I knew. And sadly I was right.
While most creators in my circle spent Q3 of 2024 positioning themselves for holiday campaigns, part of an annual cycle of freelance hiring that most of us can predict and rely on, I spent mine stressed af.
Because I knew our very own alleged rapist, hypercapitalist, styles-himself-as-a-populist-dictator presidential candidate was going to get re-elected.
And I knew what that would mean for me.
As a Black woman who talks politics publicly. As a contractor who still has to ask brand partners to remove language banning visible piercings and tattoos from their briefs, even after hiring me knowing damn well what I look like… and that’s before we even get to the vague “morality clauses” that companies use to back away from anything remotely real (read: scary). As a creator already subjected to racist and fatphobic violence online regularly.
Black influencers already face a significant pay gap compared to our white peers. I knew Trump’s re-election would mean a whole lot of racists feeling empowered, and a wave of social upheaval would land directly on us.
Sadly, I was right.
But I was also prepared.
I revamped my website and doubled down on LinkedIn to position myself as an expert, speaker, and host. I renegotiated my group trips so I could better control the sales and protect the sustainability of my business. I moved my newsletter to Substack. Yes, I lost half my paid subscribers, but I’m betting this platform gives me more freedom to grow long-term, away from the apps where attention spans shrink by the day.
And it’s why we opted to crowdfund Our Block.
Because we knew the so-called “racial reckoning” of 2020 was long gone (and performative af when it happened). We knew that Black would once again become a dirty word in Trump’s America. And we knew that meant Black stories, about food, travel, resilience, joy, and survival, would be even more vital.
And we’re just getting started. Take a look below at what we’ve been working on, a sneak peek from filming in Chicago and Oakland…
The battle for information is raging. It’s part of how authoritarian regimes operate. They seek to manipulate our understanding of history and of the present through control of the media, censorship, and a quiet dismantling of independent information sources… That’s why museum exhibits are being reviewed and a free press is under attack.
In this onslaught of truly scary news and a stripping of our basic rights, storytelling is one small thing I can do. My personal, regularized, ongoing resistance. That’s why I film.
And that’s why we (me and the Our Block team) are doubling down on telling these stories now, in this moment, against the tide.
This series isn’t just about restaurants or neighborhoods. It’s about who gets to shape our history? Who gets to tell the stories of our communities? What gets erased when the cameras never show up, or when the headlines always focus on crime instead of creativity, when our contributions are flattened or ignored?
If you’ve ever wanted to support Black storytelling that goes beyond hashtags, now is the time.
Every dollar given to Our Block keeps us independent, able to travel, film, and finish this series without bending to the morality clauses or watered-down “DEI” budgets of corporations who only want us when it’s convenient. If you’ve ever wanted to support Black storytelling that goes beyond hashtags, now is the time.