February 27, 2026

Recently, I came across a comment on a recent essay that I read on Substack: 

“Excellent article… Black achievement in America is astonishing… But then there is the flip side. Violence, crime, certain behavior that offends non-blacks. I believe the answers must come from within the Black community.” 

The first half of this comment acknowledges Black brilliance. The second half immediately pivots, pathologizes behavior, and places responsibility squarely on the Black community, all while the observer remains removed. That combination — conditional praise paired with delegated accountability — is exactly the pattern this essay seeks to examine. It’s not an isolated observation; it is a sentiment that has endured across generations, quietly persistent, quietly protective of the social hierarchy.

And frankly, it rubs me the wrong way that this sentiment still exists. It’s 2026 for goodness sake!

***

The comment can be unpacked into four distinct but interrelated components. First, there is acknowledgment of achievement — a recognition of Black excellence in arts, intellect, and leadership. Second, there is an immediate pivot to critique — the “flip side” that pathologizes certain behaviors and reduces complex realities to moral failings. Third, there is delegation of responsibility — the insistence that solutions must come from within the Black community, effectively absolving the observer of any accountability for the social conditions that produce those behaviors. Finally, there is preservation of distance — a polite removal from the consequences of the inequities being discussed. Together, these elements reveal a consistent pattern: admiration is conditional, critique is assumed, and burden is outsourced. It is a microcosm of the persistent social dynamic this essay examines.

***

This combination of conditional praise, critique, and outsourced responsibility is not new. It echoes historical patterns spanning generations: from Reconstruction, where Black success was simultaneously celebrated and surveilled; through Jim Crow, where Black achievement was framed as exceptional but not enough to challenge systemic barriers; into the Civil Rights era, where accomplishments were often acknowledged while behaviors and protest methods were policed; and into the post–Civil Rights and contemporary periods, where admiration of Black cultural and professional excellence coexists with scrutiny of behaviors and the expectation that Black communities solve structural inequities on their own. The comment cited at the beginning is simply the latest iteration of a persistent social script — one that rewards brilliance in theory, but maintains control by delegating moral and structural labor to those who have historically carried the heaviest burdens.

***

Ten years after the original Racism Is a Sickness project, the reboot began as an effort to revisit, document, and reflect on the ongoing patterns of racial inequity. In tracking events from 2016 through 2025, it became clear that while certain milestones — activism, visibility, policy discussions — offered moments of hope, the underlying sentiment expressed in comments like the one above remained unchanged. Admiration without accountability, praise paired with critique, and the expectation that Black communities carry the labor of repair are persistent dynamics. The reboot of the project is not about rehashing events or critiquing Black responses. It is about holding a mirror to these enduring attitudes, making visible the ways they continue to shape dialogue, interaction, and perception, and underscoring why documenting them remains urgent work.

***

The comment that opened this essay is not an anomaly. It is a reflection of a persistent social dynamic: the simultaneous admiration and policing of Black life, paired with the delegation of responsibility for change. Decades of documentation, activism, and reflection reveal that this sentiment has endured, quietly shaping dialogue and interaction. Conditional praise may appear benign, but it maintains boundaries of power and absolves those in positions of privilege from confronting structural inequities. By examining these patterns through the lens of this project, we see that progress is not only about legislation or visibility, but also about challenging the subtle, enduring attitudes that allow inequity to persist. Recognizing these patterns is essential to understand the depth of the work required to confront a society that admires (and sometimes exploits or disrupts) brilliance, yet resists accountability.