Michael Harriot

2 weeks ago | contrabandcamp.com | Michael Harriot

If you want to teach a kid about the racial wealth gap, teach them how to play Uno. In Uno, everyone starts with the same number of cards. Being rich is like getting a wild card every time you pull from the deck — it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll win, but you’re more likely to succeed. Being wealthy is like starting the game with a handful of wild cards. But what if you joined the game when the wild cards were already distributed? What if the players with the most wild cards got to make the rules?

2 weeks ago | contrabandcamp.com | Michael Harriot

I believe in the boogeyman. To reveal the identity of the evil figure that had terrorized me during my childhood, at 7 years old, I began studying the investigative strategies of some of the world’s finest criminologists, including the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and — perhaps the most skilled juvenile detective of all — Encyclopedia Brown. While I didn’t quite have enough proof to file formal charges, all the circumstantial evidence pointed in one direction:Santa Claus.

3 weeks ago | contrabandcamp.com | Michael Harriot

I spoke to my nephew last week about an extraordinary discovery in our family tree. (I’m writing about it later, but trust me, it’s good.)The information blew his mind, just as I knew it would. When he asked how I discovered this information, I told him that it started with a random document I discovered. “You know how I am,” I explained.

3 weeks ago | contrabandcamp.com | Michael Harriot

I didn’t understand it. It happens about once a month. Sometimes it appears as an email punctuated with grammatical errors from one of the children George W. Bush saved from being left behind. Occasionally, it’s an all-caps DM from someone whose social media profile contains multiple flags and the word “patriot.” Other times, it’s just a screenshot of FBI statistics. In any case, they all asked the same question:Why are Black people so violent?

3 weeks ago | contrabandcamp.com | Michael Harriot

Of everything I have ever written, created and conceived, I consider the podcast that became “Drapetomaniax: Unshackled History” to be my greatest work. While I consider it a work of art, the thing that makes me the proudest is that it was a group project created by a, diverse, international all-Black cast and crew of gay, straight, queer, trans, American, African and Caribbean creators led by Black women. It all began with a celebrity encounter.