Welcome to the Black Network State, where we build, buy and look out for ourselves. Don't scroll just yet. Watch the map take you through the network.
To every Black person who reads this:
We were scattered by design, and the help came scattered too. The United Black Network State ends that: a home that cannot be burned down, a record that cannot be erased, a network that turns our numbers into power.
In the words of the man who named it, "a highly aligned online community with a capacity for collective action that crowdfunds territory around the world and eventually gains diplomatic recognition from pre-existing states." Balaji Srinivasan, The Network State (2022). In plain words: a people who find each other online, agree on what they stand for, act together, and turn that into real places on the ground. Ours is Black-centered and Black-focused, wherever we live.
This is not a new idea. It is an old one, picked back up with new tools.
Every one of them was building the same thing: a people that takes care of its own. Every one was stopped the same way: a leader cut down, a town burned, a bank seized. What none of them had was a home that cannot be burned, a record that cannot be erased, and a treasury that no single hand can seize. That is what we build first.
A support center in every county where we live. A map of every Black-owned business and a card in every citizen's hand that keeps our money moving among us. A fund we vote on, then land we own. Chapters and governors in every city, and a bloc of citizens too large for anyone in power to ignore. Digital first, then on the ground, then everywhere we are.
Citizenship is by oath, $5 a month. One oath holds it together: Productive Black Unity. Build, teach, serve, and lift another as we climb.
Take the oath. Bring one person with you.
Not just a web app, but a web of connections that tie us together. Five areas. Every resource here is one of three things: Black-owned, Black-centered, or a public service we walk you through ourselves. Nothing on this page was built without us in mind.
Pick what you need. Every answer is Black-owned, Black-centered, or a public service we walk you through.
Department of HealthFind a clinic, get covered, get every benefit we are owed, and talk to someone when your mind is carrying too much.
Photo: Seattle Municipal Archives, CC BY 2.0
Department of HousingGet help with rent, a defense when they try to evict you, your deposit back, and a path to land of our own.
Photo: John H. White, DOCUMERICA, National Archives
Department of EducationTake the courses: one step at a time, you do it for real, and you finish with the thing built. Free for you as a citizen.
Photo: John H. White, DOCUMERICA, National Archives
Department of DevelopmentGet a mentor who has done it, a plan for where you are going, and a chapter that builds up the block you live on.
Photo: John H. White, DOCUMERICA, National Archives
Department of LaborFind jobs posted by businesses only, get a reference that vouches for your work, get a recommendation letter, and find contract work on the independent contractor boards.
Photo: John H. White, DOCUMERICA, National Archives
Department of CommerceFind Black-owned businesses on the map, get your Black Card and save at every one of them, and put your own business on the map.
Photo: John H. White, DOCUMERICA, National Archives
Department of StateTake the oath and get your citizen number, then vote on what the State does, including what we do with our money. We collect our votes and our numbers and put them in front of politicians and lobbyists, and when it is time, we vote as one.
Photo: John H. White, DOCUMERICA, National Archives
Department of the TreasuryEvery account and every dollar in and out is shown on the Ledger for any citizen to read. No money moves without two signatures, and the fundraising is run here in the open.
Photo: U.S. Navy, public domain
Department of InjusticeTell us what was done to you. We help you know your rights, find a lawyer, get a letter written, and take it through the proper channels.
Photo: John H. White, DOCUMERICA, National Archives
Department of Emergency ManagementGet alerts where you live, know what to do when it hits, and get mutual aid from the whole network when your city needs it.
Photo: George Armstrong, FEMA, 2005Productive means we add something. We never merely take.
They fought so we could build. The State is the next step in a line that runs through every one of them.
Freed herself, then preached abolition and women's rights across the country.
Freed himself, then wrote and spoke until the nation had to listen.
Escaped slavery, then went back again and again to lead others out.
Born enslaved, he built Tuskegee Institute from the ground up.
Investigated lynching and published the facts the country tried to bury.
Built a hair care empire and became a self-made millionaire.
Co-founded the NAACP and wrote The Souls of Black Folk.
Organized millions under the UNIA and launched the Black Star Line.
Won Brown v. Board, then became the first Black Supreme Court justice.
A sharecropper who took the fight for the vote to the national convention.
First Black woman in Congress, then ran for president, unbought and unbossed.
Taught us self-respect, self-defense, and to see the system clearly.
Organized Mississippi for the NAACP and gave his life for the vote.
Led the nonviolent movement that broke Jim Crow law.
Co-founded the Black Panther Party, which fed children and ran free clinics.
Nobody is born knowing what a network state is. These are the questions people ask us first, answered straight. If yours is not here, ask the helper and it answers from our own papers.
A Black-centered membership that takes care of its own. You join, and you get real help with rent, benefits and court, courses that educate and empower, a map of Black-owned businesses with a discount card, and a vote on what we do with our money. It lives on your phone first, and in chapters where you live after that.
A Black-centered State, organized online first and in person wherever we are. It is called a State because it is a state of being: self-reliance and interdependence, before it is anything on a map. It starts with the Declaration of Interdependence.
No. The idea comes from Balaji Srinivasan's book The Network State (2022). His definition: "a highly aligned online community with a capacity for collective action that crowdfunds territory around the world and eventually gains diplomatic recognition from pre-existing states." We took the model and built it for us.
A State of our own, inside the country we live in. We keep the laws where we live, or we organize to change them. Everything else we build ourselves: the help, the money, the businesses, the vote, and the numbers we put in front of the people in power. We are not asking anyone's permission to take care of our own. The Constitution says how it runs.
Real now: the support center in Las Vegas, the courses, the newsroom, and citizenship. Being built: the business map, the Black Card, and the app. This page tells you the truth about which is which, and the newsroom reports as each one lands.
A free account lets you read the news, use the map and buy any course for $5. Citizenship is taken by oath and costs $5 a month, or $50 for the year. It brings the Black Card, the helper, the standard courses included, the interactive courses at $3, and your vote. Sign up here.
Help with something real the day you need it. Courses that don't just teach, they walk you through building the thing, step by step. The Black Card and its discounts. A vote. A chapter near you. And a State that shows up for you when the system doesn't.
They serve you. This one is yours. Citizens vote on the money, elect their governors, and can read every dollar in the ledger. And the help runs on software, so it is there at 2 a.m., not just office hours.
No. You stay where you are, keep your job, your church, your people. The State comes to you: on your phone, and in a chapter in your city.
Your member card. Discounts at Black-owned businesses on the map, rewards that stack, and a round-up program that feeds our own fund. Digital first; the physical card comes after.
Into a fund the citizens vote on, with named designations: legal defense, emergencies, and eventually land. Every dollar is written down and every citizen can read the ledger.
The Founding President, whose letter is at the top of this page, and the citizens who take the oath. Our papers are public: the Declaration, Why We Were Scattered, the Constitution.
Get help with something real, take a course, or become a citizen. Everyone starts at step one.
