The Wrong Lesson to Take From an Acquittal Lil Durk was acquitted on September 11, 2026, of federal murder-for-hire, conspiracy, and stalking-related charges tied to a 2022 Los Angeles shooting. That means the government did not prove those charges beyond a reasonable doubt. But the lesson should not be that someone can simply outsmart federal
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A Mistrial, Not an Acquittal The Lindsay Clancy trial ended in a mistrial on September 4, 2026. Clancy admitted killing her three young children, but her defense argued that severe postpartum psychosis left her not criminally responsible. Eleven jurors agreed with that defense, while one juror, Michael Desronvil, believed the prosecution had proved criminal responsibility.
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We Were Capital Before We Were Capitalists Before Black people were allowed to participate fully in American capitalism, our labor was already helping build American wealth. Enslaved people were treated as property while producing value for others. That history makes today’s conversation about Black wealth more complicated than simply telling people to get rich. I
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A Number I Could Not Ignore I heard that 163 missing children had been recovered in Florida during a five-day operation, and the number stopped me. Operation Statewide Shield ran from August 17 through August 21, 2026, and involved children from two months to seventeen years old. Forty-six were recovered in the Tampa Bay area,
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The Map I Grew Up Looking At For most of my life, I looked at a world map without questioning how the world had been drawn. Then I learned that the familiar Mercator projection greatly distorts the relative size of land masses. Greenland can appear almost as large as Africa, even though Africa is about
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What Our Last Names Can Tell Us I came across a list of the most common Black last names in America, and naturally I looked for my own. The Census Bureau’s 2020 surname data, released in 2026, show how often names appear and how people carrying those names identified by race and Hispanic origin. A
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Two Different Pictures of the Same Economy President Trump has described the current economy as the strongest in American history, while Kroger says many customers remain under financial pressure. Those statements may sound contradictory, but both point to different parts of the economy. National growth can continue while millions of families struggle with groceries, fuel,
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The Industry Can Make You Famous Without Making You Free The music industry can make someone famous without giving that person full control over the business behind the fame. An artist may sell millions of records while important rights belong to a label, publisher, manager, or other company. Fans see the performer, but contracts may
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What We Choose to Protect Something troubles me about how easily we can criticize people who sacrificed for us while defending people who simply became successful among us. I am not saying all Black people think the same way, but I have heard people criticize Martin Luther King Jr. without hesitation while becoming defensive when
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The First Ten Thousand Changes Something I heard someone say that saving and investing your first $10,000 can be one of the most important financial milestones. Ten thousand dollars may not make you rich, but reaching it proves something important. You have learned how to keep part of what you earn instead of spending everything
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