Thank you Reda Rountree (she/her), Full Frontal Loeb, Tracy Mack, Pamela, Paul Smith, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.
You know it when you see it. The sudden outrage. The selective moral panic. The way racism becomes real only when it can be folded neatly into someone’s political narrative and weaponized against the “other side.”
What we’re witnessing right now isn’t a debate about racism. It’s a demonstration of racial illiteracy.
Racial literacy is the ability to read power, history, and material consequences—not just vibes, not just intent, not just who feels offended in the moment. And America, across party lines, keeps failing that test.
In this livestream, I walked through a familiar contradiction: the same political actors who insist Black people exaggerate racism suddenly demand outrage when racism can be used as a talking point. That’s not accountability. That’s narrative control.
When racism is discussed without context—without law, history, or power—it becomes a performance. We argue over feelings while violence remains intact. We argue over intent while systems keep doing exactly what they were designed to do.
The law has never been a neutral moral compass. Slavery was legal. Lynchings were legal. Segregation was legal. Legality has always been a shield for violence, not a guarantee of justice. So when people say “just follow the law,” what they’re really saying is “submit to the hierarchy.”
Both liberals and conservatives benefit from that hierarchy. Red states and blue states incarcerate Black people at similar rates. Red cities and blue cities produce the same outcomes. The split between left and right cannot speak to Black political reality because both wings are attached to the same bird.
Racial literacy demands that we stop mistaking symbolism for substance. Hurt feelings do not outweigh material harm. Words do not outweigh systems. And neutrality does not equal innocence.
Education is elevation—but only if we’re willing to learn how power actually works.
The question isn’t whether racism exists.The question is whether you’re willing to read it honestly when it doesn’t flatter you.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
* Racial literacy is about systems, not intent
* Both parties benefit from Black suffering
* Neutrality protects violence
* Legality is not morality
* Education threatens power
