Category: Power, Systems & Colonial Structures

The air in the United Nations General Assembly changed on March 25, 2026.

History was not just being read; it was being weighed.

A resolution passed declaring the transatlantic slave trade the "gravest crime against humanity."

The vote was 123 in favor.

The world, in an rare moment of collective clarity, looked at the scars of the past and called them by their true name.

But in the silence that followed the tally, three names stood out in the "No" column: the United States, Argentina, and Israel.

These three votes are not just diplomatic outliers.

They are windows into the soul of global power systems.

They are reminders that while the chains of the 19th century have been struck from the ankles, the mental architecture that justified them remains under heavy guard.

The Legal Ghost in the Machine

The United States representative offered an argument that felt less like a legal defense and more like a psychological barricade.

The argument was simple: reparations aren't a legal right because slavery wasn't "illegal" under international law at the time it occurred.

Think about that logic for a moment.

It is a logic that prioritizes the "legality" of the oppressor over the humanity of the oppressed.

It is a logic that suggests justice is a matter of paperwork rather than a matter of pulse.

This is the ultimate tool of colonial education systems.

When we are taught to respect the "rule of law" without questioning who wrote the law, we are being trained in the art of internalized colonialism.

We are taught to sanctify the structure even when the foundation is built on bone.

To say that a crime against humanity is not a crime because the criminals wrote the statutes is to live in a state of perpetual mental occupation.

It is a refusal to decolonize the mind.

The 1804 Lens: The Haitian Paradox

To understand the weight of this UN vote, we have to look through the lens of 1804.

Haiti didn't wait for a UN resolution.

Haiti took its liberty by force, shattering the myth of white supremacy and colonial invincibility.

But the global power systems of the time could not allow that spark to become a sun.

In 1825, France returned to the shores of the first Black Republic: not with soldiers, but with a bill.

An indemnity of 150 million francs.

France demanded Haiti pay for its own liberation.

They billed the formerly enslaved for the "loss of property": that property being their own bodies.

This is the historical irony that haunts the modern reparations debate.

Haiti was forced to pay reparations to its oppressors.

This was the original "historical wrong" that turned into a modern mental chain.

It was a systematic attempt to ensure that a liberated people remained economically and psychologically tethered to their former masters.

When we talk about the decolonization meaning today, we are talking about unravelling this specific type of knot.

We are talking about the courage to say that the debt was never ours to pay.

The Spirits Are Listening

Esther Philips once noted that the spirits of the victims are listening for justice.

They are not listening for a bank transfer alone.

They are listening for the truth.

Justice is not merely a financial transaction; it is a narrative reclamation.

When 123 countries vote to recognize the gravity of the crime, they are participating in a global exorcism.

They are attempting to pull the colonial mentality out of the modern political fabric.

But the "No" votes tell a different story.

They tell a story of inherited narratives.

They tell a story of a power structure that is afraid of what happens when the truth is finally reconciled with the ledger.

If the United States admits that reparations are a legal right, it admits that the entire American experiment is built on a fractured moral ground.

It admits that the wealth of the present is a direct descendant of the theft of the past.

Healing Is Not a Settlement

We often hear that reparations will "bankrupt" the nation.

We hear that we shouldn't be "punished" for the sins of our grandfathers.

But this framing is a trap.

It is designed to make the victim feel like the aggressor.

It is designed to make the call for justice feel like an act of vengeance.

In my work, specifically in Alike Regardless: This Is Where It Began, I explore how these systemic traumas are passed down through generations.

We don't just inherit eye color or height.

We inherit the psychological debris of our ancestors' survival.

We inherit the colonial mentality that tells us our worth is tied to our utility within a global power system.

To decolonize your mind is to recognize that the push for reparations is a push for mental health.

It is a push for a world where our identity is no longer defined by the trauma we have endured, but by the agency we have reclaimed.

The Power of the "No"

Why does Argentina vote no?

Why does a nation with its own complex history of racial erasure choose to stand with the status quo?

Because the colonial mentality is a global contagion.

It is not a skin color.

It is not a passport.

It is a way of seeing the world that prioritizes order over equity.

It is a system that would rather maintain a comfortable lie than face an uncomfortable truth.

When we see these votes, we are seeing the "No" of a system that is fighting for its life.

The global financial architecture: from the UN Security Council to the IMF: is designed to keep the power exactly where it has been since the 19th century.

The UN resolution calls for African countries to have ownership over their own natural resources.

It calls for equal participation in global finance.

These are not just economic demands.

They are declarations of independence from a mental state of subservience.

Moving Toward the Light

The decolonization of the mind is a journey from the "No" to the "Yes."

The "Yes" to our own history.

The "Yes" to our own value.

The "Yes" to a future where justice is not a legal loophole but a human right.

We must stop asking permission to be whole.

The 123 countries that voted "Yes" are a sign that the tide is turning.

The mental chains are rusting.

The world is beginning to realize that you cannot build a sustainable future on a foundation of denied crimes.

If you are looking for a way to start this journey within yourself, I invite you to read Alike Regardless: This Is Where It Began.

It is a roadmap for understanding how we got here: and how we can finally leave the colonial mindset behind.

The spirits are listening.

The world is watching.

The question is: will you have the courage to vote "Yes" for your own liberation?

The courage to unlearn.

The courage to remember.

The courage to be free.

The vote at the UN was a beginning, not an end.

It was a mirror held up to the face of the world.

Some looked and saw the need for change.

Others looked and turned away.

But the mirror remains.

And the truth it reflects is not going anywhere.

Decolonize your mind.

The debt is recognized.

The healing has begun.