Education is Elevation

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Another day, another issue to worry about when it comes to the Trump man. The orange man doing shenanigans. Because if he shenanigans once, he’s going to shenanigan. And somehow, from the people that voted for him the first time, I guess they was cool with the way he was shenan-againing. Thought they was gonna profit. Be rewarded.

The second time, he shenanigans again.

But here’s the thing. The more mainstream America commodifies our language, our culture—takes the very words born from our struggle and sells them back as proof of their American dream—the more they find themselves in a position of, Oh, you thought “f**k around and find out” was just a phrase?

We’re seeing it. A lot of conservatives, and unfortunately, a lot of us minorities, getting caught up in that noise.

We always talk about how politics matter most on the local level. We talk about how individuals who ascribe to handle the levers of power should have their feet held to the fire. This weekend, I had the chance to kick it with somebody actually trying to grab those levers: Salaam Bhatti, a public interest lawyer running for Congress in Virginia’s 1st District.

This ain’t a endorsement. This is a breakdown. A conversation. Because if we’re tired of the pump-fake, if we’re sick of the parasocial relationships with politicians who never deliver, then the primary is where we apply the pressure. That’s the semifinals. The general election is just the finals where you choose from the contenders you already let slide.

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Here’s what we got into.

On What Makes Him Different: “I’m not corporate PAC funded,” he states straight up. His campaign is built on people-powered donations. He frames the choice simply: do we want more of the bland, raisins-in-the-potato-salad Democrat the party machine pushes, or do we want flavor? His flavor is Medicare for All, taxing billionaires, and getting big money out of politics. He calls it going for the root cause, not just curing symptoms. “We’re not here to put new gears in the orphan-crushing machine. We’re here to turn it off.”

On Qualifications & Bipartisan Wins: His credentials come from the Virginia Poverty Law Center, where he lobbied—for poor people. His legacy? Uniting Democrats and Republicans to unanimously expand SNAP benefits to over 25,000 Virginia families. His method? He studied the subcommittee members, found their corporate donors, and brought those corporations into the coalition. When politicians saw their donors were on board, they listened.

But the skeptic in me had to ask: where’s the line? When does a “bipartisan win” become capitulation? He learned that lesson the hard way. When he tried the same tactic to fight national SNAP cuts, the corporations refused, fearing retribution from Trump. “That was a wake-up call,” he said. “Bump you. We don’t need you.” It’s why he swears off corporate money now.

On the Issues That Matter:

* Palestine: “Does Palestine have the right to exist? Heck yeah.” He’s not taking AIPAC money, wouldn’t fund more weapons for Israel, and calls the current actions a genocide.

* Healthcare: He draws a clear, vicious line. The Affordable Care Act is the “affordable” model—a system where insurance companies profit while our costs soar. Medicare for All is the “universal” model. He told a story about getting care in Scotland and pulling out his wallet, confused when they didn’t charge him. “We can have that,” he argues. “Yesterday’s centrism brought today’s fascism. We’re in a revolutionary time to do revolutionary things.”

* Reparations: This was the most revealing moment. He gave a politician’s answer: broadly in favor, wants to learn more, doesn’t want to speak for Black Americans as a non-Black person. I pushed back. If this is going to be a tangible topic, candidates need a formal, robust position. The conversation matters too much for “I don’t know.”

* ICE & Police Reform: “Abolish ICE.” He doesn’t mince words. He details how it’s a young, post-9/11 agency born from the Patriot Act, fundamentally unreformable. On local police brutality, he cited a conversation with a police trainer who said simply, “We don’t have the funding to train them better.” His solution involves funding real crisis response and community safety, not just more weapons.

* The Epstein Files: His answer was direct. “If you are in the files, there should be arrest warrants… You should be in prison as you wait for your day in court.” He called for a “Nuremberg-level” reckoning. “The whole world is watching.”

The Bottom Line & The Ask:Salaam’s final pitch wasn’t just for him. It was for the strategy. Voter turnout in primaries is catastrophically low—20,000 vs. 200,000 in a general in his district. The party doesn’t push you to vote in primaries; they want their pre-picked, bland candidate to slide through.

His ask is for you to find the “Salaam” in your district. The candidate not taking corporate PAC money. The one you can pressure now, in the primary, to adopt the policies you need. Donate $10. Sign a petition. Knock on doors. The gap in funding is real, and if we don’t fill it, the billionaires will.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO SALAAM NOW

My Final Take:We complain about politicians being compromised, then get skeptical when they ask us for money instead of corporations. That’s the tension. The Supreme Court said money is speech, and corporate money is a damn megaphone. Our only counter is to organize our voices and our dollars at the point where it matters most: before they get the nomination.

Stop with the bad analogies. This local primary is not the 2024 presidential replay. This is the ground floor. Democracy isn’t a brunch you get to enjoy after winning a general election with a mediocre candidate. It’s the gritty, uncomfortable work of shaping who that candidate even is.

Education is elevation. Research over me-search.And the primary is the pressure point.Don’t miss your chance to apply it.

Catch the full, unfiltered conversation on my Substack and podcast feeds.

5 Key Takeaways

* The Primary is the Real Election: General elections are just choosing from the candidates we allowed to win in primaries, where turnout is abysmally low. This is where our leverage is maximum.

* Follow the Money, Then Break Its Spine: Salaam’s story is a masterclass in how corporate donor influence works, and more importantly, how to break its hold by refusing their money and building people-powered campaigns.

* “Affordable Care” is a Trap, “Universal Healthcare” is the Goal: He made a vital distinction. The ACA model subsidizes insurance company profits. Medicare for All is the universal, cost-saving model that works everywhere else.

* Politicians Need Pressure, Not Parasocial Support: We must move beyond liking a politician’s personality and into rigorous questioning of their policy specifics—especially on complex, fraught issues like reparations.

* Abolition is a Policy Position: On ICE, he didn’t talk reform. He stated plainly that an agency born from the Patriot Act, engaged in kidnapping and killing, is unreformable and must be abolished. This is now on the table in mainstream races.

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The lesson isn’t about the pages. It’s about the silence that follows.

The file is closed. Over a million pages detailing the most prolific elite child trafficking and abuse network in modern memory have been dumped into the public domain. The outcry was immediate, the furor was intense, and… absolutely nothing, no fundamental changes or structural responses.

We wanted a reckoning and accountability. What we got was a receipt.

A receipt proving a system’s most important feature: its ability to absorb shock, to metabolize outrage, and to continue. The greatest “conspiracy” wasn’t what Epstein did; it’s that his entire network of power, after being exposed, could look at a million pages of its own indictment and calmly conclude, This changes nothing.

The Real “Furniture” Conspiracy

Remember the “Wayfair conspiracy”? The one from the darker corners of the internet about kids being trafficked in furniture containers? We dismissed it as the ramblings of QAnon, a fringe fantasy.

Ahh, combing through the Epstein files, I found something that made my blood run cold. We weren’t looking at the right furniture company, truth really can be stranger than fiction.

The financial footprints lead to Ashley Furniture—hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions. Old articles, ones I remember from my college days about this very conspiracy, have been scrubbed from the web. The evidence isn’t in a Reddit thread; it’s in Jeffrey Epstein’s own bank statements.

It makes you wonder: Was the “furniture” talk a sick inside joke? Or, more disturbingly, was the entire online conspiracy theory seeded and amplified early on to make the very concept of “elite child trafficking” seem like a lunatic fringe idea? To discredit anyone who might later speak the truth by associating it with baby-eating cabals? They manufacture the narrative of insanity to protect the reality of the crime.

Protecting Which Children?

This is the part that makes my ass itch.

For the past five years, I’ve taken immense heat and smoke from folks for my advocacy around trans visibility and LGBTQ+ humanity. The pushback always came cloaked in the language of “protecting the children.” Letting kids be kids. Causing hysteria over the “potentiality” of abuse in queer spaces.

Now look. Look at the political aisle that has fought hardest to protect Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirators. It is the same political aisle that has pushed over 500 pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in 2023 alone, all in the name of “child welfare.”

They pointed their fingers at drag queens and trans folks, screaming about predators. All the while, the real predators—rich, connected, overwhelmingly white men—were flying to private islands. The moral panic was never about safety. It was a weapon. A tool of social control to target marginalized communities while providing cover for the actual abusers operating at the highest levels of their own political power structure.

The call, as I’ve said, was always coming from inside the house.

Shaboozy, Settlers, and the Four Pillars of America

This brings me to a different, but deeply connected, conversation.

When Shaboozy won his Grammy and said “immigrants built this country,” I celebrated his win but knew his statement was a historical misnomer. In the heat of a beautiful Black History Month moment, his intent was to honor his Nigerian immigrant parents. I get that. The pathway to hell, as my grandfather said, is paved with good intentions.

As a scholar and a descendant of African enslaved in America, I have to deal in material history, not inspirational ideals. To say “immigrants built this country” is structurally ahistorical. It erases the brutal, foundational truth of this colonial project.

America was not built. It was constructed through four distinct, unequal subject positions:

* The Settler: Who came to take the land, displace the indigenous, and establish a new colonial order.

* The Immigrant: Who later came, voluntarily, for opportunity within the system the settlers established.

* The Indigenous: Who was already here, and who faced genocide and displacement.

* The Enslaved: Who was forcibly brought here as capital, not as people, to provide the labor that built the economic foundation.

My ancestors didn’t immigrate. They were cargo. To conflate the immigrant experience with the enslaved experience is to erase the specific, foundational violence that made “America” possible. This isn’t about division; it’s about precision. Our analysis must be as sharp as the history is brutal.

We can celebrate Shaboozy’s achievement—the first Black man to win Best Country Duo is undeniable Black history—while also insisting on historical clarity. He has since apologized, and I accept it. The moment is a teachable one about the power of our words and the weight of our lineages.

Education is elevation.

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America’s got a favorite villain, but the real blueprint of state terror isn’t overseas—it’s buried in our own backyard. ICE raids aren’t just about law and order; they’re a modern reincarnation of racialized control systems that date back centuries.

The machinery behind these actions is deeply tied to white supremacy and racial capitalism, and its impact targets our most vulnerable communities—tearing families apart and turning neighbors into informants. If we want real freedom and dignity, it’s time to move past romanticized myths and push for change that truly dismantles these oppressive structures. Think bigger, act smarter, and remember: everybody can do something.

Did you know ICE is younger than social media influencer Kai Cenat? That’s right—ICE was created in 2003 after 9/11, and immigration policing existed long before its invention. Don’t let politicians act like ICE is an eternal American tradition!

5 Keys You’ll Learn in This Episode

* American Oppression Isn’t Imported—It’s Homegrown: Stop reaching for Nazi analogies. The machinery of ICE is built from America’s own history, not borrowed from elsewhere.

* Tiered Personhood Is Still Alive: From the Fugitive Slave Acts to modern immigration enforcement, the law divides humanity into hierarchies. Who benefits? Who pays?

* Legal ≠ Just: Racist violence, slavery, and even Nazi Germany’s horrors were all legal once. Just because it’s the law doesn’t mean it’s right.

* Intersectionality Is Non-Negotiable: Black and immigrant communities’ struggles are intertwined. None of us are free until all of us are free.

* Everyone Has a Role in the Fight for Justice: You don’t have to protest in the streets, but you can resist bad history, bad metaphors, and American exceptionalist myths in your everyday life.

You know it when you see it. The round-up at dawn. The bus doors creak open to swallow workers—South Korean, Haitian, Mexican—who built what you drive and power, what you eat and wear. Another headline. Another statue of Law and Order raised high, polished by press releases and sharpened in the comment sections with jagged calls to “just do it the right way.”

They want you to believe this is new. That ICE is a foreign glitch in an otherwise sturdy system. That what happens to “aliens” isn’t an echo—just a contemporary debate about the border, jobs, and sovereignty.

But you know better when you feel it, if you know what it means to be hunted.

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What does it mean when the President of the United States leans into the oldest, dirtiest racial tropes about Black women? When he reduces a Black Congresswoman—a whole entire elected official—to the caricature of a drug dealer? You know the one. It’s dusty. It’s unoriginal and stale. It’s violent. It’s meant to erase her humanity and her office in a single breath replicating the logic of pale supremacy.

The real question, the one that sits heavy in my gut, is this: If the head of state has no regard, no dignity, no respect for this Black woman—one with a title and a platform—what in the actual hell does that mean for the everyday Black woman? For the regular, degular, everyday Black woman just trying to make it home, pay a bill, exist in a body that is constantly politicized and policed? It means his deputizing his base to incite more attacks this Black woman and those her look like her.

The thin veneer of professional courtesy, the performative respectability we’re told to clutch like a shield? Shattered. This brings me to the device in your hand. Right now.

When we’re dead and gone, historians will hold up the cell phone as the definitive symbol of our era. Not just for the selfies or the doomscrolling. But because of the blood in its circuitry—the cobalt mined with the blood, sweat, and tears of Congolese people. And because of the blood it has witnessed—from George Floyd to a thousand names we don’t know, captured in shaky, undeniable truth.

This little rectangle is a paradox. It is a product of the same global extraction that fuels empires and yet, it has become the only shield left for the rest of us. “Phones don’t stop bullets / phones don’t feed people.” True however they are the ledger. These phones become vehicles for our testimony. The evidence that refuses to be erased.

We’ve seen this pattern before—that specific flavor of surveillance, suspicion, dehumanization, and state violence has been franchised. It’s no longer just for Black folks what Alex Pretti and Renee Good illustrate. It’s the default setting for anyone deemed a threat to the narrative. The machinery perfected on Black and Brown bodies domestically, and on colonized people globally—the ICE raids, the international policing, the algorithmic targeting—is now being calibrated for wider distribution here domestically.

When you hold that phone up to livestream, to document, to testify, they don’t see a citizen using tools of democracy. They see a threat. A threat to their story, because your footage, your truth, disrupts the official script. It makes the hidden violence legible.

The old compact is unraveling. We used to pretend there were rules. That laws mattered. The line between foreign and domestic policy is a fiction. The surveillance tech tested in Gaza gets imported to your local police department. The rhetoric used to demonize a Black Muslim woman in Congress (shoutout to the relentless attacks on Ilhan Omar—a case study in racialized, gendered political violence) is the same rhetoric that justifies a no-knock warrant in a Black neighborhood.

The media flood? It’s deliberate. It’s meant to numb you and make you desensitzed. To fragment your attention. To make the outrageous mundane, so the violence can proceed without accountability.

So here we are.

Your phone, your camera, your act of witnessing: it is now criminalized. The Black Treatment has become the universal treatment for potential dissent. To carry this device—this descendant of mines, this holder of ghosts—is to sign up for that treatment. It’s to pick up the only weapon they haven’t yet figured out how to completely disarm. These damn phones.

As many of you know, I was nominated for a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Digital Content Creator Politics/Culture and I need yall help! You can vote everyday until February 13th and I’m going to need every vote because the category is STACKED!

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KEY TAKEAWAYS:

* The Overwhelm is a Weapon: The constant media deluge isn’t an accident. It’s designed to numb, fragment, and make us feel helpless. It enables violence in the shadows of our distraction.

* Attacks on Figures like Ilhan Omar are Blueprints: They are not isolated. They are highly orchestrated campaigns of racialized, gendered, and political delegitimization. Learn the blueprint. It’s being used on smaller scales everywhere.

* Identity Politics is Being Weaponized Against Us: The old trick of “divide and conquer” is on steroids. They use our identities to fracture solidarity, to reduce us to stereotypes, and to maintain power.

* Surveillance is a Seamless Global Project: What happens abroad doesn’t stay abroad. The apparatus of control is interconnected. The target list is always expanding.

* Witnessing is Now an Act of Defiance: Your documentation is not passive. It is disruptive. The system will try to make you the problem for recording it. Your footage is the answer.

* We Must Document Defiance, Not Just Trauma: Our survival is revolutionary, but so is our joy, our strategy, our community. Point the camera at the resistance, too. Not just the wound.

CALL TO ACTION:

This is the moment, y’all. This is not the time for silence. Not for turning away. It’s for doubling down on Research Over MeSearch and THESE DAMN PHONES.

Watch. Record. Archive. Share.

When you hold your phone up, when you speak a hard truth in public, when you refuse the seductive induction of forgetting—you are no longer just a bystander. You are resistance itself. The system’s only hope is that we believe our eyes lie. That our voices don’t matter. That we get tired.

Let your documentation be the proof that we didn’t.Let your shared testimony be the new compact.

The shield is in your hand. Use it.

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Yesterday, I tackled a critical conversation with Senator Cory Booker about transparency, policy reform, and the impact of political decisions on entrepreneurs and creators like us. I broke down his stance on banning TikTok, his messaging around national security, and the disconnect between elected officials and the communities they serve.

My key message: don’t underestimate the knowledge and power of informed creators. We need leaders who truly listen and address our concerns, not just offer surface-level solutions. Education is elevation—let’s keep pushing for real accountability.

Key Takeaways:

* Don’t underestimate the public’s knowledge on policy.

* Cosmetic reforms don’t address underlying abuses of power.

* Elected officials must answer real questions, not rely on tired talking points.

* Influencer voices matter—especially when livelihoods are on the line.\

The episode closes with a call to Senator Booker and to all politicians: “Do better.” Stop gaslighting engaged citizens. Recognize and respect the intelligence of the people. Above all, understand that votes, livelihoods, and respect can no longer be taken for granted in the age of digital grassroots power.

🔔 Call to Action

If you love real talk about power, policy, and pushback, hit play now! Share your thoughts with us by replying to this email or tagging us when you share your favorite moments. And don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review—every rating helps us reach more folks who like their research with a side of receipts.

Key takeaways for policymakers, creators, and advocates:

* Authenticity Matters: Engagement shouldn’t just be performative. People see through “political speak” and want real conversations about hard issues—directly addressing community concerns and livelihoods.

* Policy ≠ Protection: Sometimes proposed legislation doesn’t solve the root problem. For example, banning TikTok was positioned as “national security,” but for many, it simply took away an avenue for small business and community building, raising questions about who policy actually helps.

* Informed Communities Can’t Be Dismissed: Underestimating the public’s awareness and framing nuanced debates as “us vs. them” only alienates. Respectful, informed debate leads to accountability and better democratic participation.

If you’re passionate about advocacy, content creation, or just want to see better representation in political engagement, give this episode a listen. Let’s raise the bar together.

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Look how connected all this is.

Consider this: George Floyd, Alex Purdy, Renee Good. Their stories—one of police brutality, the others of ICE enforcement—unfolded within two miles of each other. Two miles.

That geography is a revelation. It is a map of the same battlefield.

The intersected and interconnected nature of our struggles isn’t a new theory. It’s the lived, painful, and prevalent reality for marginalized communities. The same systems that criminalize Blackness, that surveil Muslim communities, that cage migrants at the border, are branches of the same tree. They operate on the same logic of exclusion, control, and dehumanization. The police officer’s knee and the ICE agent’s warrant are instruments of the same foundational power.

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On today’s session, we dove into the dangers of anti-intellectualism and how refusing to think critically threatens our future. We talked about why asking hard questions, demanding evidence, and challenging so-called common sense isn’t “elitist”—it’s essential, especially for entrepreneurs and innovators.

From Trump’s rallies to COVID briefings and attacks on education, we broke down how dismissing expertise and facts holds us back. The takeaway? Curiosity, critical thinking, and research are your top business assets. Stay relentless, stay rigorous—because the biggest rebellion is to think deeply and turn knowledge into power.

Research Over Mesearch is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The episode breaks down why critical thinking isn’t just for “elitists”—it’s essential for a thriving, equitable society.

Key Takeaways:

* Anti-intellectualism is strategic, not accidental:

Manufacturing distrust in experts and promoting shallow thinking isn’t just cultural drift. It’s a methodical way to limit informed consent and keep marginalized communities powerless.

* Critical thinking is not elitism: The episode challenges the framing of critical thinking as “elitist,” making the case for why demanding evidence and challenging narratives is everyone’s responsibility—not just academics or experts.

* Current policies have real-world consequences: From the rejection of climate science to the backlash against critical race theory and the politicization of COVID-19 science, the episode shows how anti-intellectual trends disproportionately harm the most vulnerable among us.

This conversation is a must-listen for anyone passionate about education, equity, and the power of informed discourse.

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On today’s Research Over Mesearch session, we broke down three major conservative contradictions: from mainstream pundits’ homoerotic language and hypocrisy on LGBTQ issues, to how states’ rights only matter when it’s convenient for white supremacy, and the selective outrage around kids’ safety, especially when it comes to attacks on education and public resources. Plus, we dove into the wild story of an Atlanta influencer being tied to Mossad espionage ads, showing how global politics can hit close to home. If you’re ready to rethink what you know about power, identity, and policy—this is your wake up call. Education is elevation!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theconsciouslee.substack.com/subscribe

Research Over Mesearch is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

AI isn’t neutral—it’s programmed with the biases and cultural values of its creators, often reinforcing harmful systems like white supremacy, capitalism, and racial hierarchy. Today, lets explore how technology markets itself as progress, but really, it’s amplifying existing inequalities and erasing marginalized voices. As advocates, activists and researchers, it’s on us to question the impact of AI on society, especially in policing, education, and labor. Don’t get lost in the sauce of convenience—dig deeper and challenge the myth of technological neutrality. Let’s use our influence to shape an ethical future and push for real change.

Technology is Politics Without Consent. Technology is not neutral but is a cultural system that embodies and amplifies specific American values that’s often to our detriment, especially black people and really all poor people and I’m a say even white folks because it gets you to buy into convenience and without thinking about the capitalistic, the capitalistic impacts that it has.

Generative AI is saturated with cultural ideology, reinforcing hierarchies we should be interrogating.

Technology’s Hidden Agenda We often hear AI pitched as the tool for progress—unstoppable, world-changing, and “beyond politics.” I don’t buy it, and neither should you. Through references to scholars like Joel Dinnerstein, Stephen Cave, and Dr. Kanta Dahal, the episode reveals how technology enforces power imbalances, discourages democratic debate, and sustains the status quo.

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Here are my key takeaways:

* AI is “cultured before it’s coded”: The development and deployment of AI is shaped by Western, white, messianic values—meaning biases aren’t accidental, but baked in from the beginning.

* Tech solutions are not necessarily social solutions: Rather than solving deep societal problems, AI often functions as a tool that sustains the status quo—especially regarding race, labor, and hierarchy.

* Language models amplify power dynamics: The very way we interact with AI (think ChatGPT prompts, language models, and policing algorithms) can erase, marginalize, or stereotype communities of color, making it crucial to challenge the myth of technological neutrality.

Before we chase the next tech convenience, let’s pause and ask: Who benefits? Who’s excluded? And what are we really consenting to?

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theconsciouslee.substack.com/subscribe