life

We Did Not Begin in Chains

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A Wake Up Call to Remember Who We Are

I keep seeing our community defend a version of ourselves that is so far beneath who we actually are. A version the Democratic Party keeps pushing. A version the Democratic Party needs us to believe. A version that shrinks us, limits us, and keeps us mentally stuck at the bottom.

And too many of us have accepted it without questioning a thing.

Let me tell the truth clearly. We did not begin in chains. We did not begin on plantations. We did not begin at the bottom. Our story did not start in pain.

Our story began in Alkebulan, the ancient name for Africa.
A name that means Mother of Humanity.
A name connected to wealth, brilliance, and spiritual depth long before colonizers renamed everything.

We come from builders, rulers, mathematicians, traders, warriors, and scholars.
We come from nations that shaped global trade and influenced entire civilizations.
We come from people who mapped stars while others struggled to understand seasons.

Western Bible

The lands of Cush and Ethiopia, Sheba and Ophir, are mentioned with honor. These were wealthy, respected nations. Not poor. Not weak. Not broken.

Ethiopian Canon

Books like Jubilees and Enoch describe the descendants of Cush and Sheba as builders, leaders, and keepers of wisdom. They were foundational people, not forgotten ones.

So do not let the Democratic Party tell you we began in chains.
Do not let the Democratic Party tell you our history starts in cotton fields.
Do not let the Democratic Party convince you that slavery is the full story of who we are.

And now let me talk to us. Because this part is ours to own.

We also have to be honest about how comfortable we became.
We got comfortable with the handouts.
We got comfortable with the “we will take care of you” promises.
We got comfortable with lowered expectations.
We got comfortable defending survival instead of demanding elevation.

That comfort cost us our identity.
That comfort cost us our confidence.
That comfort cost us our future.

We let the Democratic Party strip us of our greatness because settling felt easier than rising. We let their narrative become our identity and forgot that God already placed royalty in our DNA.

Here is the truth that hurts and heals at the same time.

We are not a defeated people.
We are not a delayed people.

We are a people who forgot what was already inside of us.

We built Black Wall Street.
We built inventions that shaped American industry.
We built communities that thrived even under oppression.
We built this country.
We built legacies.
We built families with strength and dignity.

We forgot because the Democratic Party needed us to forget.
But forgetting is not the same as losing.
And remembering is the beginning of rising.

Western Bible

John chapter 8 says the truth will set us free.
Truth frees the mind before it frees anything else.

Ethiopian Canon

Jubilees chapter 1 verse 25 says God will send His angels before us to keep us in all our ways and bring us into the land of truth and righteousness.
Truth and righteousness are identity.
Truth and righteousness anchor us back to who we were created to be.

Once you see the truth, you cannot unsee it.
Once you remember our greatness, you cannot pretend we were meant for the bottom.
Once you understand the power God put in us, you cannot defend chains that are not even locked.

Because of our greatness
Because of our ancestors who built and fought before us
Because of the royalty that runs through our blood
We have a responsibility to rise.

We owe our children elevation.
We owe our grandchildren legacy.
We owe ourselves a future that honors all we were before the Democratic Party rewrote us.

We were never meant to live small.
We were never meant to survive at the bottom.
We were meant to rise.

When We Keep Lowering the Bar: Why “White People Get Food Stamps Too” Is Not the Flex People Think It Is

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Let me tell you what set this whole thing off.
I was scrolling through one of those so called Black Excellence or Black First pages I troll every now and then, and somebody tried to clap back at a post about food stamp statistics by saying something that made me stop mid scroll.

“Well more white people get food stamps than blacks.”

And the person said it like they just dropped a mic. Like that was the moment I was supposed to sit back and say, “You know what, you are right. Let me hush.”

No ma’am. No sir.
That is not the victory some people think it is.

I do not know when surviving became something to defend. I do not know when being trapped in a cycle became something to brag about. I do not know when we started matching our struggle to someone else’s struggle so we do not have to face what is keeping us stuck.

I am not fighting for us to be equal at the bottom.
I want us to rise from the bottom entirely.

Let us talk about the real numbers

Here are the current Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation numbers based on the latest reports:

• Around 35 to 37 percent of SNAP participants are white
• Around 25 to 27 percent are Black
• Around 15 to 16 percent are Hispanic
• Around 3 to 4 percent are Asian
• Around 1 to 2 percent are Native American
• The remainder falls into the unreported or unknown category

Yes white people make up the largest group on food stamps. They should. They are the largest share of the population.

But here is the part people love skipping.
Black households are nearly twice as likely to need assistance.
That is not a bragging point. That is a warning sign.

It is like saying, “Well other folks are drowning too.”
Okay. But why are we still in the water when we should be building boats.

What frustrates me is not the struggle. Everybody goes through struggle. What frustrates me is when we protect the struggle and defend the struggle and call it normal because we are used to it.

Some of us want to lower the bar so far that anything counts as winning.
I want the bar raised so high we have to stretch to reach it.

And here is the truth.
If you know deep down that something is not good for your community, the answer is not to justify it by pointing fingers at who else is suffering. The answer is to break the cycle.
The answer is to climb.

Do not tell me “white people do it too.” That is not the point.
It never was.

The deeper issue: Why do we defend the basement

What is happening is simple.
When people are tired of fighting, they start settling.
And when they start settling, they start defending what hurts them.

“White people are on it too” is not empowerment.
It is a coping mechanism.

It is a way to avoid asking the hard question.
Why have we accepted being under the bar for so long that we now measure progress by who else is struggling with us.

That is not liberation.
That is bondage dressed up as equality.

Western Scripture: Hosea 4:6

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

You cannot heal what you refuse to see.
You cannot rise from what you refuse to confront.
You cannot break a cycle that you are busy defending.

Knowledge breaks chains.
Truth breaks cycles.
Accountability opens doors.

Ethiopian Scripture: Jubilees 1:25

“And I will send my angels before you, and they shall keep you in all my ways, and bring you into the land of truth and righteousness.”

Truth and righteousness.
Not excuses.
Not cycles.
Not generational patterns we have decided to normalize.

God brings us into truth. The question is whether we will live in it or run from it.

A reflection for 2025

We are at a moment where some Black folks are choosing comfort over clarity.
Memes over math.
Feelings over facts.

I am not interested in defending the basement.
I am interested in building the exit.

And I will keep saying it loud.
Poverty is not our culture.
Struggle is not our identity.
Government dependency is not our destiny.

We are not meant to survive forever.
We are meant to rise.

If you are tired of living under the bar, stop lowering it and start climbing over it.

I said what I said.
And I will keep saying it until we stop normalizing what we are meant to overcome.