When Empire Burns the Bread

“If they come for me in the morning, they will come for you in the night.” — James Baldwin

In July 2025, 500 tons of high-energy biscuits meant to feed starving children were incinerated by order of the United States government. Let us be clear: this was not an accident. It was not bureaucratic mismanagement. It was the inevitable result of a system that has always used pain as a tool, and suffering as leverage. What kind of system sets fire to nourishment? A system that knows hungry people are easier to manage than free ones.

The food had been purchased with taxpayer dollars, packed and ready to go. It sat in a Dubai warehouse for months, with organizations like the World Food Program pleading for permission to distribute it to regions facing acute famine. The U.S. refused. When the food expired, they set fire to it.

This was not about safety or protocol. This was about raw power. When an empire cannot control who receives aid, it would rather no one receive it at all. Starvation becomes a weapon, not a tragedy.

Capitalism Exploits Pain, Empire Controls by Scarcity

This is how capitalism enforces obedience—not with whips anymore, but by locking doors to food warehouses. Scarcity isn’t a failure of the system. It is the system. The people weren’t fed, because feeding them would mean ceding control.

The U.S. government decided that no child would eat unless it got to claim the credit. And when that wasn’t possible—it chose flames over freedom.

And here’s what’s most telling: there was no outrage from the machine. There were no apologies. This was business as usual for a system that has always functioned by the logic of domination.

“The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” — Audre Lorde

This moment exposes the moral bankruptcy of capitalism in its purest form. Food—designed and designated to save lives—was transformed into waste rather than released outside the control of the state. That is not inefficiency. That is capitalism doing exactly what it’s designed to do.

It is important to understand that this is not an anomaly. It is a continuation of a long-standing doctrine: control resources, controlling people. Withhold medicine, withhold movement. Deny food, deny freedom. The plantation logic never died—it just evolved into policy.

Black people have always lived under these conditions. For us, authoritarianism is not a looming threat, it is a lived reality. From the auction block to the prison cell, from sterilization wards to food deserts, our lives have always been shaped by forced deprivation and calculated abandonment.

“America has never been innocent. And God is not mocked for long.” — Cornel West

This is why we must build something entirely different. We cannot trust systems built on our subjugation to suddenly serve our survival. We must create our own.