"Never Again": A Call to Protect, Empower, and Rise Together

Lies. This is your dream, isn’t it? Watching as my people lay powerless and afraid before you, stripped of dignity. All we’ve done is use our knowledge, our resources, and our spirit to protect a world that hates us. This is our reward? Tell me, what must we do to be good enough? If this so-called "high road" leads to endless sacrifice, then I say: Never again.

How many times will we blend in, speak softly, extend a hand to those who wish to control us? They think they have dominion over our bodies, our choices. But let’s make one thing clear: there is no moral high ground in oppression. Their book may say so, but when have their beliefs been anything but weapons against us?

The Roots of Control

Historically, systems of control over marginalized communities, particularly Black and queer individuals, have been rooted in myths about who we are and what we deserve. For centuries, colonizers and oppressors have justified subjugation with doctrines and texts, yet their interpretations always shift when convenient. Black feminist scholar bell hooks speaks to this in Ain’t I a Woman, where she explores how Black bodies, especially Black women’s, have been used and abused without consequence or empathy. What moral law governs them but hypocrisy?

We know their reality—behind their self-righteous facade is often fear and insecurity. They preach to us about purity while they pay for it behind closed doors. They seek control, perhaps, to mask their own emptiness. They would demonize our lives but relish in them secretly, as Audre Lorde so powerfully stated in Sister Outsider: “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” We see through the farce, and it’s time to rise against it.

Enough Is Enough

We see it every day—the blame, the shame, the attempts to strip us of our humanity. How many times will we be told who we should be? They fear us because they cannot control us, and they despise us because we remind them of their own failures. They want docile workers, obedient citizens, and silent partners. Enough.

Enough of hiding. We will no longer live in the shadows to make them comfortable. We’re done bending for a system that has no intention of ever lifting us.

Enough of carrying their burdens. We will no longer be their moral scapegoats or their saviors. If their world crumbles, so be it. We’ve carried enough weight on our backs.

Enough of using each other as stepping stones. Too often, our own communities have turned on each other, dispossessing individuals who don’t fit a narrow view of what’s "acceptable." We’ve seen the cycles of judgment within, the disposal of those who don’t measure up, without understanding or compassion. We have to break this cycle if we are to stand strong together.

The Hollow Calls for "Unity"

Let’s be real: the loudest voices calling for "unity" now are often the same ones who, for years, played a heavy hand in fracturing our community. They’ve sown division when it suited them, rebranded themselves when the damage became too visible, and silenced the voices demanding real progress and accountability. Now that the ground is shifting, and people are waking up, they’re reaching for “togetherness” like a shield.

But we’ve seen this rebranding act before. It’s a cycle of silence, marginalization, and betrayal until their own interests are threatened. "Unity" isn’t just a word you slap on when it’s convenient; it’s a commitment that demands showing up, building trust, and making sacrifices. Real community stays through the hardest times and works things out, refusing to discard people without grace. So they can keep their kumbaya call—we’re building something stronger and more real.

Building Power for Our Survival

It’s time to focus on us. We must get educated, build power within our own circles, and ensure money flows through us, by us. For generations, they have used our labor to fund their empires, just as enslaved Black people built this country with blood and sweat. We know what happens when we don’t create our own systems of resilience—those in power turn on us, blame us, and exploit us. But this time, we can resist by investing in each other and pooling our knowledge and resources.

This calls for a return to the teachings and strategies of our ancestors—those who survived against unimaginable odds. Medical Apartheid by Harriet A. Washington reminds us of the brutal history of medical experimentation on Black bodies, and we must use this knowledge to advocate for our health and protect our bodies. We need to build systems for Black wellness, defend our communities, and learn how to guard our bodies as fiercely as our spirits.

We must educate ourselves beyond what they teach in their sanitized history books. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander exposes the racist structures that keep our communities under surveillance and disenfranchised. We must understand these systems and work to dismantle them, with resources, with action, and with unity.

Coming Together: The Urgency of Now

There’s no time to waste. Project 2025 is on the horizon, and with it comes an agenda that threatens our very existence. Those who thought they were safe will realize too late that they, too, are expendable under this system. Poor, working-class non-Black Americans may be shocked, but we, Black and queer communities, have long understood the stakes. We’re laughing through tears because we’ve seen this before, and we know how easily promises can turn into oppression.

Now is the time to come together and use every ounce of wisdom passed down through our communities. We’ve been underestimated before, but our survival and our culture are proof of our strength. Our pain has borne the art, music, and spirit that have shaped this world.

A Vision for Our Future

This is our call to resist, not through protest alone but through creation. We will cultivate Black-owned businesses, build safe spaces, and strengthen our communities. We will support our sisters and brothers in sex work, ensuring they can thrive in dignity. We will teach each other, heal each other, and fight for each other in ways that lift us all.

Together, we are powerful beyond measure. Together, we will survive, and we will thrive.

As James Baldwin said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” Let us face this, together, with all the courage of those who came before us.