The Lie About Black Excellence 👎🏾

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Good morning, BFA Fam! Do you believe in ghosts? In South Carolina, many say the restless spirit of Willie Earle still haunts the old Pickens County Jail — now a museum — where he was dragged out by a white mob in 1947, brutally lynched, and denied justice when an all-white jury set his killers free. Paranormal investigators claim to hear his cries of innocence, keeping his story alive as both a haunting legend and a stark reminder of America’s racial past.

MAIN STORY

🔥 Black First, Excellent Always: Why the Order Matters

⚡ THE SPARK

“Be excellent first, then be Black.” That’s the viral clip from Ray Daniels at InvestFest, and it set social media on fire. A year earlier, Wallo267 made waves when he argued that blindly supporting Black businesses was just “finesse,” drawing sharp pushback from Marc Lamont Hill and Tariq Nasheed. And years before that, Forbes published an op-ed warning that our obsession with Black excellence was harming us. Different moments, same message: excellence, dollars, and humanity are only valid when detached from community. That’s not just wrong, it’s dangerous.

🧠 THE LAYER BELOW

• No other group is told to separate excellence from identity; only Black people are told, “don’t be a monolith.”

• Eastern European Jews don’t dilute their identity for Black Jews, and white finance bros don’t line up behind HBCU grads, so why are we asked to erase ourselves?

• The Black dollar only circulates for 6 hours in our communities, compared to 17–30 days in others; that’s the crisis, not our “excellence.”

• Wallo’s point about quality control has merit, but abandoning Black businesses outright is reckless when we’re fighting to build economic ecosystems.

• Forbes was right: the obsession with “Black excellence” creates pressure to overperform, punishes imperfection, and makes humanity conditional.

• An “average” Black person loyal to community strengthens us more than an “exceptional” one who reinvests nothing back.

• History proves progress comes from collective power, Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights, Black Wall Street, movements, not lone stars.

🎯 THE REAL QUESTION

If other groups protect their identity first, why should Black people ever be asked to put Blackness second in order to be considered “excellent”?

🔮 WHAT’S NEXT

It’s time to flip the order: Black first, excellent always. Because excellence without Blackness is just empty applause, and Blackness without community is powerless.

The real win isn’t proving ourselves to outsiders; it’s keeping our dollar alive longer, uplifting everyday people, and dropping the isolationist mindset that weakens us. No slogan, no performance, no single superstar can replace what we gain through unity.

Excellence isn’t what makes us worthy. Our allegiance to each other does.

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