Michael Harriot on Unwhitewashing American History

In this enlightening and deeply historical episode, award-winning journalist and "Black Twitter Founding Father" Michael Harriot joins to dismantle the myths of the American narrative. Known for his sharp wit and "receipts," Harriot explains why true history is often hidden and how his book, Black AF History: The Unwhitewashed Story of America, serves as a vital syllabus for reclaiming the Black experience.

This conversation is a masterclass in cultural preservation and historical truth-telling. Harriot recounts his journey from a homeschooled "Black genius" to a New York Times bestselling author, exploring the "inventive cruelty" of the past and the undeniable brilliance that allowed Black Americans to build a nation from their own intellectual property. From the cannibalism of the first starving settlers to the Black women who masterminded the Civil Rights movement, Harriot centers the stories that have been erased by centuries of whitewashing.

They discuss:

•The Foundation of Lies: Why the first step to understanding history is acknowledging that "they be lying" and the organized effort to rewrite the Civil War through the Daughters of the Confederacy.

•The Architect of Education: How Black people in 1868 South Carolina invented the American public education system as we know it today.

•Haiti and Global Collusion: A deep dive into the Haitian Revolution and how the Western world collaborated to keep the first free Black nation in a cycle of debt and poverty.

•Resistance as a Blueprint: The legend of Forest Joe and the "maroon" communities that forced America to create its first police forces.

•Freeing Themselves: Deconstructing the myth of the "Great Emancipator" and proving that Black people—not Abraham Lincoln—were the primary agents of their own freedom.

•Intellectual Property vs. Physical Labor: Why the transatlantic slave trade targeted African minds and engineers, not just muscle, and how that genius built everything from the US Capitol to the cowboy culture.

•The Wealth of Black Culture: The difference between "mainstream famous" and "Black famous," and why the community’s connection to its own history is its greatest form of wealth.

0:00 – 1:30 | The Core Truth

4:02 – 7:22 | Protecting Black Genius

13:18 – 15:05 | Forest Joe & The Police

15:06 – 19:10 | The Sabotage of Haiti

27:19 – 30:19 | Rewriting the Playbook

34:41 – 41:14 | The Power of Black Women

41:15 – 46:02 | Deconstructing the Lincoln Myth

46:03 – 52:41 | Cannibals & Intellectual Property

52:42 – 1:00:40 | Architects of Democracy

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