I’ve got 30 minutes before I’ve got to catch this subway to meet my wife and head out of the city to get our kids. We are the average American couple juggling multiple jobs to get ahead. We are the average couple that makes too much to get anything from this government and yet still owe a hefty tax bill at the end of each year. We pay more in childcare than you pay for a mortgage — guaranteed.

And yet, we are the lucky ones. We have our education. We have great jobs. We have side gigs that elevate our voices beyond the average Americans. And I see it as my responsibility to routinely crush false narratives that I feel are detrimental to my community. And by “my community,” I mean all of the above: my religious community, my human community, and my black community.

23 Minutes Left

The most pervasive narrative of this election has been that black people love Hillary Clinton and reject Bernie Sanders. This is a false narrative when you consider the actual numbers. The true story is that black Democratic establishment loves Hillary Clinton and has rejected Bernie Sanders. Black people, generally, have rejected the entire system.

But forgetting these primaries — the more disturbing usage of this narrative has been to use Hillary Clinton as a proxy for neoliberalism, the boot-strap theory, and the false religion of meritocracy while equating Bernie Sanders to Communist handouts.

To hear Black voices that benefit from the poorest communities suggest that the only problem is that we aren’t working hard enough is far worse than hearing this come from the likes of any Black face propped up on Fox News to spew conservative talking-points. What makes it worse is that these fine people benefit off the perception that they represent the interests of all things black — especially the marginalized and poor blacks.

These voices get the benefit of being the Black representative, speaking on behalf of black folks, while promoting ideologies and policies that are as detrimental to black people as they are any other marginalized groups. They are by far the greater evil because they are propped up to lull the radical spirit of blackness to sleep and to think that the wonderful Black Democratic Establishment will take care of everything.

15 minutes

The reality of the situation is that there is an establishment. There are black elites who benefit from the Democratic Party’s shift towards the right and full embrace of neoliberal economic policies that reward the wealthiest, the political elite, and the media elite.

They are not here to help the 28% of African American living in poverty beyond telling them that they should have gone to a better school. They are not here to address the systemic failings of Capitalism that pit those who benefit from the exploitation of labor against those who must sell their labor to survive. No.

They are here to lull to sleep the revolutionary spirit that is in the very bones of Black America. They are here to assist you in remembering Dr. King’s Dream but forgetting his call for a new Economic Bill of Rights.

10 Minutes.

They are here to make you empathize with the discrimination Bayard Rustin and James Baldwin faced because of their sexuality, but to completely forget that they had incredible critiques of this economic system.

They are here to do all they can to profit off of the narrative that Democratic Socialists are all white bros who are innately racist, sexist, homophobic and the beneficiaries of white privilege — the narrative that is necessary to keep working class African Americans from unifying with working class whites and creating a political movement that would rectify some of the inherent vices of capitalism — and to save it from itself.

5 minutes

No. Fixing economic inequality will not fix racism. However, tell that to the young black kids that have to deal with racism in America as well as poverty in America. Tell that to my former students who could not do homework because our schools could not afford books for them to take home. Kids who could not wash clothes because they had no power at home and so they came to school with a stench.

Anyone who is trying to convince you that all that matters is Race and that making this capitalistic system more diverse is the solution — is not the friend of Blackness. Not so long as Blackness includes such a high percentage living in poverty.

1 minute

If I had more time I would give you something worthy of your time. I could give you sources, citations, better prose and structure. But, I have not had the free time to write in over six months. So this is what I’ve got to give.

And I’ve got to deliver this obscene check to my kid’s childcare because, here in America, we think universal childcare is socialism — even for people like me who pay more in taxes than you made last year. (Not actually. But I just wanted to quote Jay-Z.)