“Wild!” It’s the first word I uttered as I saw the morning news talk about us. Even though the anchors didn’t mention us by name, they were talking about “Mamdani influencers.” Intentional scare quotes.
Funny because a year ago, I wasn’t even sure of whether Internet visibility made sense to me anymore. I hadn’t received a check from my postdoc in months. The federal government had made it more perilous to invite folks like me, so the speaking engagements had almost vanished. I was in the liminal space between my dissertation and my math book manuscript. EduColor just got a huge grant in partnership with a great team, but other foundations closed their gates. I made public appearances and kept building on my cultural capital, but, yes, the math was not mathing.
Now, a year later, my face is in the Columbia Journalism Review, then the New York Post, then the New York Times. Not coincidentally, the morning news asked for transparency from us without asking us.
Surely, that’s their right, but as a veteran blogger, I’ve had a platform in which I could speak for myself. Those who work with me know transparency has never been an issue with me. But vulnerability and integrity take precedence over all else. I took a more satirical approach to the barrage of messages and articles about “us,” but I hope my writing moves the conversation forward and better. Neither the mayor nor his detractors worried me per se. To wit, many of his dissidents don’t need prompting to send me vitriol anyways.
I worried about you, folks who love and support me. What follows is part of how we got here and hopefully what comes next.
Subscribe to continue reading
Become a paid subscriber to get access to the rest of this post and other exclusive content.