How to Make it Through Black History Month
Here's a summary of what you missed last week on ContrabandCamp and a preview of what's to come.
First, I should apologize for our blatant cultural appropriation.
When we named this collective of journalists, writers and storytellers after the communities built by self-emancipated Black Americans, we had no idea that Donald Trump was also building a contraband camp. How could we have anticipated authoritarian legislation would target lawmakers who object to their constituents being rounded up and thrown into detention centers? We registered this URL months before America’s new fuhrer announced his plans to make concentration camps great again. We didn’t know that equality, history, and the un-whitewashed truth would officially be declared “contraband.”
Last week, when Monique Judge explained why Trump is blaming Black people for everything from airplane crashes to federal overspending last week, she had no idea that she was embarking on a ‘forbidden” topic. Michael Harriot didn’t know he was prohibited from revealing how anything having to do with justice and equality became “DEI.” Zack Linly knew the phrase “white people” was considered a slur, but he had no idea that talking about the civil whites movement was illegal. At least we know who to call when they lock up Elie Mystal for trafficking CRT on Elon Musk’s internet.
Fortunately, Donald Trump has graciously granted us an exception that allows us to participate in Black History Month (unless, of course, you’re one of 2.4 million federal workers or agree with cancel culture advocate Jason Whitlock). But until we’re tossed into Amazon vans for 2-day Prime delivery to the Facebook Jail reeducation camp, we promise to bring you the stories that illustrate Black America’s sobering past, present and future, including:
The 2025 Wypipo Awards: A celebration of white excellence.
How It Started/How It’s Going: A series detailing the Black origins of many parts of American culture.
No Rest for the Weary: A conversation with LaTosha Brown about how to resist exhaustion while resisting.
While ContrabandCamp is dedicated to unapologetic truth-telling from a Black perspective, we also want this to be a place of refuge, joy and appreciation. So support our mission by subscribing, sharing, and telling your own story. After all, this month marks America’s greatest achievement:
We somehow managed to survive 2,982 consecutive white history months.
We’ll see you in camp.
In 1493, Columbus arrived in the West Indies. Needles to say it didn’t work out to well for the indigenous Arawaks, Caribs, and Tainos. However, Fr. Bartolomé de las Casas advocated for the indigenous but, as an unforeseen circumstance, ended up promoting black slavery.
Insofar as invasive species go, we see examples in Asian Carp, Snakehead fish, Lionfish, etc that wreak havoc when introduced into an environment where they are not naturally from.
As I ride the ferry from St Thomas to St John in the US Virgin Islands, 99% of passengers are white people. Being a tourist-based economy, this is the financial lifeblood of these territories. Because of this, everything is ridiculously expensive.
One of the continued nuances of most white people I meet here is the disregard and dismissal of people who have been here for generations and tend to be black or more melanated. They are not flat out mean but seem to consider the residents as nuisances who interfere with the vision of America’s Paradise.
It seems that the original invasive species are white people. The genocides, colonization, environmental destruction, and imposition of a capitalist system appears to have had what is probably the most negatively impactful effect in human history. We now see a presidential administration that seems hell bent on causing more issues.
But tell me once again, how DEI is the worst thing to have ever happened…
Yes Ms. Brown, we have to BUILD and who knows more about building something out of nothing than Black people?