How one of America’s sharpest thinkers helps us see the link between narrative, power, and the design of opportunity.
A new year always brings a moment of pause—a chance to look honestly at where we are and where we need to go. Frederick Douglass did this throughout his life. He confronted the realities of his time with clear eyes, while insisting that we measure ourselves not only by our aspirations, but by the structures we create to make those aspirations real.
One line of his stays with me:
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
-West India Emancipation speech, 1857
Douglass wasn’t glorifying struggle. He was naming a truth: progress requires confronting the forces that hold old arrangements in place—forces found in institutions, habits, narratives, and the decisions people make about who counts. He understood that freedom is not an event. It’s a landscape shaped by policy, culture, and the daily practices of a society.
As we enter 2026, that insight feels just as urgent.
We often talk about opportunity as something individuals achieve through grit or determination. Douglass reminds us that opportunity is also designed: it reflects whose needs systems anticipate, whose voices shape decisions, and whose experiences are understood as legitimate.
As I wrote my upcoming book, I found myself returning to Douglass not only for his moral clarity, but for his structural clarity. He teaches us to look beneath the surface—to the assumptions, power dynamics, and inherited narratives that determine the paths people can realistically take.
A new year is a fitting time for all of us to recommit to that work: widening the circle of belonging, confronting old stories that ration opportunity, and rebuilding structures that allow all of us to thrive.
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Next week: my book title revealed!
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