Let's keep it one hundred: America is getting ready to turn 250, and the whole block is looking at this celebration with a side-eye. On the latest episode of the “Stateside with Kai and Carter” podcast, host Kai Wright sat down with Princeton professor Eddie Glaude Jr. to talk about the real history of this country. Glaude didn't hold back, pointing out the massive gap between the beautiful promises on paper and the daily struggle of Black folks who have been holding this place together from day one.

Glaude’s new book, “America, USA: How Race Shadows the Nation's Anniversaries,” is all about exposing the lies this country tells itself. He talks about the American fantasy—this fake-ass story that America was built to be a white republic. But Glaude reminds us that Black folks are the living proof that this fantasy is a lie. Our ancestors put in the sweat, blood, and tears to build the foundation of this country, but when it’s time to celebrate, the system wants to act like we were never in the building.

Then they got into how the Trump administration is moving out here. Glaude and Wright broke down how the president has been normalizing straight-up white supremacist rhetoric, making it cool for folks to say the quiet part out loud again. On top of that, the administration is actively trying to whitewash the history books, deleting our struggles and triumphs so they can sell a clean, fake version of the past to the next generation. It's a classic play: if you control the past, you control the present.

They also called out how Trump is desecrating the Lincoln Memorial. For us, that monument isn’t just a tourist spot; it’s civic sacred ground. It’s where Marian Anderson sang when they wouldn’t let her perform anywhere else, and where MLK told the world about his dream. Turning that space into a prop for cheap political theater is a slap in the face to everyone who marched, bled, and died on those steps to get us our basic rights.

Glaude’s warning is real: we are watching the end of the America that made progress possible for our communities. The civil rights gains our grandparents fought for are being stripped away piece by piece. When you see voting rights getting gutted and truth-telling in schools getting banned, that’s not a glitch—it’s the system working exactly how it was designed to, protecting the status quo and keeping power in the same hands.

This fight over who gets to tell the story isn’t new. Back during the 1976 Bicentennial, our people were saying the exact same thing. You can’t tell us to celebrate the country’s birthday when we’re still fighting for rent money, fair trials, and clean water. The system wants us to wave the flag and forget about the struggle, but Glaude’s book is a reminder that we have to keep our receipts.