2025 was a
challenging year for people of African descent
under the MAGA regime. Our immediate future
also looks pretty bleak. We are coming to
grips with a sobering reality: our history of
being kidnapped and enslaved, along with the
tenuous experiment called democracy, has us
cornered. The two warring identities of being
Black and American have taken an immeasurable
toll on us. It’s time to assess the
challenging crossroads that Black folks
currently face and engage in a thoughtful
discussion about our options. And we do have
options.
Black
people
have remained loyal and patriotic to America
for centuries, enduring extreme brutality,
an unpredictable existence, and uncertain
futures. No matter what we have
accomplished, what we have sacrificed, and
what we have endured, it has never been
enough. Although
there have been celebratory moments in our
history regarding the enjoyment of American
rights and privileges, these instances have
been fleeting and are becoming increasingly
infrequent.
For too long, we have played a
losing game to achieve full citizenship and
have our human rights respected. The goal
posts keep moving. The bar keeps rising. The
rules keep changing or are thrown out
altogether. The double standards for whites
and non-whites – written and unwritten –
have been disappointing reminders of our
elusive status. Black people are beyond
tired to the bone. Our fatigue of playing
the citizenship game goes all the way to the
marrow.
Black people have worked hard to
dispel the racist myths of being lazy,
cowardly, and intellectually inferior.
Debunking the lazy label is a no-brainer.
Under chattel slavery, we worked from sunup
to sundown with no pay for some three
hundred years. The rise of the U.S. as a
global superpower would not have been
possible without the free and damn-near free
labor of Black people. The wealth of former
slaves has continued to be stolen, not just
through labor, but also through land,
homeownership, and intellectual theft.
Black
people
have demonstrated our bravery with every act
of U.S. military service. Crispus
Attucks, a runaway enslaved man, was the
first casualty of the American Revolution,
taking two musket balls to the chest. We
have been taking bullets ever since, from
the Buffalo Soldiers to the 365th Infantry
Harlem Hellfighters to the Tuskegee Airmen
to the 761st Tank “Black Panthers” Battalion
to the 555th Parachute Infantry “Triple
Nickels.” The
Double
Victory campaign was launched in 1942 to
expose the fight against fascism abroad and
the racism at home. The long and courageous
military service has never guaranteed our
citizenship.
White segregationists denied us
access to public and private businesses and
spaces, insisting that we create our own. In
response, industrious and determined Black
communities built thriving, self-sufficient
neighborhoods, only to become targets of
envious racial violence that devastated our
generational wealth and perpetuated racial
inequities for the future. Notable examples include the Black Wall Street in
Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Rosewood, Florida, both
of which were burned to the ground.
Additionally, established Black
neighborhoods, such as Seneca Village, were
seized to make way for Central Park in New
York City. Successful areas like Mill Creek
Valley in St. Louis were destroyed in the
name of urban renewal. Interstate highways
were deliberately constructed through
neighborhoods such as the Hayti District in
Durham, North Carolina, and Jackson Ward in
Richmond, Virginia. We must never forget
prosperous Black towns like Oscarville, Georgia, which was intentionally submerged
under Lake Lanier.
Black people are profiled in
countless ways as they strive to achieve the
American dream. Whether it’s driving,
shopping, jogging, banking, breathing,
gardening, laughing, worshipping, or more,
you can fill in the blank with various
verbs: _______ while Black. These perceived
encroachments on white privilege and sense
of security have unleashed attacks on Black
bodies by white citizens and white
extrajudicial groups. We have witnessed the
break from male exclusivity with the social
phenomenon of “Karen,” the self-appointed
white woman who challenges the movements of
Black people.
The ideology of white supremacy has
effectively allowed white individuals to
commit acts of violence against Black people
with little fear of consequences. We have
endured violence from the military, the
police, the Ku Klux Klan, security guards,
vigilante groups, and other self-proclaimed
defenders of white supremacy. The maiming
and murdering of Black men, women, and
children are often deemed justifiable,
resulting in little to no punishment or
accountability for those responsible.
Blaxit is real. Sources have
estimated tens of thousands of Black folks
have left the U.S. and aren’t looking back.
When beloved recording artist Stevie Wonder
received his Ghanaian citizenship, many of us shared his joy
vicariously. Some of
us may have secretly wished we were in his
shoes, longing for a country that received
us with open arms. Some of us are leaving
the U.S. for safety, others for genuine
opportunities. Most are leaving because they
are simply tired of justifying and defending
their existence daily.
The 1619 Project laid out our case
in vivid and uncomfortable ways. The
well-documented project fell short of
addressing whether full and unconditional
citizenship for Black people will ever be
achievable in America. We have the receipts.
Now it’s time to determine our own future
and residency based upon our reality, rather
than on the litany of empty promises and
temporary rights enshrined in laws with
expiration dates.
