I keep seeing people mad at me about not letting my son dye his locks which confused me until I realized I cut my further explanation from this version. People who saw the Nebula version can verify that I explain that it isn't about his self expression it's about the police and how they view black boys. Just wanted to clarify that. All love yall.

“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.” - Dom Helder Camara

52:39 This was an 'aha moment' for me. "If white capitalism doesn't help poor white people. Why the hell would it help poor black people."

What you said about MLK reminds me of a Pat the Bunny lyric. "Malcolm X never lived to see the government fall, but the state he opposed made him a stamp. Maybe that's the best you can hope for if you never give up, your enemies will teach your corpse to dance."

For the record uncle Tom maintained his integrity and refused to betray other slaves even when it meant accepting beatings and ultimately death. I always wondered why people use uncle Tom as a derogatory term for an excessively subservient Black person.

The trick is, you gotta watch it in the first hour it’s uploaded so you see all of the stuff he’s gonna have to cut out after KZfaq demonetizes it

I was a History undergrad major at Bowie State during the early 2010s. I think one of the most eye-opening things I learned is that ultimately it wasn’t MLK’s efforts to help end segregation that got him killed, but his efforts to unite the American Working Class. Keep in mind he was in Memphis in solidarity with the Sanitation Workers Strike. It was ultimately his threat to Capitalism that got him assassinated.

It baffles me that people think Dr. King was a conservative. Our education system has failed us.

Thanks! Your videos are literally enriching my life. Growing up as a black man in the south in a white washed super right wing conservative and ultra religious household left literal psychological scars. Your videos are connecting dots for me and assisting with my self healing journey ✊🏿🥂

Dr. King himself said it best: *_"A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus."_*

i'm so glad the algorithm pushed your channel to my feed with the sports content overlap because everything you said here is absolutely correct. when people understand the US solely through race/racism instead of class/capital, their understanding and analysis falls apart when people like the Obamas, Oprah, Beyonce, Rihanna, etc., become "successful" - there's a distinct lack of critique of these figures because they "made it" EVEN THOUGH they benefit from the continued exploitation of the masses. subbed + looking forward to seeing your list

Your ability to convey radical ideas to an audience that might not be formally educated on politics is amazing.

One of the things that keeps me coming back to you is though I'm not black, but Asian American, our conservatives have the same survival strategy. Assimilate, mimic whiteness, and discard your roots. And ironically, the roots they do keep, reinforce the social conservatism from our communities in a manner that performs for white people- which I should add, this social conservatism in our cultures are largely a result of colonialism. Our struggles against bigotry are not quite the same, but our conservatives are disturbingly similar.

The brother doctor Cornell West said it best when speaking about the liberal tactic “Symbolic representation rather than fundamental transformation”

Bro I came back to this video just to enjoy this intro. Sets the MLK weekend off right for me 👍🏾

These video essays have a crazy amount of depth and research. I'm having to watch them multiple times. Damn.

I really love that this isn’t actually about Black Conservatives, but about the legacy of Black politics in the US. This was so refreshing.

As a white man who grew up in a tiny white SW VA town, I’m grateful for FD Signifier for continuing to destroy misperceptions even after I thought they had already been destroyed.

I hate how there arent any more youtubers like you. The conservative manipulation machine has obtained a hell of a grip online.

One of my favorite musicians had an opening line in one of his songs: "Malcolm X never lived to see the government fall But the state he opposed made him a stamp Maybe that's the best you can hope for if you never give up: Your enemies will teach your corpse to dance"

FD: "Black people just tryna mind they business" White conservatives: "Ah yes, so they're republican!" FD: "......."

48:00 she hit the nail right on the head as to why I started watching your channel. For the longest time my “political leanings/life outlook” was simply “I don’t bother anyone, I just want to be left alone” and at some point it occurred to me how many people aren‘t allowed the priviledge of being left alone.

I was a union organizer. Within my union, it was the Democrats/good Republicans/bad propaganda meme all the time. When I would explain King was a socialist and anti-imperialist to other staff and to members, it was always new information to them.

As a Puertorican who grew up with parents who understood the tyrannical ways of the American imperialism and racism, it would be amazing to have a conversation with you about the ways our cultural differences are extremely related.

I like this analogy: Democrats are like your sweet aunt that promises to take you to Disney World but then never takes you. Republican are like you're grumpy uncle that says he will never take you to Disney World but then you find out he went without you.

I'm a white French-Canadian from Québec and the revelation that MLK was not considered leftist in the US came as a complete shock to me. Thank you for your video.

I watched a documentary about the leaders of the Civil Rights movement on, like, Netflix or something a few years ago and it blew my mind to learn about the 5 years following the Dream speech. My K-12 education literally had me believing that he was assassinated *DURING* the speech. And, like you said, they taught that sh!t every single February. I even went to university from age 22 to 26 and majored in epidemiology in the mid 2010s. The curriculum format even used what I now understand to be, critical race theory (which changed my understanding of the world, but did not radicalize me nor make the brown half of me bigoted against white people... It did cause the white half of me to feel a lot of offense followed by guilt and shame tho). But somehow it still took a full decade of me exploring and learning on my own to learn that he wasn't m*rdered at the end of that damn speech. Man *WTF*?? That said, I did take Native American studies courses for those diversity requirements. Now I wish I had looked at a few different cultures, but I was drawn to the NAS courses due to my own heritage.

Of all reasons you listed that you could be considered socially conservative, the only actually conservative thing you do is not letting your son dye his hair, and even that is only for his safety. Being conservative isn't about your lifestyle. It's about forcing your lifestyle on others.

Glad you cleared up the difference between Liberals and Leftist they often get thrown into the same box when its not true at all.

I find the sanitization of Civil Rights figures interesting as an Indian person who grew up in America, because teachers went out of their way to mention how MLK’s tactics were inspired by Gandhi. As an adult I learned that neither were opposed to violence all of the time and about how MLK was more radical than I was taught, though I never knew he was not supposed to be at the March on Washington. I also learned some really horrific things about Gandhi as a person but that’s a separate issue.

Bless you from a 64yr old white guy… a first generation immigrant to the UK, able to hid in plain sight because of the colour of my skin. I want to thank you for fleshing out issues that as a dyed-in-the-wool socialist, I felt intuitively for decades. Never too old to learn or be educated. 🙏🙏🙏

As someone who is moderately informed when it comes to political history, you are doing an incredible job of revealing the nuance of historical figures' beliefs. Thanks for making sure that these trolls get at least a bit of our beliefs.

As a white dude that worked a lot of jobs with older Conservative white men, I can’t even tell you how many of these guys loved black Conservatives. They referred to them as “true Americans” or “one of the good ones”. It’s amazing what racists will say in private when they feel like they’re surrounded by like minded people. That’s my random rant. Excellent video!

One of the great things about "Abbott Elementary" is that it's been able to sneak these bits of knowledge into a mainstream popular sitcom. One recent episode had Mr. Hill's class talk about how Dr. King supported "Lefty" programs like Universal Basic Income, and had much more in common with Malcolm X than differences.

From my Brazilian perspective, it always amazes me to see how tough it is for Americans, specially when coming from blacks, to realize that socialists existed and still exist in the US. Of course, this cooptation happens over here too, though it mostly results in a segment of people blindly assuming every one and everything not in agreement with the bourgeois status quo is communist. The American political elites have had a frightening degree of success in hiding or erasing almost all facets of leftism of the country's political history. Resurfacing this history and awakening the people to the ever-present political force of American leftists is a long and arduous road that needs to be pathed.

Came here after sharing the Polygon article "The best video essays of 2023" with a friend who then immediately called out your content as excellent. Amazing work- I'm now an excited new subscriber who will be processing and talking about these topics with everyone in earshot.

It really hit home when you said that for black people being "socially conservative" is a survival strategy.

Finally a place I can share this story I witnessed between my dad and my uncle a few months ago: I am not american. My dad is the son of a jordanian immigrant and a german woman and my uncle was finally visiting us after years of no personal visits. One evening they had quite the argument, because my uncle wanted to go on a trip only with his siblings back to Jordan, but my dad told him that he was kinda traumatized by prior plans of them to go on such trips. This turned into a discussion of how they as mixed people fit into german society. For my dad Jordan will never be his home, while my uncle seemingly rekindled this connection. My dad talked about how he "knows" that both here in Germany and in Jordan he isnt really welcome, but knew that he had to choose one day, and chose Germany. Over the past years he tried to cut any part of him out, that reminded him and others of Jordan. He always says that he is more german than the whitest Aryan, but if the AfD ever took power he probably would still leave the country. All of this is just the result of racism. What really stood out to me is a comment by my brother, who said he would like to hear arabian music and know more about our arabian heritage. When I was a kid, my dad was regularly working in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and travelling into other arabian countries. He was playing arabian music in the car, playing arabian music in bars and had friends from different arabian countries, like Syria or Lebannon. But all of this stopped when my brother was too young to remember. We moved into a different, less racist part of the country, but my dads identity as an immigrants son also lessened. He told us a story about how he was making music with someone and he asked him about his heritage and if he could show him something, but when my dad showed him some jordanian music the other guy was turned off by it. He says that was the point he decided to stop making arabian music. Apparently over the years he swallowed all these micro aggressions on top of overtly racist stuff (like finding no job in the more racist part of the country) and just rejected this part of himself. I didnt notice this until that moment. He became culturally very conservative in his atempt to become the best German. My brother has no clue about this part of us because of it and I didnt realize it. It is sad, because I quite like the music from this area and I bonded with other people because of it, even though my connection to Jordan is very limited except for the music. I decided to show my brother more of this heritage, if my dad refuses to...

This was a challenging one for me. Thanks for putting it out there.

I am learning so much from these video essays.

As a white leftist it seems to me that the conclusion of this video is absolutely correct. The primary purpose of black conservatives in media and politics are not to win over anyone in the black community, but to reassure whites that they aren't racist and can go on supporting a structurally racist system without guilt.

Lmao this is "THAT" video in fds career. I was excited for conservatives but I'm here for the liberal takedown 🔥

This video has been one of the most informative videos on this subject I’ve come across, thank you

Watching your videos & learning that you were a former teacher has made me question my future as an educator, you’re truly brilliant

There's an expression "If you can't beat them, join them" They became bullies to avoid being bullied

When I feel like a strong emotion or something linked to a strong emotion is being shown to me (whatever it the emotion is) I feel the overwhelming urge to cry. It happens during really good musical performances or deep readings. I felt it after watching your intro. I’m excited to see the rest. Thank you FD🙏🏾

Here on MLK Day to remember him how he should be

as a white person, i gotta say, it's pretty odd how it seems like about 50% of the comments either start with or mention at some point the phrase "as a white person"

My dad is a former black republican and watching that clip of Hershel Walker dancing hurts cause that's how he dances 😭

Honestly this video taught me that pretty much the entire reason the black community doesn't have more white support in the modern day is due to purposeful miseducation. It takes youtubers like F.D for me to learn MLK was actually a radicalized leftist. Granted, I was already a socialist prior to finding this channel. But it screams to me that one does not get born white and come to socialism or other forms of radical leftism without seeking it out DESPITE school and parental teachings. And for me it took realizing I was trans and being marginalized for my seeking it out. It's crazy how well these psy ops work. The entire reality of our country is not even remotely like the way its story is told. And we need to fix that.

I am not afraid to say that listening to this show is very informative and educational. As a black man, I could never understand why black people would vote Republican and sometimes not vote at all. This answers a lot of questions.

White leftist here that was relieved FD didn't waste time on the individuals in the thumbnail. This kind of educational content that really explores political nuance and objective history is invaluable. Fantastic work!

I’m a queer Jewish man, and I’ve never been involved in churches in any sort of way, so the only times I’ve seen people using that sort of “pastor voice” like the guy at 16:19 is when clips are being spread around because they’re actively preaching hate. It’s honestly so moving seeing someone show that same sort of passion while *defending* us as others do while attacking us.

Relevant content with the right mix of backed up facts and intelligent opinion. Great channel sir!

I love it when someone is intelligent enough to exactly explain what it is that I think but am not smart enough to enunciate

I was raised in a conservative white family in Texas and we were taught Malcom X was the anti MLK because MLK was a pacifist. I've found myself leaning further and further left in the last decade and hearing MLK past his I had a dream speech has been eye opening.

When you drop a video it’s like being able to take respite in a call with a close sibling or loved one. Truly affirming with so much information and complex navigation I always try to make time for your investigations! Also always inspires me to push forward into my own research. Much love to you.

I do wanna say, that I have started my reedeucation on black social issues, and political history. Doing my own research instead of what was given to me by a curated system of white supremacy. It started when I first watched your Hamilton video. As while it is still my favorite musical ever. I do appreciate the discussion you had in your video and in the comment section. Yeah, I am an old head FD Signifier watcher. I do hope you and your family are doing well. Have a wonderful day.

Lol. The thumbnail got me, you were 100% right. Great video. New subscriber.

I got you bro. "Being forced into conserving your resources while being conditioned to the understanding that large scale change results in harm does not make you a conservative politically." The constant push to present us as conservative is cognitive dissonance informed gas lighting. IMO. Good stuff as usual brother.

As a young white man in Oklahoma this one of the most important videos I’ve seen as a leftist. You’ve got a subscription, I can’t wait learn more about history, politics, and philosophy. Beau of the Fifth Column is a fellow leftist that I’ve been following for a long time but it’s nice to find another thoughtful leftist with valuable content!

This video showed up on my feed. I am now A SUBSCRIBER!! I'm going to binge on your videos, once this one is finished!❤

The Groovy Tony/Blank Face intro was 🔥... Ok know I'll continue listening. You're appreciated

I'd never seen that whole MLK quote together before and I get the feeling it's less about the ethics of rioting (though he does seem concerned about that) but the efficacy. And that makes a lot of sense. I can imagine looking at the civil rights movement and seeing insufficient numbers and weaponry to win an open fight, especially against a militarized police force. I wasn't there, I can't say if he was right or wrong. But I can see the logic.

Thanks for another great video. I always appreciate your perspective. We need more communicators like you.

Freaknik: The Musical does not get the appreciation it deserves.

You are a great teacher, I started watching a couple of videos and I am greatful to have your content pop up.

"It is organized violence on top which creates individual violence at the bottom. It is the accumulated indignation against organized wrong, organized crime, organized injustice, which drives the political offender to act." ~ Emma Goldman

Thank you for helping give me a better understanding of these issues. I'll admit I'm a young white dude from a rich area, and even though I've had friends and coworkers who are black and never shown anything but love, I've never really had any real knowledge or understanding of history on this front. I won't stand around trying ever act like I know what is best for anyone, so I appreciate you at least helping me learn about the kinds of injustices that exist to stand against. I'm not a social or active politically dude, but I can at least be one more vote in the right direction.

Love the effects on this intro friend

I've finally signed up for Nebula because of this video and your content

wow this was a such a powerful video. I still remember learning about MLK in school and how much they emphasized his pacifism and vilified Malcolm X. Thanks for sharing

I get kind of depressed every MLK day because it’s a day I don’t even know what to do with. It’s not really a commemoration of MLK - it’s a day in service of erasing everything he said and did. I always end up feeling angry. And now it’s been done to Juneteenth, and again, I feel the same way, even as a white person who had not heard of Juneteenth until a few years ago. What is going to be done to the holiday? Am I supposed to celebrate a deed undone? Will it become just another sanitization of history, erasure of the centuries of suffering, betrayal, suppression - erasure of the erasure itself? Idk, just venting I guess. I suppose the answer is that it should be motivation to take action, educate people, organize, speak out, etc. - but I have to be particularly careful to keep a clean image because it could threaten my job, and it can be sometimes difficult to know where the line is when there is a propaganda machine assiduously looking to stamp out dissent and slander anyone advocating for even moderate reform. Straying outsides the boundaries of acceptable Liberal thought is still liable to put you in hot water, no matter how anodyne you feel your own critiques are.

This was 🔥🔥🔥 Great work brother.

This was amazing. I love the content!!!

As a person who loves history and loves seeing parts that weren’t taught in schools. I thank you for giving me this deeper insight on MLK Jr.

I have no idea how I found your channel but your content is phenomenal. It's concise and clear without sacrificing so much depth that its purpose is made void

This has been a very enlightening video. Not quite finished, but it has coincided with a a short Stuart Hall Lecture on "Race, the Floating Signifier." I just watched for a university course of mine. Hall mentions how race works as 'politics without guarantees.' Here's my favourite section: "[If you believe race is biologically verifiable then] a whole number of other things, cultural qualities, intellectual qualities, emotional and expressive qualities, follow from the fact of being genetically one race or another, if that’s your image of race, you think then that the very fact of race can actually guarantee a whole range of things, including just to name two, whether the works of art produced by a person who biologically belongs to that race is good or not. So, if they’re black it means that they’re also very expressive, it also means they’ll produce a certain kind of work of art and it’ll be good because it’s black. And similarly a certain kind of politics…defends the race, has to protect us against discrimination etc. in which all black people will be figured as people who are…holding the correct position…You will say, ‘They’re like that because they think like that because that’s what black people think, it’s right that black people should - so race functions as a kind of guarantee that the work…will be good because it’s black, and will be politically progressive because it’s black…[But we know that] some of the works are not good, though black. Made with the best of positive intentions to reverse negative stereotypes and praise the diversity of black people, it just don’t work aesthetically. And similarly, we know that black people have a range of diverse political positions, conservative, reactionary, progressive, and so on. And that these fall out in a way that is not defined by their genetic or biological disposition." I appreciate the coincidence (or perhaps algorithm) of having watched these two videos in conjunction --- it has really helped me identify the pervasiveness of American racial ideology; in this case linking "biological race" to a type of politics and even art. The latter being something I've identified as a truism I have for too long time lazily accepted.

Thanks for showing color footage

One thing I’ve noticed about someone like Thomas Sowell is that he defends positions that no one has. There’s a video of him defending the Wright Brothers because apparently liberals ignore white inventors, which is a position I have never heard from anyone, liberals or otherwise. In fact, quite the opposite is true when it comes to the Wright Brothers. A life size replica of their plane can be found at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago and also the Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. Furthermore, the Wright Brothers are in American Currency as the North Carolina Quarter honors their invention. So this whole view point that white inventors are being ignored or erased by liberals is not just wrong, but willfully inaccurate considering how much we actually do honor these inventors.

I just want to say, thanks for making this video. I'm a white queer trans girl from a black family and scapegoating black people for social conservativism is patently anti black and unfair and untrue to me Also thanks for the clip of the pastor speaking up against hypocrisy in homophobia. That was extremely moving and important to see

OMG, I'm so glad I came across this video! FDSignifire, you have so incredibly articulated what's been stirring in my soul for so many years. I was churned through the American education system with engineering & MBA post graduate degrees. I had so little history let alone, Black history, in my formal education it's almost laughable. I've never been hugely interested in history or politics until the past decade. I've been a registered and active voter but never could get with registering as Democrat (& Republican - hell NO!). You've helped articulate exactly my issues. My thoughts are evolving as my knowledge expands but I'm realizing that capitalism is the root of much evil. Also, I love the details you've shared about Martin Luther King, Jr.'s history. I had no clue about this truth until reading The Radical King by Cornel West. Thank you for what you do & I look forward to checking out more of your content!

Love the clip... good analysis!

We need a party of the working class in this country. A real organized alternative third party that is actually made of members of the working class.

I agree with most of this commentary. Moving further left is appealing in so many ways. My problem with all the erudite commentators on democrats and republicans is that every election, I have exactly two viable options, one bad option in the democrat and one absolutely unacceptable option in the republican. How can our society move away from the status quo when we're stuck in the binary party system on election day?

Found out about F.D Signifier on the Supereyepatchwolf charity stream VOD and found this video. I think this is gonna be one of my favorite channels. Love the video!

The intro for this video is still the rawest thing I have ever seen.

alright we’re gonna see if FD signifier can upload a vid without it getting taken down this is gonna be a fun video

Also I just want to say this video took me back to my last position when I was on the newsletter team at my job and I was asked by my (black) supervisor to write something about MLK and when I wrote that he had a 77% disapproval rate at the time of his death and ultimately took back his speech claiming that he led his people into a burning house amongst other things naming that he was anti capitalist and for the working class my boss made me take it out and gave it to a white girl (she was actually really nice and used to be a teacher and claimed to agree with me) who then wrote about the I have a dream speech which was annoying and said that we needed to “keep the peace and not make anyone feel uncomfortable” but when I wrote the holocaust bit, and how German politics took notes from American racial laws which america was at the head of at the time even noting that Germans said that it wasn’t enough for Germany cause blacks were already poor and oppressed THAT was ok 😭

Great intro! 🎉

This & the other video you did on Farrakhan Cosby and jay z are gems I wasn’t ready for. Thank you 🙏🏽 w my current vocabulary I don’t have the words to articulate the significance of what these videos mean to me man❗️ thank you & may you & your family always be blessed

Hey F.D, I can't thank you enough for the discourse, resources, and ideas you provide on your channel. I know I'm not your target demographic--a white man from one of most homogenously white states in the US (South Dakota). But I married a black South African woman with whom I have a 3 year old step-son, and we live in South Africa currently. We began talking about the idea of moving to the US around the time you released your video about the Commodification of Black Athletes. I've never been more wrecked by a video on this platform--first because it was a jarring reminder of what I'd be asking of my three-year-old if I brought him to the States for schooling, and second because it became glaringly obvious to me that I don't have the tools, perspective, or experience to give my family everything they deserve to feel heard, validated, and safe back home. I knew I had blind spots. I didn't know you could drive a mac truck through them. I just wanted to say thanks. Creators like you and Khadija Mbowe have opened window through which my wife and I can observe and discuss the differences and challenges we face culturally and in our marriage both here and back in the US. We're so lucky to have thoughtful people like you in this world.

The part is MLK's speaking part when he says, "we're coming to get our check" gives the SAME energy as Denzel Washington saying "I'm leaving with something"

I love you (or somebody) trying to edge up and lay the edges of Hershel and Candace at the beginning 😂

i was not expecting to see a watermark of the Brazilian Cinematheque in some of the archive footage. haha, I was there yesterday. amazing content, sending love from Brazil

Thank you for this. As a gay white man with a gay black boyfriend , we both know we grew up in a very static time The 80’s and 90’s, everyone stuck in their own little box. Information like this helps me feel closer in understanding him because we come from the same world and don’t come from the same world. I couldn’t imagine a nicer guy, and he still tells me of little slights that he experiences in the world like a security guard at the place that he WORKS checking on him just sitting there in the parking lot before work, or the place with white folks with tatts saying they have a too many tattoo policy in hiring. He wouldn’t tell me where the place was because I wanted to go start something. The world sucks a lot, and the more I learn the more It sucks. But I keep learning. Thanks again! 👍👍

I'd like to let you know that the algorithm is now in your favor and I expect a boost in subs. You popped into my recommended feed tonight and I have not stopped watching your channel. I appreciate the time you put into your videos in both the content and the actual length. I feel like I take something away from everything I've watched so far. I'm addicted now and subbed.

I'm so incredibly grateful for the youtube algorithm today for recommending your video to me

THANK YOU! the Latino call-out was necessary. Homie really thinks he's gonna change the world even though he keeps showing he is dangerously illiterate but somehow manages to fill out that ballot the way he wants every voting season

Hi, I'm full-blooded Filipino. Born and raised in Hawai'i, where I currently live. Millennial. Another fantastic video, but please answer me one question: Why do I find so much value from your videos? By no means do I think or feel I am one to conform to other ethnic groups' identities -- like, while I did grow up on underground hip hop, roots reggae, and punk rock being my favorite musical genres, I've never experienced life on the "mainland". I have had a few black friends growing up while in school, but at least where I live (middle income area, well-to-do FOB Filipino immigrant parents) -- there weren't many black people around. I grew up alongside people of Native Hawaiian ancestry and fellow Filipinos. One of my best friends growing up was Latino. I have never tried Soul Food, I grew up on plate lunches, Filipino dishes, sushi, hamburgers, and rice. But yet, whenever I watch your videos, FD, something about it hits -- fucking hard. My mind feels expanded and I feel a greater sense of knowledge about the world and how things work. I feel a certain connection to your videos, the information within them, and -- to an extent -- the movements you stand for. While I do not necessarily agree with 100% of things you say (it's probably like 99.9% to be fair lul), or have not experienced life in the mainland (I feel Hawai'i's culture is way different than the mainland in many regards), I guess I just wonder why your videos "speak to me", so to speak. In either case, awesome work. Thanks for your videos. Aloha, braddah, you one hammah.