They have always said the quiet parts out loud and we have always responded. The project of white nationalism has been to create a white ethnostate that subjugates others to the will and desires of those who believe themselves to be white. It has used Christianity, violence, the law, and capitalism to execute the plan. Despite the prowess of this endeavor those of us who have been marginalized and oppressed have always resisted, fought back, and more importantly thrived.

From the genocide of Native Americans to the forced enslavement of Black people, to the violence of the Post-Reconstruction era, the disenfranchisement of Jim Crow, the internment of Japanese Americans, the malevolence of the war on drugs and mass incarceration, and the assault on women’s reproductive freedom, to the paramilitary occupation of our nation’s cities, there has always been a revolutionary spirit that has responded to the overreach and harm of empire and colonialism. We now find ourselves at another junction in this nation’s existence where the organized and individual acts of liberation are critical to defeating what in no uncertain terms is a clear and present danger. The question for us is how we respond.

The rhetoric coming from the highest office in America and the administration’s embrace of white supremacist iconography and language may be jarring to many of us. It’s as if they are saying the quiet parts out loud. Saying the things that many of us believe have been the true feelings and motivations of those in power to restore the country to a romanticized state of glory that has never truly existed and certainly could not come close to existing without the presence, contributions and sacrifice of those not included in the vision. Black folks, queer folks, immigrants, poor people, Native, Latinx and other people of color, as well as the diversity of believers from a multitude of religions, none of whom were conceptualized in the image of American Progress, a painting by John Gast that portrays the belief of manifest destiny.

What has never been quiet is the use of racialized capitalism to drive a wedge between poor people, people of color and white people, insiders and outsiders, the haves and the have nots, while we continue to turn a blind eye to one of the sources of the malady that afflicts us. The unjustifiable accumulation of wealth by a few at the expense of the masses has easily been rebranded to draw the nation’s collective attention to the Black welfare queen who is draining the US economy. The reason you are struggling to find a job is because of the undocumented immigrants who are coming in and stealing those jobs. White and qualified Asian children cannot get into top tier colleges because unqualified and undeserving children of color are unfairly being admitted as a result of affirmative action. The Civil Rights Act was a bad thing because, “white people were very badly treated.” … Or so they would have you believe.

These faulty narratives deflect attention from who controls capital, policy, and labor conditions by redirecting resentment toward marginalized groups. Racial capitalism politicizes racial grievance, exploits economic anxiety, and makes civil rights and other equity initiatives the enemy while the structural drivers of inequity remain unchallenged and unchecked. It is difficult to navigate the deluge of assaults to our conscience, dignity and sense of self-worth. A seemingly unending barrage of indignities, geopolitical overreaches, and militarized power grabs keep us reeling and unable to regain our footing. All the while the unprecedented wealth hoarding of billionaires continues unmolested.

Our response must be intentional, unwavering and collaborative, lest we find ourselves forever on the losing end of this battle. In a report to the Southern Christian Leadership Council staff in 1967 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated “We must recognize that we can’t solve our problem now until there is a radical redistribution of economic and political power… this means a revolution of values and other things. We must see now that the evils of racism, economic exploitation and militarism are all tied together… you can’t really get rid of one without getting rid of the others… the whole structure of American life must be changed. America is a hypocritical nation and [we] must put [our] own house in order.”

In this political moment we must be clear in our understanding of the consolidation of wealth and political power that is intensifying under this administration. We cannot isolate ourselves by issue, group or grievance. The days of being single issue voters or identifying the things that separate us as opposed to the cause for solidarity are over. We cannot end racial inequality without confronting labor exploitation. We cannot end poverty while funding war, genocide and repression. We cannot claim justice while protecting markets that require inequality. “The evils of racism, economic exploitation and militarism are all tied together…”

What this moment demands is not moderation, politeness, or patience but a revolution of values that exposes and destroys the quiet part. Dr. King was clear: A society that worships profit while abandoning people, funds war while starving communities and criminalizes poverty while protecting obscene wealth has already declared its values. Yet, those pushed to the margins have endured, organized, built, loved, created, and thrived anyway. That survival, that brilliance, that refusal to disappear is itself an act of resistance.

A revolution of values begins by rejecting the normalization of cruelty and scarcity. It means refusing the lie that suffering is inevitable or that inequality is the cost of progress.

Racial capitalism survives by isolating us severing race from class, justice from economics, democracy from daily life. But marginalized communities have always known how to do the opposite: how to share resources when systems deny them, how to build power when institutions exclude them, how to imagine freedom even when surrounded by constraint. That is how we resist and thrive.

Defending democracy is not optional, it is survival. Democracy cannot coexist with voter suppression, political violence, or the consolidation of power in the hands of a wealthy few. It cannot endure when dissent is criminalized and whole communities are treated as disposable. To defend democracy is to protect the right to vote, organize, protest, and live without fear. It is to insist that governance serve the many, not the hoarders of capital. Marginalized people have defended democracy for generations even when it did not defend them back.

Demanding diversity is not about optics it is about power. Diversity without equity is decoration. Diversity without redistribution is theft. A nation built on stolen land and stolen labor does not get to pretend inclusion is charity. Demanding diversity means dismantling systems that ration opportunity by race, gender, citizenship, and zip code, and recognizing that the resilience and excellence of oppressed communities have always driven this country forward.

And defeating poverty is where the lie finally collapses. Poverty is engineered. It is maintained by low wages, disinvestment, and markets that require desperation to function. You cannot claim justice while defending those systems. You cannot claim freedom while millions live one crisis away from ruin.

This is the revolution of values King demanded: one that defends democracy, demands diversity, and defeats poverty not in spite of those who have survived oppression, but because of them. We have always done this out loud… and we will never be quiet.

Rahsaan D. Hall is President and CEO Urban League of Eastern