Beginning…again (i left substack)
February 16, 2026There’s a 1978 ‘A Day with Toni Morrison’ Interview where Morrison she says,
“I think that freedom ideally is being able to choose your responsibilities. Not, not having any responsibilities, but being able to choose which things you want to be responsible for.”
I choose to be responsible for myself, my choices, my actions, inactions, my words, my awareness, and my commitment to seeing the truth of the way things are, and the affect of these ways. Not just in the ways the truth, and the ways, affect me but the ways in which they affect this earth, life and lives beyond my own and immediate family, friends, community, and loved ones.
This freedom, this responsibility is a hefty weight. A heavy that words will never be able to fully express or describe, but I continue to try…try to hold the words and the weight with tenderness, grace, consideration and care.
Last week, a friend shared a 2023 interview with Substack’s CEO, Chris Best.This interview, in my opinion, was not his best but it was revealing, and maybe this is a kind of “best”. I won’t rehash the interview, and do hope that you watch it for yourself, but in essence, Best stated that, in reference to Substack notes, censorship would not be extended to hate speech. The speech that was provided as an example for Best to react to was, “All brown people are animals and shouldn’t be allowed in america”...
The interview goes deeper and illuminates my own lived experience of the status quo since this country’s founding, when hate - in action, in speech, in politics, in education, in law etc. - is unacceptable ONLY when it is directed toward those which society has indoctrinated us to believe are to forever be protected from it, but have full carte blanche to be the orchestrators and administers of it. This group of administers and orchestrators is primarily made up of those who hold the same ideologies of this country’s founding members. Ideologies of -isms rooted in white supremacy - colonialism, racism, sexism, capitalism. Because these isms are so purposely and intricately woven into the fabric of this country, and society, it is nearly impossible to find any corporate entity that doesn’t, on some level, embody and perpetuate these ideological beliefs. Regardless, I believe deeply that the continued embedding of these -isms is a choice and I am trying with all my might to do one of two things with my choice:
Divest and untether, not just from platforms, brands, corporations, entities, environments and systems which reinforce and uphold these isms, but I am trying to untether from all the ways in which these isms exist within my own thoughts, perceptions and perspective, because another truth is that, “problematic”, and paradox, exists everywhere, including within myself.
Speak up, call in (or out), petition, and work from within the platforms, brands, corporations, entities, etc. in attempt to see if change is possible.
In this case, I’m choosing the responsibility of option 1.
Is choosing this responsibility, not just in this case but in life overall, hard…as fuck?
Yes.
Does choosing this responsibility require deep consideration and more sacrifice and risk than I was, and still often am, prepared for?
Yes.
Are risk and sacrifice necessary to creating pathways for futures within which we (I) can be more well and whole; futures that don’t mirror the tyranny, brutality, subjugation, repression, and the list goes on, of the present, or past?
Yes.
Does the “future” include the next moment, minute, hour, day, tomorrow, next week, next year?
Yes.
To put things plainly, I am saddened by how shitty, hateful and violent the minds of the majority of those in “power” are. But we (I) are in power too. To believe otherwise would be detrimental to faiths, trusts, hopes, consciousness, creativity, imagination, and agency.
Agency is in large part what all of this - what is happening within us, outside of us, around us, locally, domestically, and aboard - is really all about, because if we who have rights and freedoms, access and power, are not using the agency these rights, freedom, access, power, and privilege, afford us, then what is all this right and freedom for?
Recently I had the opportunity to attend a screening of the 2024 documentary film, Sudan, Remember Us. At one point in the film, one of the young Sudanese activists says,
“My rights are worth nothing if you have none.”
Thank you for investing your time and attention here.