We Can't Wait Any Longer

It's Time to Deconstruct White Supremacy

It has taken me some time to get back to writing here since we entered 2025. I’ve written a few notes here and there—notes that I hope encouraged you to begin the year on your terms and refuse to subscribe to the pressures to start every challenge and feed into the glorified hustle culture that every new year brings with it. White supremacy culture tends to thrive this time of year, and because it feels so normal, we let it. We buy into the idea that January 1st holds some magical power to transform us into the “best” and “most worthy” versions of ourselves—because, somehow, we’ve been convinced that we’re never enough as we are.

I’m guilty of it, too. I secretly hope to make several changes once the clock strikes midnight and find the dream version of myself waiting for me on the other side. Of course, when the clock did strike midnight, the same person I was at 11:59 p.m. awaited me at 12:01 a.m. Nothing changed. Nothing was supposed to change. I was already good enough and worthy enough at 11:59 p.m. And even if I did dive headfirst into the new year springing out of bed at 5:00 a.m. to become my “best self,” that will not free me.

That will not free you, either.

That is not liberation. That is white supremacy disguised as liberation to serve as a distraction from true liberation. Liberation doesn’t come from manifesting your best life. Liberation does not lie in how much you can shrink your body to fit society’s narrow and oppressive health, wellness, and beauty standards. You will not find liberation hidden in the pages of your new day planner or your perfectly curated refrigerator. Liberation is not at the bottom of your Stanley water bottle or daily greens powder. Liberation is not found in individualism, perfectionism, or hustle-and-grind culture. No. True liberation begins when we finally overturn a system that wants us to believe that our freedom, or lack thereof, is our fault and our responsibility. Liberation is achieved when the most marginalized communities have access to everything the most privileged communities have access to. Liberation happens when our society works for our collective humanity rather than to line the pockets of billionaires, leaving us normal humans high and dry. Liberation takes root when the dehumanizing systems our nation was built upon to enforce a permanent racial, economic, gender, and power hierarchy have been dismantled.

And liberation will not be realized until the most marginalized among us are free.

Can I be honest with you? Even as I write this essay, I second-guess my work in the liberation space. Not because I no longer believe in the mission, but because it often feels like it no longer believes in me. When I talk about collective liberation, particularly in relation to the cultural aspects of white supremacy, the response is often silence. It feels as though no one is interested in personal freedom from white supremacy as much as the freedom that comes from societal dismantling. Don’t get me wrong—dismantling this soul-crushing society is of the utmost importance. We swim in a culture of white supremacy because our societal structures were built by it and for its benefit. The culture of white supremacy exists to serve societal white supremacy—to ensure these hierarchal and oppressive structures feel as normal as possible so that we accept them without question.

However, because the oppression caused by societal white supremacy is more visibly evident, it often takes urgent priority over cultural white supremacy in our advocacy. And when we focus on what feels most urgent or what appears to have the highest impact around us, we feel as though we are “getting it right,” so to speak. Focusing our energy on fighting for economic equity caused by societal white supremacy feeds our egos because we get the double reward of feeling like we're selflessly doing good while actually doing the good thing.

Fighting societal white supremacy is a vital cause —one that I wholeheartedly believe in. We wouldn’t be discussing cultural white supremacy if societal white supremacy hadn’t brought us to this point. However, fighting cultural white supremacy requires us to spend more time focusing on internal advocacy, healing, and dismantling. It forces us to turn inward and spend what feels like selfish time with ourselves—time that our culture has taught us to view as wasteful, making us feel guilty for resting, recharging, healing, or focusing on “self.” Ironically, in a culture of hyper-individualism, focusing on “self” feels selfish and unproductive because it forces us away from serving the system that only values constant productivity, particularly productivity that makes money. When we spend our precious time advocating against the societal structure of white supremacy, that feels just resistant enough against the system, but not so much so that we risk being productive and worthwhile as we do so.

What many of us need to reckon with is that we still uphold white supremacy in our advocacy because we have yet to break up with cultural white supremacy’s grip on us. We refuse to untie our worth from how white supremacy has conditioned us to believe that we must show up in society to be worthy. We refuse to realize that we must dismantle white supremacy culture internally before we can do it externally. Otherwise, we will just continue to further perpetuate it—emboldening it to find new ways to manifest itself as it always does.

This is the same reason we continue to return to believing the lie of New Year’s resolutions every year. New Year, New Me is simply a marketing tactic white supremacy culture uses to disguise itself so you can justify running to Target to purchase 50-11 planners, journals, greens powders, some dumbbells, and that cute new athleisure outfit that happens to be 30% off right as we ring in the new year. Once again, white supremacy has tricked us into believing that this is where liberation lies. “If I just become this new version of myself, I’ll love myself more, and I’ll finally be happy and free.” We keep chasing this elusive target, like a cat after a laser. Just when we think we’ve caught it, it vanishes, sending us back to the drawing board to spend more money, refueling our pursuit and, in turn, feeding the capitalist engine that keeps the machine of white supremacy running. Do you see how that works? And, as we get so bogged down by this chase, we bring these toxic traits right into our homes, workplaces, relationships, activism, and beyond. Because we refused to do the inner work first, our outer work continues to suffer and no real progress is made. We are just allowing white supremacy to multiply itself like a virus, all while consuming a placebo antidote that only feeds it.

Oof.

Let that sink in.

In the meantime, the (literal) wildfires are erupting, the (literal) white supremacists are entering the highest office, and our economy is crumbling at some of the highest rates we have seen in a long time—disproportionately affecting the most marginalized communities. Racism has become almost as reinvigorated as the Jim Crow era and guns are still given higher priority than human rights, and our children suffer for it. Our futures are about to be at the mercy of a man who abuses his power for personal gain and the sole mission of returning our nation to a time when white supremacy was unchallenged. But, we can’t afford healthcare.

I firmly believe that one of the biggest reasons we cannot seem to escape the chokehold of white supremacy is that we have refused to internally dismantle it first.

The very fact that my publishing an article like this will warrant more racist than supportive commentary is proof that lies in the pudding.

So, where does that leave me? This work? Is it worth it to continue shouting into the abyss knowing that no one is listening except those jumping at the opportunity to rear their racist hatred? Is it too late for this work to make an impact? Is it worth my peace, my time, my energy? As much as I question it, I refuse to give up. As difficult, defeating, and dehumanizing it feels to continue, I would not be able to rest at night if I threw in the towel. The refusal to give up on the pursuit of liberation is the antidote we need to survive these tumultuous years ahead of us, especially for Black women.

Black women: this is our time to let our resistance be our protection and safety.

This is the time that we must refuse to let white supremacy have the upper hand in our lives. We must resist subscribing to it in every form. This resistance will require us to lean into some deep work that we may have been afraid to do before, but our liberation is on the other side of that work.

And, for everyone else, this is your time to do the inner work that will give you the tools you need to dismantle these systems. I firmly believe that these systems will not be dismantled until white people dismantle them. No, you did not create these systems, but your ancestors built them to ensure you would continue benefiting while we remain harmed. While I believe these systems harm you as well, your benefit will always outweigh that harm. It is because of that benefit that you must answer the call to dismantle them. You must trust that in doing so, you will ensure everyone's freedom, including yourself.

This dismantling does not lie on our backs—it lies on yours.

---

We’ll All Be Free is a community-supported newsletter. If you enjoy this content, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, buying my book, or buying me a coffee.

And if you’re looking for a liberated approach to your new year that is rooted in decolonized thinking, download my FREE guided workbook, Your Liberated Year, here.