The leaders of two popular groups that are dedicated to improving the plight of Black Americans have been at odds. Foundational Black American (FBA) founder Tariq Nasheed and American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) founders Yvette Carnell and Antonio Moore of have been embroiled in a days-long Twitter feud. The subject at hand: How much MAGA has really done for Black people.
The debate began Nov. 8 after Nasheed retweeted videos of President Donald Trump speaking about Republicans’ desire to help Black people. In one of the videos, Trump said Republicans created opportunity zones to revitalize Black communities, “yet every Democrat voted against giving these Black citizens the future they deserve.”
Nasheed tweeted that he actually agreed with Trump, then tweeted another video of Trump saying he wanted to invest in Black American communities. Nasheed ended his caption by asking, “So why should we honestly support the democrats (sic)?”
Moore responded saying Nasheed’s thread didn’t “make sense” because it was not based on “real politics.” Eventually Carnell jumped in oting that politicians will say anything but it all amounts to “vacuous, meaningless symbolism.”
From there a back and forth ensued between the three that led to proponents of one or both groups chiming in. It hasn’t all been civil either. Nasheed went live on YouTube to address the matter, while Carnell and Moore said he disrespected them.
According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), opportunity zones are areas with high rates of unemployment that investors can now finance and develop in order to receive a tax incentive. Established by the 2017 tax overhaul bill, these zones are located in economically disadvantaged areas, many of which are predominately Black neighborhoods.
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Opportunity zones are supposed to help revitalize distressed neighborhoods and create wealth. Ironically. the same bill that created them also gave tax breaks to the nation’s wealthiest people and corporations. Plus, there are reports that those benefitting from them most are wealthy white people.
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Due to the multi-layered impacts of the bill, some members of ADOS and FBA don’t see eye to eye on whether this is a good thing or not. Others, who support both groups, cautioned the two groups against giving in to a divide and conquer mentality.
