King Randall (Photo: Twitter screenshot)
Black youth education advocate King Randall, the founder of the Life Preparatory School for Boys in Albany, Georgia, set off a fiery Twitter debate when he commented about victimology and structural racism.
He tweeted, “I make no excuses for my generation being so far behind. We create so many problems in our mind. Our ancestors had ACTUAL hard lives. If they had the resources we do, they would’ve been unstoppable. All of the excuses we make are just a slap in the face to our ancestors…”
In an accompanying video of an interview he had conducted, he says he asked a student, “Imagine a former slave having a better vocabulary than you….Makes you want to do better.”
Many came for Randall on the social media platform. While he had some supporters, others, such as Yvette Carnell of the American Descendants of Slavery Advocacy Foundation, criticized his approach. Some critics said he was pandering to his white financial supporters.
Now Randall is hitting back on Twitter.
Randall is a 24-year-old “community shifter,” according to his LinkedIn profile. The Life Preparatory School for Boys is a 501(c)3 charitable organization with a mission to teach boys “the true meaning of manhood and to be protectors and providers for their communities,” according to the school’s website. Randall launched the school in May 2022.
In a new post, Randall wrote, “had to gather my thoughts before responding to this past week of ‘controversy’. All sides get tired of me because they can’t have my mouth. They got all this keyboard energy. I fight for young black men BEFORE they die. Y’all have all the energy when they’re dead.”
He continued, “The easiest way to get a lecture on institutional racism or get called ‘c**n’…online is to indicate that you believe black people can do anything to improve…our own communities.”
In what seems to be a response to Carnell, he wrote, “You can fight for reparations until you die and we’re gonna work in our communities while you do that. We are not destined to fail without it either and uplifting ourselves to learn to read and work for ourselves is not ‘harmful’ rhetoric. You just live for excuses. Talk about forgetting history? I think it’s a slap in the face of our ancestors to not know how to read and write in 2023 and not being responsible for the village. We can do better with or without the government’s help.”
In a video that accompanied the post, Randall had more on his mind.
He said he had something to say to “…FBA, ADOS…Republicans, Democrats, whoever. Everybody needs to understand that my mouthpiece is my mouthpiece. …I don’t care who is listening. Black people who want to get mad because white people may agree. I don’t care. White people who want to get mad because I may be fighting for Black people. I’m don’t care. I am going to say what I want to say every time…”
TO ADOS, he added, “I support you from the side for your fight, but you can’t sit up here and bash me…” He also went on to call the members “idiots” for not doing more in the community to help kids.
So it seems like the battle between Randall, his supporters, and his detractors will continue.
King Randall (Photo: Twitter screenshot, https://twitter.com/NewEmergingKing/status/1651674969791766528)
