What Now, Amanda Seales?

Black radicals like Amanda Seales spend too much time self-promoting via endless gnashing of teeth; They allow the immediate concerns of poor Black people to wither at the wayside.

There's this boomer copy-pasta story that I enjoy, about elephants in captivity, and I think it is especially pertinent to Amanda Seales' recent debate on Jubilee:

The Elephant and the Rope

As my friend was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from the ropes they were tied to but for some reason, they did not. My friend saw a trainer nearby and asked why these beautiful, magnificent animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away.

"Well," he said, "when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size of rope to tie them and, at that age, it's enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free." My friend was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn't, they were stuck right where they were.

This metaphor captures something essential about Amanda Seales' recent Jubilee debate that transcends the typical left-right discourse on Black American issues.

The Debate

Jubilee has done a few of these videos where they'll have one master debater (lulz) and a group of random people with opposing views. Typically, the main debater is better at articulating their arguments because it's their profession, but occasionally, you'll get some gem moments like Jordan Peterson, who has become a full caricature of his former self, yelling at 19-year-olds.

Typically, it's hard for the episode to stay on one topic as people often kitchen sink it, which is also great for Jubilee's views.

To concisely summarize Amanda Seales' general argument of the video:

• There are historical and present systemic factors that impact the Black American community in a dire way

• Much of the violence and trauma may be explained by systemic or historic injustices

At its core, her arguments aren't incorrect. In fact, I was disappointed that many conservatives regurgitated the same mid Thomas Sowell talking points and couldn't reach this basic conclusion. Enslavement and mistreatment have been the status quo for much of human history, but we don't have firsthand accounts of what happened in Rome a century or two after various groups were enslaved by the Romans. We have little idea how it impacted their family structures, cultures, livelihoods, and place in the wider society. I believe that the long-term impacts of social death should not be taken lightly.

I also understand Amanda's perspective while taking issue with many of her solutions. My family is pretty politically radical and sent me to an Afrocentric elementary school. In 1st grade, I was shown a vividly illustrated image of a scalped Native American man on Thanksgiving to learn about the perils of colonialism. This was contrasted to mainstream Black American Midwestern culture, which is incredibly conservative; much of my extended family voted for Reagan, and many voted for George W. Bush. Twice.

None of the ideas presented in this video, on either side, were new to me, and I have spent the majority of my life thinking about them and refining my opinions on them as I gain knowledge and experience.

My background is also why I’m critical of Amanda and many members of the Black intelligentsia, as they do not seem to give much of any proposal on what to do besides yelling about grievances. It is self-promotion via endless gnashing of teeth with the immediate concerns of poor Black people laid to wither at the wayside! Redlining is an abstract idea when your kid or family is under an endemic threat of violence.

There was a part of the debate where a young woman from the south side of Chicago mentioned having people close to them die as a result of gun violence by people within their community. Amanda attempted to push back by saying "violence happens intracommunally" without acknowledging that, per capita, Black young people are far more likely to be victims of homicide at disproportionate rates. Amanda knows this, so her attempt to explain it away by using proximity felt disingenuous. The young woman even mentions this to her, and she retorted back to "This is a result of slavery and institutional violence."

A few years ago, my cousin, who had just finished law school, went to a bar with her boyfriend to celebrate her new job at a law firm. She was shot and murdered by a stray bullet because two strangers got into an argument. These stories are a dime a dozen, and it's unfortunate that the privileged members of the Black intelligentsia, like Amanda, who don't have to consider this violence.

Yes, this country had a race-based caste system for much of its history. Black Americans still feel widespread psychological trauma, cultural disruption, and general imbalance because of this, AND we have so much more agency than our ancestors could dream of! Instead of giving history lessons and finger-wagging, she would better reach people by offering solutions that aren’t pie-in-the-sky reparations, which are both unpopular and politically unfeasible.

Tone and General Optics

I wrote a comment on X about Amanda's tone, and I'd like to clarify these points:

1. There are cultural differences in communication. I don't actually think she's that "angry," and if you see the episode in its entirety, plenty of people in the clip are also just as animated as she is. I didn’t take this as arguing, but many Black people get excited when talking.
   

2. With that said, certainly Amanda understands that this vibrant expression is not allowing her arguments to be heard by the general public. Especially as a woman.
   

A few years ago, when advising me about professional matters, my father told me, "No matter what, never show emotion around them."

This advice probably sounds extreme, but it's fair. We are an expressive people, and our emotions and expressions may seem disproportionately large to others. I am not condemning this matter on a personal preference. In fact, I believe that the traditionally Western Protestant-ish attitude towards completely suppressing emotions in conversation is pathologically odd and possibly unhealthy in other ways. However, I think from a politically strategic perspective, the approach that she is taking limits her effectiveness.

Another clip making the rounds on social media is Seales pointing her finger at and scolding a young Black man, claiming that he ought to have more respect and treat her like his mama. Again, this is another cultural aspect that I personally dislike, but I understand the context a bit better.

In Western society, this comes across as incredibly emasculating (although she would have done it to a young woman, tbh), and not great practice for a debate, but it wasn’t really that shocking to me.

Side note: Here’s a video that made the rounds on Black Twitter a few years ago, where Maya Angelou scolded a young woman for calling her by her first name.

AGENCY

So, back to the elephant metaphor. I feel for Amanda and many Black intelligentsia because I understand their grievances. Residual communal trauma is absolutely real, and the psychological impact runs deep. But the metaphor captures something important: the gap between perceived limitations and actual possibilities.

Amanda Seales represents a particular strain of Black intellectual discourse that correctly diagnoses historical injustice but struggles to translate that diagnosis into an actionable strategy for people living with the daily consequences of that history. When someone mentions losing a family member to violence, responding with "slavery" isn't intellectually wrong, but it's strategically and emotionally inadequate.

The challenge isn't choosing between acknowledging systemic oppression and embracing individual agency: it's learning to hold both truths simultaneously. I don’t understand what good can come of continuing to tell Black Americans that we are victims. Things certainly are not perfect, but we have more power, collectively and individually, to break free than we sometimes realize.