I have been holding my tongue about this for a long time, and I am no longer doing so. Atlanta, especially around Decatur, has a Black Hebrew Israelite scene that consistently shows the worst kind of conscious community behavior, the kind that looks spiritual on the outside but feels like control once you get close. This is not me attacking people for reading the Bible or wanting structure in their lives. My issue is the culture I have watched play out again and again, where arrogance gets called truth, group loyalty gets called righteousness, and Black women end up carrying the harm in silence.
A post on my timeline finally prompted me to say this out loud, even though it wasn’t the most extreme example. A brother I know made a status shaming people who use Instacart, DoorDash, Uber Eats, and similar services, like getting groceries delivered automatically means you are lazy or foolish for trusting strangers with your food. That kind of take is not wisdom; it is judgment, and it is disconnected from real life. Plenty of people use delivery because they have disabilities, mobility issues, chronic pain, injuries, or limitations that change day to day. This morning my knee popped (physical disability I am currently navigating) in the middle of the night, and getting around was hard. On a day like that, forcing myself to walk a big store is not discipline; it is unnecessary strain. Pregnancy, caregiving, lack of transportation, anxiety, sensory overload, working long hours, and parenting with no support, all of that is real, and delivery helps people function. Shaming someone for using support is not strength, it is ableism and class judgment dressed up like character critique.
What frustrates me is that this kind of post is not a one-off. It fits a pattern I have seen in these spaces for years. The pattern is public shaming disguised as “correction,” contempt for anything labeled weak, and a hierarchy where certain men speak with authority while women are expected to absorb disrespect quietly. Once a community starts operating like that, it stops being about growth and starts being about control.
That same energy is exactly why I do not respect the dogmatic culture tied to this group. Truth is not the goal in too many of these spaces, dominance is. I recently saw another brother repeat that tired misquote, “money is the root of all evil,” and I corrected it because accuracy matters. The verse says, “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” No drama, no disrespect, just a simple correction. The response told me everything. The original poster stayed silent, then other Hebrew Israelites piled into the comments to cosign the wrong quote anyway, like facts do not matter when the right man says something loudly. That is what I mean by cult like behavior in this context. Being aligned matters more than being correct, and a woman correcting misinformation gets treated like she is challenging authority instead of protecting the truth.
My frustration also comes from personal history, because I used to be around them. When I was younger, I met Hebrew Israelites through the open mic scene while I was searching for answers and strengthening my own spiritual life. A lot of their teachings felt like they made sense at the time, so I studied with them for a while, listened, and tried to understand. Credit where it is due, the men I was around did not come at me sexually, and I appreciated that because plenty of conscious men move like predators behind the scenes while preaching purity in public. That was not the issue that pushed me away.
What changed my mind was the way women were talked about, the constant Eve blame, the resentment that felt baked into the worldview, and the casual reduction of women into something less than human. One moment still sits heavily with me because it was so revealing. A close friend, someone I respected, went on a rant about how men do not need women for anything. He listed working, paying bills, cooking, cleaning, running a household, then said the only thing a woman is needed for is birthing babies. Hearing that from someone I respected hurt, not because it offended me personally, but because it showed how deeply that ideology can train men to dehumanize women. Women become a function, a service, a womb, a transaction. Once a man believes that, disrespect is not an accident, it is the natural result.
The polygamy piece is another reason I am done, and I am going to say it plainly because people keep tiptoeing around it. In my experience, whenever I see Black Hebrew Israelite polygamy in these circles, it rarely looks like healthy relationships built on equality, full consent, emotional safety, and real power balance. What I see far more often is one man at the center with multiple women expected to submit, compete, and stay quiet while their pain gets reframed as them being out of order. Manipulation gets dressed up as teaching, jealousy gets treated like a moral failure, and women get pressured to accept less than they deserve because scripture is being used as a leash. Some people hide behind “it is in the Bible” as if that ends the conversation. That argument does not move me. A lot is in the Bible, and everything in it is not a blueprint for healthy modern relationships, especially not inside a culture where women already get treated like the problem.
At this point, unfriending most Hebrew Israelites is not me being dramatic, it is me protecting my peace. I am not interested in communities where cruelty gets called truth, where misinformation gets cosigned because the group is more important than reality, where disabled people get shamed for needing help, and where Black women are expected to swallow disrespect while men get protected. Atlanta and Decatur have enough going on. Another control-based spiritual culture that normalizes misogyny and calls it righteousness is the last thing we need.
If anyone reading this feels hit, I am not naming individuals and I am not debating somebody’s faith. I am naming patterns and outcomes that Black women have been expected to tolerate for too long. A spiritual community that is healthy should produce accountability, humility, and care for the vulnerable. If a belief system makes people harsher, more arrogant, and more comfortable degrading women, then it is not healing anybody, it is just giving control a religious costume.