Did Integration Fail Black America? The Cost of Losing Our Community
How Desegregation Left Black People Spiritually Lost, Socially Isolated, and Searching for a Way Back to Each Other
Some of us are chasing the white man’s dream. Some of us are trying to wake up from it. Both are screaming for something we lost.
I open my phone to see a Black man in a suit dunking his face in water. He’s showing off that he is a well-put-together, rich individual through an Instagram reel dedicated to hustle culture. Nestlé has paid a popular influencer to promote their water through a series of reels where the fitness guru gives insights into his “morning routine”—one that supposedly made him so successful. And according to him, he couldn’t do it without his bougie water in a glass bottle.
I switch apps and open TikTok. SubwayTakes just dropped their latest interview, and a Black woman jokingly says that bringing segregation back wouldn’t be so bad—because Black people need Black spaces. Black places filled with Black faces.
Desegregation is the reason for both of these videos. Listen up and peep game.
What We Lost After Civil Rights
Black people post-civil rights era faced, well… a lot of issues. But the one I want to lock in on is how we had to integrate with white people.
We moved north in hopes of finding less racist pastures—only to discover a new flavor of racism. We sent our kids to white schools with white teachers who belittled them, called them dumb, and punished them for simply being Black. We bought homes in neighborhoods we were technically allowed to live in but were in no way welcome.
In trying to give our children better opportunities, we lost our community. And in losing our community, we started losing our Black souls.
Growing Up in White Spaces
As a Black kid who grew up with just one other Black kid in my grade, I know what it’s like to be ostracized. I had lighter skin than him, and I’m not even going to hold you—I was treated way better. But we both faced struggles.
We were asked why we weren’t naturally good at basketball. Why we acted white. Why our hair looked like that. Every corner of our childhood was trauma. Every space we entered, we were reminded we didn’t belong.
We were beat over the head with whiteness—told that our dreams, our goals, our aspirations had to look like theirs.
The White Dream Is a Trap
When I saw that man dunking his face in water, rubbing a banana peel on his skin, constantly working out, constantly in meetings—I saw a Black man chasing white dreams.
Chasing money and power isn’t a Black man’s dream—it’s a white man’s trap.
This is the fallout of desegregation: the gaze of the Black man shifted from his community, from the Black woman (or man), to the white man. We stopped measuring success by love, by family, by culture—and started chasing status, luxury, and submission.
But let’s be real: that’s not our dream. That’s their dream. A white supremacist fantasy where one man sits at the top of the ladder while the rest of the world scrambles beneath him—envious, desperate, trapped.
The whole system depends on keeping the ladder uneven. That’s why no matter how hard we climb, we’ll never reach the top—they aren’t making room. Not even for white women.
The real tragedy? We’ll never catch the white man’s dream, but we can spend our whole lives making ourselves miserable trying.
It’s time to stop dreaming white. To wake up and remember that our real dream has always been each other—beautiful, brilliant, Black.
Our true partners in this life, not competitors in a system that was never meant for us. Break out of the matrix of white supremacy. The only way forward is back to us.
Black Women Want Community, Not Segregation
Speaking of Black women—on SubwayTakes, the popular TikTok channel, a Black woman jokingly said her hot take was to bring segregation back.
Her reasoning? Knowing where you are not welcome and building Black spaces where everything is for us.
But the truth behind the joke is that she’s yearning for a strong Black community. A place that is more than just buying Black or having Black-owned businesses. She’s talking about something deeper.
A place where our kids are treated like the beautiful, bright minds that they are.
A place where we can express ourselves without being labeled less than for not conforming to whiteness.
A place where Black love and happiness thrive.
Her joke about segregation wasn’t really about the past—it was about the future.
A future where Black people are together again. Not just physically. Spiritually.
The Path Back to Us
These two social media videos, although very different in content, are connected. They expose the same wound.
Seventy years removed from the start of the civil rights movement, we are still searching for what was stolen from us: a strong Black community.
In real life. Online. Everywhere.
The need is real. The solution is right in front of us. There are countless Black-run social media accounts—often led by Black women—that highlight Black events in every city. (Personally, I check Black Events LA.) If you live in a place that doesn’t have that yet? Start one.
Throw block parties. Invite your neighbors. Create the community that white America won’t give us.
Because the truth is, we still have each other.
And if we don’t rebuild our own spaces? We’ll stay lost.
No amount of money, no white acceptance, and no seat at the table is going to save us.
