s, perms were sophistication, a ticket to belong. Entertainers cosigned, and the masses followed. The 1960s came, afros started popping, roots reclaimed, pride restored. The industry didn’t like that, so they pivoted—relaxers became blowout kits for looser, “acceptable” curls. And here we are.Eight of my sisters wanted to be on those boxes. Shout out to Latavia former member of Destiny’s Child—get your coin, pay your bills, no shade. I recognize the era for what it was: a symptom of a bigger system, a cycle of conformity.Our hair, our bodies, our choices—none of them operate in isolation. The beauty standards we’re pushed toward aren’t just about looking good. They’re about belonging, they’re about safety, they’re about access. But they cost us more than dollars—they cost us our health, our self-image, our autonomy.Key Takeaways* The Marketing Mirage: Many of the models in relaxer ads were actually natural. This created an unattainable standard that drove sales but also drove insecurity.* Health Over Hair: The 2021 study linking long-term lye-based relaxer use to a 30% increased risk of breast cancer is a stark reminder that beauty standards can have deadly consequences.* History Repeats: The relaxer industry boomed in the 40s, took a hit during the natural 60s, and rebranded itself to survive. The cycle of pushing chemical straightening is deeply tied to economic and social pressures.* It’s Okay to Look Back: Reflecting on our personal hair journeys isn’t about shame. It’s about understanding how we got here and making informed choices for the future.Research Over Mesearch is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Related Readings* “Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America” by Ayana Byrd and Lori Tharps – A foundational text on the political and cultural history of Black hair.* “The Crown Act: Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair” – Learn more about the movement to end hair discrimination in schools and workplaces. (crownact.com)* “Black Women’s Hair Product Use and Breast Cancer Risk” (2021) – A deep dive into the Sister Study findings published in the International Journal of Cancer.* “Good Hair” (2009) – directed by Jeff Stilson, produced by and starring Chris Rock – A documentary that explores the Black hair industry, from relaxers to weaves, with a mix of humor and hard truths.* “Don’t Touch My Hair” by Emma Dabiri – A powerful exploration of the history, politics, and social significance of Black hair, from pre-colonial Africa to the present day. 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

Research Over Mesearch is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The trick of time tells Black people that success requires distance from Blackness. Leaving the hood becomes maturity. Remaining connected becomes regression. Advancement is framed as movement away from Black community rather than transformation of Black conditions. Temporal language again disciplines identity.Time also governs punishment.Incarceration is measured in years stolen. Productivity is measured in time sold. Wealth is measured in time accumulated. Black life is repeatedly positioned as time available for extraction. Colonial labor systems imposed clock time on societies organized around cyclical rhythms. Discipline, punctuality, and scheduling became tools of domination.Time became governance.The core function of the trick of time is simple: convert injustice into delay. Inequality becomes something being worked on. Violence becomes something improving. Oppression becomes something ending soon. Responsibility shifts from present action to future patience.The present remains unchanged.The trick of time legitimizes waiting. The trick of time moralizes patience. The trick of time frames injustice as a scheduling issue. Liberation becomes an appointment always postponed.Calling out the trick of time matters because it disrupts that postponement. Historical harm cannot be dismissed as distant when other histories remain alive. Structural inequality cannot be reframed as progress when outcomes stagnate. Hope cannot substitute for material change.Time has been used to manage Black expectation.Time has been used to rationalize Black suffering.Time has been used to discipline Black imagination.Rejecting the trick of time means refusing narratives that place justice permanently ahead. Rejecting the trick of time means confronting structures in the present. Rejecting the trick of time means recognizing that delay has always been a political strategy.The question Baldwin asked still stands: how much time do you want?Research Over Mesearch is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.5 Key Takeaways* Time is used selectively to make Black suffering seem distant while keeping white history present.* The “trick of time” converts injustice into delay and patience into virtue.* Political hope often defers liberation into a future that never arrives.* Visible Black success is used to mask structural inequality.* Rejecting the trick of time requires confronting injustice in the present rather than waiting.Related Readings* Calvin Warren — Ontological Terror / “Black Nihilism”* Johannes Fabian — Time and the Other* James Baldwin — The Fire Next Time* Saidiya Hartman — Lose Your Mother* Frank Wilderson — Afropessimism* Cedric Robinson — Black Marxism\Research Over Mesearch 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