For decades—no, generations—Black people have been having the same conversations in new clothes. Buy Black. Build power. Control our schools. Create our own institutions. Pool our money. Protect our children. We’ve held conferences, panels, Zoom meetings, summits, prayer breakfasts, Twitter conferences, and emergency meetings to discuss what we need to do and what we’re going to do.
And then, like clockwork, we drift back into believing in and falling for the warm lie of “full acceptance” into American society. A lie this country has never fulfilled and is now openly abandoning.
In 2026, the talking phase is over. As the older Blackfolk used to say, it’s time to sh*t or get off the pot.
That saying isn’t crude, it’s precise. It means to act or accept your fate. Move or be moved. Decide or be decided for. Take care of your business, or someone who has no business in your business will take care of your business.
And make no mistake: this society is deciding against us in real time.
Donald Trump referred to African nations as “shithole countries.” He told Black Americans, “What do you have to lose?” He labeled Black Lives Matter a “symbol of hate.” MAGA-aligned lawmakers have openly attacked Black history, calling it “divisive,” “anti-American,” and “indoctrination.” Project 2025 architects have kept their promise to dismantle DEI programs, defund civil rights enforcement, and purge what they call “woke ideology” from government, education, and culture—code words we now fully understand to mean us.
One Project 2025 contributor said the goal is to “burn the system to the ground and rebuild it in our image.” Their image does not include Black autonomy, Black truth, or Black presence beyond those of “us” who are overly comfortable with “skinnin’ & grinnin’.”
And now word is circulating about the next anti-Black, anti-democracy assault that they’re calling “Project 2025 on steroids.” Whatever the final name, the direction is clear: erasure, rollback, and retribution for the “sin” of being Black.
At this point, anyone still confused is choosing confusion.
History teaches us that Black people have faced moments like this before and survived by choosing action.
When enslaved Africans in Brazil escaped and built the Quilombos, they didn’t wait for permission. They created sovereignty in hostile territory. When Maroon communities formed across Jamaica, Suriname, Florida, and the Caribbean, they chose self-defense, self-governance, and collective survival. These were not symbolic protests. They were functional alternatives.
When Booker T. Washington founded Tuskegee Institute, he didn’t wait for white benevolence to educate Black farmers, builders, and thinkers. When Mary McLeod Bethune built Bethune-Cookman with $1.50 and faith, she wasn’t begging for access—she was constructing destiny.
When Black communities established Black Wall Streets, from Tulsa to Durham to Houston, they understood economic power as a form of protection. And when Blackfolk in 1960s Louisiana had had enough of white domestic terrorism, they flexed their God-given agency. They created the Deacons for Defense… sisters and brothers with guns willing to defend their people and communities with force, if necessary.
More recently, we’ve seen flashes of this spirit: cooperative economics during COVID, mutual aid networks, independent schools, land trusts, and digital media platforms that bypass hostile gatekeepers. The problem isn’t imagination. The problem is follow-through at scale.
We cannot out-talk white supremacy. We cannot panel-discuss fascism. We cannot hashtag our way into safety.
This new year, 2026, demands a decision.
Either we build parallel systems with seriousness and sacrifice, or we accept permanent “underclass” status and stop pretending otherwise.
So, what does “sh*t or get off the pot” actually look like?
To-do list for Black people and Black organizations
- Consolidate, not compete. Stop creating five organizations to do the work of one. Merge resources. Share leadership. Think ecosystem, not ego.
- Control education. Support independent Black schools, homeschooling networks, Freedom schools, and curriculum development rooted in truth and self-worth.
- Pool capital intentionally. Cooperative buying, land trusts, credit unions, and investment circles must move from theory to mass participation.
- Anchor locally. Power is built block by block, placing housing, food, safety, and culture under community control.
- Train for governance. Not just protest—policy literacy, budgeting, and institution management.
- Protect culture aggressively. Media, archives, history, and storytelling must be owned and defended.
- Commit for the long haul. This is not a Popeye’s Chicken “sammich” craze today, forgotten tomorrow. It’s a generational assignment.
There is no third option. No savior election. No magical inclusion. In 2026 and beyond, Blackfolk must sh*t—or get off the pot. And to this point, the question posed decades ago by The Last Poets is quite relevant: “Black people, what’chal gon do?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzjt1GIzUR0
