beginning…again (i left substack).

February 16, 2026

In 1978 ‘A Day with Toni Morrison’ Interview, Morrison 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.”

In middle school. I was apart of an afterschool program called CHOICES funded by the YWCA. The tagline for the program was ‘The choices we make dictate the life we lead.’ These are words I’m coming back to as I reflect on this present choice.

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 affect these ways have on me but the ways in which they affect this earth, life and lives beyond my own, and immediate family, friends, community, and loved ones.

Freedom as a responsibility is a heavy weight. A heavy that words will never be able to fully express or describe, but I continue to try. I try to hold the weight responsibly, 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 here but do hope that you watch it for yourself. In essence, best states that, in reference to substack notes which launched in April 2023, 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”...

To date, substack continues to platform known white supremacist, misogynist, and violent sex offender figures (ie. richard spencer, patrick casey, andrew tate) who author and operate well monetized newsletters, some featuring “bestseller” badges (reference source: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/substack-extremism-nazi-white-supremacy-newsletters/676156/).

The interview with best goes deeper to illuminate the upholding of the lived experience of many wherein hate, in action, in speech, in “justice”, and law is acceptable when it is administered by those society has indoctrinated us to believe are to forever be protected from it, but have full carte blanche to be orchestrators and administers of it. This group who administers and orchestrates is primarily made up of individuals who hold the same ideologies as this country’s founding members. These ideologies are rooted in -ism which serve as foundational tools for white supremacy: colonialism, racism, sexism, capitalism. Because these -isms are so purposely and intricately woven into the fabric of this country, society, and systems, it is nearly impossible to find any platform or business entity that doesn’t, on some level, embody and perpetuate these ideological beliefs. Regardless, I believe deeply that the continued embedding, and embodying of these -isms is a choice and I am trying, with all my might to do one of two things with my choice:

(1) 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, beliefs, perceptions, and perspective. Because, another truth is that, “problematic”, and paradox, exists everywhere, including within oneself.

(2) Speak up, call out, petition, and work from within in attempt to see if change is possible.

In this case, and with this choice I’m choosing the responsibility of divesting and untethering.

Is choosing this responsibility, not just in this instance but in life overall, hard…as fuck? Yes.

Does choosing this responsibility require deep consideration and more sacrifice and risk than I am often prepared for? Yes.

Are risk and sacrifice necessary to creating pathways for futures within which we can be more well and whole; futures that don’t mirror the tyranny, brutality, subjugation, repression (and the list goes on) of the present, and past? Yes.

Does the “future” include the next moment, minute, hour, day, tomorrow, next week, next year? Yes.

To put it plainly, I am saddened, enraged and dismayed by how shitty, hateful and violent the minds of the majority of those in “power” are. But we are in power too. To believe otherwise would be detrimental to faiths, trusts, hopes, consciousness, creativity, imagination, and the freedom of our agency.

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.”

I am asking, and investigating, What are our rights worth?…

_

My name is Ẹniafẹ Isis Adewale. My work is feeling, my craft is writing and my practice is emotional alchemy.

Thank you for investing your time and attention here.

In gratitude,

eniafe isis