So What Do We Do Now?

Hey Friend!

Because this cannot just become another cycle of Black grief.

Another moment where we gather online, say “this is terrible,” and then disappear back into survival mode while the ground continues shifting underneath us.

If there is one thing scholars and organizers like Greg Carr and Lurie Daniel Favors consistently emphasize, it is this:

Black people cannot afford disconnection anymore.

Not from history.
Not from politics.
Not from each other.
Not from ourselves.

We Need To Study Ourselves Again

Dr. Carr speaks often about Africana Studies not as some “elective identity course,” but as necessary political education.

Because a people disconnected from their own historical memory become easier to manipulate.

Easier to divide.
Easier to demoralize.
Easier to erase.

And honestly?
That is part of what we are seeing right now.

Too many Black Americans know more about celebrity gossip than Reconstruction.
More about trending discourse than Black political history.
More about entrepreneurship than collective liberation.

And that is not an insult.
That is a symptom.

A symptom of generations of educational neglect and intentional historical distortion.

But if this moment proves anything, it is that Black history is not optional knowledge.

It is survival knowledge.

Because when you understand how Black communities survived previous waves of backlash, voter suppression, economic exclusion, media demonization, and historical erasure, you stop thinking this moment is random.

You begin to recognize patterns.

And once you recognize patterns, you can stop reacting emotionally to every headline and start moving strategically.

That means:

• reading Black authors

• supporting Black scholarship

• studying African and African American history

• teaching our children beyond sanitized textbooks

• understanding law, policy, voting, economics, and power structures

Not performatively.
Not aesthetically.
Not just during Black History Month.

Consistently.

We Need Stronger Black Political Literacy

Lurie Daniel Favors speaks very directly about something many people still avoid:

Politics affects Black life whether Black people participate or not.

And too many people still approach politics emotionally instead of structurally.

We treat elections like popularity contests instead of power negotiations.

We get distracted by personalities while legislation quietly reshapes our lives underneath us.

Meanwhile:

• districts are redrawn

• judges are appointed

• school curriculum changes

• labor protections shift

• public funding disappears

• rights are weakened incrementally

And many people do not notice until the consequences become personal.

We cannot afford that anymore.

Black political engagement cannot only happen every four years during presidential elections.

It has to happen locally.
At school boards.
At city councils.
At judicial races.
At policy meetings.
At community organizing events.

Because power is often decided long before presidential ballots are cast

We Need To Rebuild Community Again

Another thing both Carr and Favors consistently point toward is collective responsibility.

Not individual escape.

And that part may be uncomfortable for a culture that constantly pushes hyper-independence and personal branding.

But no oppressed group survives purely through individual success stories.

Community matters.

Relationships matter.
Local support matters.
Black institutions matter.
Black media matters.
Black schools, Black bookstores, Black organizers, Black teachers, Black archives, Black cultural spaces — all of it matters.

Because when larger systems become hostile, community becomes infrastructure.

And maybe that is the real reconstruction work in this moment.

Not just “making it.”
Not just surviving individually.
Not just becoming successful enough to look away.

But rebuilding Black consciousness.
Rebuilding political awareness.
Rebuilding historical literacy.
Rebuilding connection to each other.

Because if they are actively trying to erase us, then remembering ourselves becomes an act of resistance all by itself.

And maybe that is the question now.

Not:
“What do we have to lose?”

But:

What are we willing to rebuild?

x, Aja

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