The Cookout Theory Explains the Crisis Happening to Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles, and Other Cities

Añadido: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]This might be one of the most brilliant videos I've ever seen. Watch this video.

[00:00:04]Think about how it applies to your city, your state, your neighborhood, and then we'll talk. As an Atlanta native, I've been trying to think of a way to explain what's happening to the city, and I think I did it. As a filmmaker, I spend a lot of time studying systems, people, and stories. And Atlanta is one that's really, really dear to my heart.

[00:00:25]I think we hear a lot of conversations about Atlanta not being a real place or what happened to the old Atlanta, but we're not having nearly enough conversations about how we got to where we are today. Which is why I created the cookout theory. So, the cookout theory argues that Atlanta works as an intentional cultural ecosystem. And yes, this ecosystem is accessible to everyone. However, if you are not operating under the four cookout principles, then it changes the trajectory, purpose, and impact of the cookout as a whole. Meaning, when you would attempt to change the infrastructure and the culture of a city that made it enticing to begin with, you ultimately are deciding to lose the enchantment of the city that made people want to move here. So, let's break it down. Every cookout starts with these core elements: mutual recognition, shared contribution, relational trust, or cultural stewardship. So, within these elements poses these four questions: Who invited you? Familiarity or relational trust. Who you with? Which is your proximity or your entry point.

[00:01:32]How do you know them? Trust, status and intention, or cultural positioning. And lastly, what did you bring? Contribution and or cultural input. So, as a black community, we know those four elements are essential in every cookout. You're not coming into Big Mama's house, not introducing yourself, don't nobody know you, and you didn't bring nothing? A cookout has never just been food, music, and family. It is a system. It is rules.

[00:01:56]It's culture and it's order. And we have to understand in those four elements what the real question is. Proximity.

[00:02:04]How did you get here and who brought you? Status. What do you represent and what energy are you bringing to the space? Familiarity being do you actually understand the impact of the culture you're stepping into? Do you understand whose house that you're walking into and do you understand the history? And most importantly, contribution. What are you bringing to keep this thing going?

[00:02:23]Everyone who can't participate and bring in food, people bring chairs, they bring music, they bring something and that is how Atlanta used to function.

[00:02:32]All of those same questions apply to the socio-culture here in Atlanta. But here's where things get a little tricky.

[00:02:38]Atlanta's current issue isn't just social, it is very structural and it is very intentional. Let's be sure we're keeping in mind Atlanta is a black city, white state. The redlining and the alleged taming of black people and black expressions is not nothing new to the city of Atlanta. It's just something we've never normalized. And with the World Cup coming, Atlanta is becoming more and more global and less and less familiar. But let's break down why. So, the cookout theory argues that Atlanta operates as its own social-cultural ecosystem. But there are four critical events that have all played a role into the changes we see in Atlanta. Let's go chronologically. The first major event, the 1996 Olympics, 2005 Hurricane Katrina, 2008 economic recession, and lastly, 2020 COVID pandemic. So, within the '96 Olympics, you have the criminalization of poverty and homelessness, the expansion of over-policing, specifically the Red Dog unit. You also had new investors and developments. The success of the 1996 Olympics was determined on the expansion of Turner Field, the Georgia Aquarium decision, and Georgia Tech becoming a hub of wealth and elitism in the city of Atlanta. This is also the early stages of the black Mecca branding that we see throughout the city of Atlanta and it was the beginning of normalizing a broken infrastructure. We may have known the city could not sustain all of this, but as long as we did it in a manner that kept the city alive, we were going to figure it out. You know how recently we got brand new Marta buses, all of these new developments, all of these new technological advances to make the city more accessible? Much like the 1996 Olympics, those upgrades are not made for the people in Atlanta. They are made for the people coming to Atlanta, which is why now residents who have relied on Marta for the last 30 years can't even pay for Marta to get on the bus because it's not money, it's accessibility. They want to be able to make Marta a tourism transportation option and leave no option for citizens of Atlanta. And respectfully, yeah, you have an option, but people who are elderly and people who are handicapped are not going to be able to easily or quickly assimilate to a new payment system and a new route system within 2 months. Next, Hurricane Katrina, or as I like to call her, that trick ass [ __ ] Hurricane Katrina brought mass relocation of displaced populations to Atlanta, rapid culture blending because we got the effects of Mississippi, Texas, and New Orleans all at once, economic stratification within the black communities, emergence of class based social tension, and the redefinition of community familiarity.

[00:05:15]The way I watched the older generation act during Hurricane Katrina, y'all should be ashamed of yourself. Georgia had already made a very public committing to offering aid to the people who had survived Hurricane Katrina.

[00:05:26]But remember, white state, black city.

[00:05:29]So, when all of these families who were willing to open up their home got a busload of black families to their front door, suddenly people got cold feet. And it was up to the black churches, non-profit organizations, and small businesses within the Atlanta city limits to be able to render the aid that we had committed to. Me personally, the problem became this was the first time I had ever seen black people with newly acquired wealth and success use it against other black people who had just survived a major tragedy. And as much as we want to talk about how the city changed after Hurricane Katrina, we never talk about our role in making people feel unwelcomed and unsafe.

[00:06:07]Within our own community in Atlanta, we had to witness the restructuring of displaced communities from states away.

[00:06:14]Speaking of survival, it brings us to our next event, the 2008 economic recession. So, within this we look at a financial reconstruction period affecting Atlanta's middle class, increased survival entrepreneurship, economic disparities, accelerated adaptation to culture, and what I call the My President is Black era. Now, we may have heard the screams and whispers of the economic collapse. However, in a city like Atlanta, survival entrepreneurship has always been a thing. While people were losing homes, jobs, money, it was just another day at the cookout for us. We might have had limited space, but we still had the vibe going. During this time, despite the economic collapse, we always knew someone with a hair salon, a small business, a barber shop, a auto shop, because that is what the core of Atlanta's black business has always been. When they exclude you or when there are no more resources, you make them. During this time, ironically with a black president in office, we began to see another rise in over policing of young people in Atlanta. Clayton County PD had no business being as active in the schools as they were. There was nothing normal about locking up 13-year-old, but it was all preparation for our last and final event, the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. So, we know within this major event it brought job loss, mass migration of almost 2.3 million people, financial instability, but simultaneously, due to those survival entrepreneurship again, we saw a new level of financial access through PPP loans, SBA loans, and small business grants. However, during this time, we also had heightened social and racial tensions with the murder of George Floyd. Y'all remember when we tore the city up? So, what all of these developers decided is we're going to create insurable chaos. Essentially, they decided to let the system and the cultural system of Atlanta implode on itself, and after we tore the city up, they would just rebuild it without a soul, without a culture, and without the input from the people that made people want to move to Atlanta in the first place. So, essentially, during all of the chaos that went on during the George Floyd protest, these developers decided, "Let the city implode on itself. Let them tear it up. We'll come in and rebuild Atlanta. It just won't be Atlanta anymore." This decision was made with no consideration for the infrastructure, no consideration for the culture, and ultimately, no consideration for whether or not Atlanta could sustain these type of developments. Despite witnessing poor infrastructure and heinous redlining, everyone still wants to come to the cookout, but nobody wants to bring anything. Nobody wants to respect the culture that was already existing here.

[00:08:57]You say Atlanta's not a real place, but you don't go where people from Atlanta go. The areas where we couldn't get outsiders to come and shop small businesses are suddenly increasing in value. And now with a global event like the World Cup, they're trying to reintroduce Atlanta to the world.

[00:09:13]But the thriving black culture that was once here isn't gone. You're building on top of it. People will come to benefit from the city and contribute nothing back to it. People have always been welcome in Atlanta. It is the core of who we are, but respect what was built before you got here. Contribute to the community. Learn the history and ask yourself, were you invited to the cookout? Did you just show up? Did you bring something or did you take away?

[00:09:39]Did you preserve it or did you help change it? That's my little cookout theory, y'all. I will be publishing this in a full synopsis breakdown on my page.

[00:09:46]So, be sure that y'all like this video, comment. I would love to hear everybody's discord, but love you, Atlanta.

[00:10:01]Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. No notes. Please go and follow her on Tik Tok. It says that this is part one. I'm assuming that this will be part of a multi-part series. I hope that she continues it. Give her a follow. Give her support.

[00:10:17]What a brilliant breakdown. I hope that she copyrights this.

[00:10:22]I hope that she like like this needs to be hers. Now, what I would like to continue from this conversation that she so eloquently put together is What is that?

[00:10:32]There it is. Okay.

[00:10:34]Um is as we think about how this concept can be superimposed and reconfigured to be much more specific to where we all were born, where were raised, or where we currently live.

[00:10:50]We need to be able to, unfortunately, clock the patterns of our oppressor.

[00:10:56]Clock the patterns of the elites, of the 1% to be like, "Oh, what?" And let's use this as an example, right? Because they will They're vampiric in nature.

[00:11:10]Capitalism is vampiric in nature. It's also based in anti-blackness. It's based in racism.

[00:11:17]Right? So, they will come after wherever a an entry point is. A weakness is. They will come for the neck if the neck is unguarded.

[00:11:28]Um or by circumstance happens to be out in the open. What am I talking about? If we look at the examples that this creator put together, the ways that uh the local and state government were able to systematically sweep out or adjust is too gentle of a word.

[00:11:53]Um but edit the culture of Atlanta was in Wait, let me make sure I got this right. I think she said the World Cup the World Cup or sporting event or something like that.

[00:12:06]So, during an international moment an international moment um during pandemics, during natural disasters, and during economic collapse. Will I remember them in that order? No. Now, I was not in Atlanta during these times, but if we take these four um these four moments and think about the patterns of them and how they can and do show up in our local communities and depending on where you are even in your country when it comes to other countries like the United States coming in and wreaking havoc, this will help us to identify when potentially things can go awry so that way we can meet the devil at the crossroads instead of having the devil run amok at the crossroads and then that's being like, "Wait. If only we knew that the devil was coming." One, and I would be very in I mean, it's too late at this point plus the United States is quite literally falling apart because FIFA is coming to the US and one of the places where it's coming to is very close to where I grew up in, but there is no infrastructure at this point so I don't know. I don't know, but also maybe this is something to be discussed in local communities. FIFA.

[00:13:22]FIFA World Cup, big international events in general and how they reconfigure local spaces but how local governments um maybe even internal and maybe even national governments. I'm not in the US.

[00:13:36]I'm not really paying it. I don't also play sports ball. But the way that these kinds of events can be posed to low-income communities can be posed to uh to different kinds of communities that will be most immediately affected as oh this is going to be such a great thing for you. We just need to come in and change everything.

[00:13:58]Are you okay with us changing everything? It's going to help you. I promise. We're just going to change everything. Now the changing of everything can be good sometimes.

[00:14:05]Mumdani is changing a whole lot of everything in this in New York in New York City. Um but people are also immediately seeing the benefit of the everythings that he is changing. When these other governments and uh individuals in power suggest changing so much ask all of your questions. There's no such thing as a stupid question.

[00:14:32]And by and large when it comes to being on the good side of this or the bad side of this, you probably won't see the benefits that they keep talking about. If they're on the bad side of this, you probably won't see the benefits of it ever. Like you might see a couple droplets of the benefits of it but you won't actually see all of those beautiful things that they keep talking about. Oh you it's going to make the city so much cleaner. It's going to be do do do do do do do do do everything is going to be great. Oh we're just going to Always always be suspicious. Be be suspicious. All that glitters is not gold. I would also say that another red flag for being able to tell what side of like good or bad these kinds of initiatives could be is figuring out is it uplifting the most marginalized of us. Like when I think about using Mumdani as an example. When I think about how this past winter, there was a huge snowstorm and Mumdani and his team made an initiative to help people clear out the sidewalks, right? I think it was like $35 an hour and they were like, "Whoever comes to this address and signs up, you will get a shovel. We will pay you for your time."

[00:15:42]And truly, anybody could go from like you just had to be like an able but I don't know if kids were able to do it. I feel like kids might have been able to do it, but also people that were you know, in strapped for cash could go and make solid money helping their community.

[00:15:59]This was not a thing that like yeah, everybody benefited from it, but it was a raising up from the bottom. The folks that really really needed the money could get the money. Helping the most marginalized of us versus the idea of a trickle-down of oh, well, we're going to make this so much better so that way all of these rich fancy people can come and then oh, we'll help with the transportation system and that might eventually help you guys and then it might actually help these are you are they helping from the bottom up or from the top down? And then the other three are more in alignment with disasters.

[00:16:34]When disasters come, vultures follow.

[00:16:36]And unfortunately, disasters are the easiest, fastest, most effective way for these corrupt governments to get rid of culture, to get rid of blackness, to get rid of people in general. Because everybody that is surviving the disaster is in a state of fight or flight.

[00:16:55]They're not you don't really have the time to be paying attention to what is systemically happening when your house is flooded, you don't know where your kid is and you lost all of your money in a stock market crash. And this is where grassroots organizations, this is one of the many reasons why grassroots organizations and city watches are so important. Are so important because they help to keep an eye on these things.

[00:17:23]They keep an eye on it so effectively that it just becomes a system. And dare I say it wherever you are, if your city, if your county, if your state, if your country, if your province, if your region, if your whatever has changed dramatically in a systemic way, it can get it can get like back to any one of these kinds of things.

[00:17:48]>> [sighs] >> How to fix it? I wish I knew.

[00:17:52]I wish I knew.

[00:17:54]Cuz voting folks out is helpful, but it's also Yeah.

[00:18:01]I'm It's helpful. It's helpful.

[00:18:03]Definitely vote.

[00:18:05]And the United And I don't know. I don't know. If folks have thoughts on this in the comments, please sound off in the comments. Stay safe out there. Oh my god.

[00:18:15]And the election is coming up in November.

[00:18:18]Oh my god, time is moving. I got to go.

[00:18:20]I got to go.