The betrayal is not subtle. It is loud in its quiet, glaring in its silence, and brutal in its indifference. The Black Press—born in chains in 1827 before slavery ended, built in blood, and sustained by courage—is gasping for air while those who could save it look the other way. These are not outsiders. They are our own. The rich and powerful among us who have traded solidarity for status, truth for comfort, and liberation for proximity to whiteness.
The Black Press is the backbone of our collective memory. It told our stories when no one else would, when white America painted our faces as criminals and our dreams as crimes. It printed Mamie Till’s anguish so the world could see her son’s mutilated body. It carried the words of Frederick Douglass and the defiance of Ida B. Wells. It stood with Martin Luther King Jr., reporting his sermons and his jailhouse letters when white editors called him a menace.
That same Black Press now struggles to survive while the billionaires it helped lift into the light sit in luxury, feeding the illusion that their comfort beside white power is safety.
Magic Johnson lounges on a $138 million yacht, surrounded by a world of white wealth. The same Magic Johnson who once symbolized Black excellence has turned his back on the institution that chronicled his rise. Meanwhile, Mark Cuban, a white billionaire with no stake in the struggle, did what Magic would not. He gave six figures to support the Black Press. Black billionaires, meanwhile, haven’t given six cents. That is what proximity to whiteness does, it kills the memory of where you came from.
Dr. Dre helped to write the soundtracks of our lives. His beats gave rhythm to resistance. But his billions went to USC, a white institution that built its prestige while keeping Black students at the margins. Not a single dollar went to a Historically Black College or University. Not one dime to the Black Press. His music screamed revolution; his money whispered obedience.
And yet, we acknowledge the truth, they have every right to do what they want with their money. No one questions that. But when the world is burning, and our people are being pushed back into the fields, we wish they’d remember from whence they came.
MacKenzie Scott, a white woman, has given more to Black America in one week than all of our Black billionaires combined have given in a decade. She’s donated hundreds of millions to HBCUs and Black nonprofits. Meanwhile, those who built their fortunes on the backs of Black culture, labor, and genius have built walls instead of bridges. They have mistaken assimilation for advancement.
Under Trump’s regime, more than 300,000 Black women have already lost their federal jobs—and the number is rising. Trump’s government shutdown caused millions of Americans to suffer for 40 days of hunger while he did not follow judges orders to restore SNAP, many of them Black. Healthcare for our elders has been gutted. WIC and Medicaid are under attack.
Trump’s inner circle—Stephen Miller, Russell Vought, Steve Bannon, and their MAGA faithful—openly promise to erase every gain made by Black Americans.They are not even hiding their racism anymore. This is not a political shift. It is an unmasking.