{"id":16763,"date":"2025-07-31T16:20:27","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T16:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=16763"},"modified":"2025-07-31T16:20:40","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T16:20:40","slug":"my-re-education-of-me-era-six-truths-that-changed-how-i-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/31\/my-re-education-of-me-era-six-truths-that-changed-how-i-move\/","title":{"rendered":"My \u201cRe-Education of Me\u201d Era: Six Truths That Changed How I Move"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong>Carla Thomas<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Truth Contributor<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m in what I like to call my Re-Education of Me<\/em> era. After years of taking systems at face value, i.e., what I was taught in school, what I saw in the media, what I was told to believe, I started asking deeper questions. Earning my master\u2019s degree in Social Justice and Community Organizing didn\u2019t just give me tools, it gave me clarity. Some of these truths I already knew. Others hit me like a slap in the face. But all of them changed how I see the world, and now, how I move in it.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s the deal: once you learn a truth, you become responsible for it. You can\u2019t unsee it. You can\u2019t unknow it. And you sure as hell can\u2019t act like you don\u2019t understand what’s really going on.<\/p>\n

So as I continue unlearning and relearning, I want to share six truths that have shifted my thinking, fueled my passion and set me on a course toward real liberation, for myself, for my people, and for the communities I love.<\/p>\n

This list is not exhaustive by any means, or to some, not even that deep but these are just a few new understandings that matter to me and change how I move.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. DEI Wasn\u2019t Made to Liberate Us<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The concept of diversity, equity and inclusion was never designed to free<\/em> us, it was designed to fit<\/em> us into systems that still see us as lesser. Inclusion often just means being allowed into spaces while still being treated as inferior. They might open the door, but they don\u2019t change the rules, the culture or the power dynamics. Microaggressions still thrive. Bias still breathes. And we\u2019re expected to be grateful just to be in the building. This is the illusion of inclusion<\/strong>: representation without respect, presence without power. DEI in most spaces became a checkbox, not a commitment.<\/p>\n

    That\u2019s not to say DEI hasn\u2019t had any impact. Some doors have opened. Some conversations have shifted. But access is not freedom. And we can\u2019t confuse performative diversity with structural change. Especially now, as companies quietly cut their DEI teams and as Trump openly targets policies that protect Black and Brown people. We\u2019re being shown in real time that DEI was never the plan for our liberation, it was the compromise. And compromises don\u2019t set people free.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Cultural Hegemony: The System Trained Us to Think It\u2019s Normal<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      There\u2019s a reason so much of what we accept as \u201cnormal\u201d feels hard to question: it was designed<\/em> that way. Cultural hegemony is the process by which the dominant class uses everyday systems like education, religion and media, to shape how we see the world. They taught us what to believe, what to value, and what to aim for. Over time, their worldview started to feel like common sense. But it\u2019s not, it\u2019s programming.<\/p>\n

      Every major system we have, from how we learn to how we work, to how we worship, was put in place by the dominant class: wealthy elites, politicians, and corporate powerholders. These systems were never meant to liberate us. They were built to keep the working class working, <\/em>producing, consuming, and staying busy, while the rich got richer off our labor, our loyalty, and our distractions.<\/p>\n

      Think about school curriculums that center white history and barely mention ours unless it’s slavery or civil rights. Or how standardized tests are built around white middle-class norms but are used to measure everyone. That\u2019s cultural hegemony. Think about how media shows Black people as criminals or sidekicks, rarely as complex heroes, or leaders. That\u2019s cultural hegemony. Or how religion was used to justify slavery and later respectability politics, telling us to suffer quietly, forgive endlessly, and pray our way through oppression. That\u2019s cultural hegemony.<\/p>\n

      We were told success means \u201cpulling yourself up by your bootstraps,\u201d even though they never gave us boots. We were taught to see poverty as a personal failure, instead of a rigged system. We were taught to worship hard work, even when the work doesn\u2019t lead to wealth. This isn\u2019t just random, it\u2019s intentional. They\u2019ve used these systems to make inequality feel natural.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Justice Isn\u2019t Independence<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        \u201cWe need to stop fighting for equality and fight for independence.\u201d \u2014 Tunis Campbell<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Tunis Campbell was a Reconstruction-era leader, landowner and fierce advocate for Black self-governance. After the Civil War, he helped freed Black people establish self-sustaining communities in Georgia, complete with schools, protection and political representation. He wasn\u2019t just about freedom, he was about freedom with infrastructure<\/em>. And he understood early on that begging the same system that enslaved us to now save us was a losing strategy.<\/p>\n

        We\u2019ve been taught to chase justice, march, protest and demand new laws. But justice in America often means asking the same system that harmed us to fix itself. It means asking for equality within<\/em> the confines of a game rigged against us. Independence is something else entirely. It means building structures that don\u2019t rely on them at all. It means owning land, so we\u2019re not pushed out. Running businesses so we control our economy. Educating our children with our truth, not their version of it.<\/p>\n

        Justice asks for a seat at the table. Independence builds a new table and owns the land it sits on. We need less permission and more power. Because liberation won\u2019t be legislated. It\u2019ll be constructed<\/em>. By us.<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. We Fund Everybody\u2019s Future but Our Own<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Black America has over $1.6 trillion<\/strong> in spending power. That\u2019s enough to shift economies, influence markets and build real generational wealth. So why don\u2019t our communities reflect that kind of power?<\/p>\n

          Because we\u2019ve been conditioned to spend<\/strong>, not to build<\/strong>. We\u2019re encouraged to chase image over infrastructure, to wear our wealth instead of grow it. We pour billions into beauty supply stores, gas stations and convenience shops owned by people who don\u2019t live in our neighborhoods, don\u2019t invest in them and, in many cases, don\u2019t even like<\/em> us. Our dollars build their empires, send their kids to college, and what do are communities have to show for it? Nothing.<\/p>\n

          It doesn\u2019t have to be this way. That\u2019s the power of collective economics, when we stop spending individually and start building intentionally, we can create something that serves us<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

          And here\u2019s an example we can follow. In response to racist and discriminatory hiring practices by the New York City Omnibus Corporation, Black community leaders and businessmen in Harlem came together to create their own bus company. They pooled their money and launched People\u2019s Transit<\/strong>, a bus service designed by<\/em> and for<\/em> the Black community. It was short-lived due to legal and political pressure, but it was a bold and brilliant example of what\u2019s possible when we invest in ourselves rather than waiting to be included. This is real collective economics in action.<\/p>\n

          It starts with trust though. Trust in ourselves, in our vision, and in our power. It\u2019s time to stop making everyone else rich while our own communities stay underfunded.<\/p>\n

            \n
          1. White Adjacency Is a Trap<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            If you have to get sponsorship, permission, or backing from the dominant class just to do something for your own people<\/em>, do you really have power? Or have we accepted a kind of dependence that looks like progress but feels like a leash?<\/p>\n

            We\u2019ve been taught that being close to whiteness, through education, careers, the way we speak, dress, or move, somehow upgrades our worth. But proximity isn\u2019t power. It\u2019s performance. And the moment you stop performing the way they want, it can all be taken away, your job, your funding, your access, your platform.<\/p>\n

            Look at Colin Kaepernick. He had the education, the endorsements, the \u201cmodel minority\u201d image. But the moment he stepped out of line and took a knee for Black lives, the same system that celebrated him turned on him. Therein lies the trap. They\u2019ll clap for you as long as you don\u2019t make them uncomfortable<\/em>. The minute you challenge their power, you\u2019re reminded you never really had any.<\/p>\n

            We\u2019ve mistaken being \u201cthe one they let in\u201d or \u201cthe good negro\u201d, as a flex, when in reality, it just proves they\u2019re still the gatekeepers. True power doesn\u2019t come from being accepted by them. It comes from accepting ourselves fully, realizing our power, and then building something that doesn\u2019t require their nod of approval or finances.<\/p>\n

            White adjacency may bring comfort, but it won\u2019t bring freedom. And chasing it keeps us tethered to systems that were never built for our liberation.<\/p>\n

              \n
            1. Malcolm Wasn\u2019t Dangerous, and Martin Wasn\u2019t Soft<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              It frustrates me when I hear Black people compare the two as if we\u2019re supposed to choose sides in a struggle that belongs to all of us<\/em>. Some will say Martin was too soft, too forgiving. Others will say Malcolm was too radical, too aggressive. But that comparison dishonors what they both gave. They were both sacrificial. Both purposeful. Both powerful. And both gave their lives for what they believed in.<\/p>\n

              Martin had love. Malcolm had fire. But they were fighting the same beast, just in different armor.
              \nMartin wasn\u2019t just talking about dreams, by the end, he was denouncing capitalism, war, and economic violence. That\u2019s why they killed him.
              \nMalcolm wasn\u2019t just talking about defense, he was building global solidarity and advocating for Black people\u2019s international human rights. That\u2019s why they killed him.<\/p>\n

              They weren\u2019t opposites, they were complementary forces in the same movement. The system feared them both, not because they were extreme, but because they were effective<\/em>. They were waking people up. And that\u2019s always dangerous to power.<\/p>\n

              Once we realize this truth, that the fight for liberation doesn\u2019t look one way, but is clothed in who we are, our unique purpose, our voice, our calling, then we stop criticizing and start contributing<\/em>. We each have the ability to make a Martin and Malcolm impact, right where we are.<\/p>\n

              There\u2019s no one right way to fight for freedom. But there is your<\/em> way. So bring it. The movement needs all of us.<\/p>\n

              Final Reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n

              These aren\u2019t just my truths. They\u2019re a call to remember who we are and how we got here. My Re-Education of Me<\/em> era has taught me that liberation starts when we stop accepting the world as it\u2019s been handed to us and start questioning everything.<\/p>\n

              Now it\u2019s time for the Re-Education of Us<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

              Let\u2019s revisit what we\u2019ve been taught. Let\u2019s disrupt what we\u2019ve been told is normal. Let\u2019s stop waiting for permission to do what we\u2019ve always been capable of. Whether your lane is education, art, policy, healing, organizing, parenting, or entrepreneurship, your clarity matters. Your unlearning matters. Your action matters.<\/p>\n

              We don\u2019t need to all think the same. But we do need to start thinking critically<\/em>. Because once you know, you\u2019re responsible. And once we<\/em> know? We\u2019re unstoppable!<\/p>\n

               <\/p>\n

               <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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