Breaking the Chains of “Excellence”: A New Lens on Black Success

In this powerful reflection, Brother ha2tim challenges the mainstream narrative of "Black Excellence" and asks: are we chasing success, or simply reinforcing the systems designed to contain us? Drawing from personal experience and historical insight, this short episode invites listeners to rethink what liberation truly looks like—and whether we’re still living on a modern-day plantation. No frills, no thrills… just truth.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's get right into it. It's just brother how Tim
me the mic and my papers, the writing, and no frills,
no thrills, just the brother, how Tim. I am here
for you. Feel free to leave comments and I might
respond to him, might not anyway. Breaking the Chains of

(00:24):
Excellence a New Lens on Black Success. This is something
I think we really needed to look at, and I
did a little article about it. You could read it,
go to my blog. But if you don't want to
read and you just want to hear it, maybe get
some side commentary. Maybe not here you go. Breaking the
Chains of Excellence A New Lens on Black Success. I
had an epiphany today. Well it's been creeping up on

(00:48):
me for a while, but today it finally hit me
in full force. And before I go any further, let
me say this. This is more of a message to
me myself. I'm not trying to offend anyone or shake
anybody up too much, but sometimes we have to be
real with ourselves before we can be real with the world. Lately,

(01:14):
I've been digging into some serious research looking at the
gaps in my education, specifically specifically around my efficentric education.
And when I say gaps, I mean big ass holes.
I mean areas that were straight up and the bleacted
or maybe even hijacked, I don't know. We talk a

(01:37):
lot about history, but what about the deeper political economic
structures that shape our people, What systems that we use
before we were forced into the ones we operate under today.
As I started peeling back the layers, I realized that
what we've been having is the wrong conversation. We talk

(02:01):
about white supremacy, but we don't always dig into the
soil that it grows from. The soil is a mixture
of politics, economics, and of course capitalism, all feeding each other,
sustaining the very system we claim to be fighting against.

(02:23):
Now Here is where it gets uncomfortable. For years, working
in schools and nonprofit spaces, I've been part of the
push for black excellence. Is everywhere we push our kids
to reach for high expectations. We structure our organization around

(02:45):
ideas of success that miridor system we were forced into.
But the more I look at it, the more I
have to ask, where does this idea of excellence come from?
While back I read, or rather listened to, you know,
because I'm an audible dude, audible view out there. You

(03:05):
want to sponsor us over here, and you know, I
greatly appreciate it. The hals the have have never been told.
That's one of the books I got, and one part
stuck with me. The book described how plantations were managed,
how enslaved people weren't seen as people, as humans, but

(03:26):
as hands. That's right, hands. The term wasn't just symbolic,
it was literal. How many hands that the master have,
how many bodies could be trained, molded, and conditioned to
meet his high expectation his idea of excellence. Sound familiar. See,

(03:52):
capitalism was never about fairness. It evolved from feudalism and
its battery. The thing that keeps it's charge, to keep
it charged is cheap labor. The cheaper the better. The
ultimate form of cheap labor. Guess what it is, that's right, slavery.

(04:13):
And even when slavery was abolished, the system of control
and managements that were perfected on the plantation never went away.
They were just repackaged. And here's the kicker. Many of
the management techniques and educational models were the very foundation

(04:35):
for the same ones that we use today. They were
developed during slavery. That means, even when we think we're
pushing for our own excellence, we may be reinforcing the
same system that we were broken with, or that was

(04:55):
built to break us. The realization hit me hard when
I tell my children I have high expectations for you.
Y'all know that conversation. What am I really saying? Is
it the same thing my ancestors meant when they spoke
about excellence? Or have I internalized a definition of success

(05:18):
that was never ours to begin with? The problem is
that some of the things we strive for, some of
the success markers we chase, aren't leading us deliberation. They're
just making us more efficient workers for a system that
was never meant to serve us. The plantation was just

(05:39):
The plantation has just been remodeled and we've been given
slightly better conditions, but the same chains remain. I don't
have all the answers, but I do know this. We
need to rethink the way we define success. We need
to ask deeper questions about the systems we uphold even
when we think we're moving forward, because if we don't,

(06:03):
we might just find ourselves in a fancier version of
the same trap. That's just some food for thought. This
is brother Tim No frills, no thrills, just me, the
mic and you, thank you for listening. I'm out.