Escape The Corporate America Matrix (Follow The White Rabbit, My Nigga)
Beyond a passport, you’ll need to make life changes to get free.
Wake up my nigga…
The Corporate America matrix has you.
Just like it had me.
You’ve been languishing in that world for too long. You’ve changed companies once or twice, acquired different titles, and flexed your corporate money when you return to the block.
But, deep down inside, you know that something is wrong.
You’ve sat in your cubicle, wondering when Morpheus would give you a call.
Brother, that day has come.
Part of the problem is that you’ve been distracted.
Your timeline has been inundated with content from cubic zirconia travel N-words, showcasing their lifestyle as an ongoing vacation.
Cubic zirconia travel N-words want you to be a perpetual tourist. They don’t want you to break free because if you did, you’d have just as much power as they do.
They told you that they were THE ONE, and you followed them. You followed without a real plan for change, and you took flight.
A week in Sosua, and another in Rio.
Like so many others before you, on the return flight home, you shed a tear, thinking about what your life might be like in another country if you ever broke free.
After your vacation, you returned to your cubicle, the same man, in the same predicament.
Yes, my nigga, you have a passport — but you are still trapped.
The Corporate America matrix has you in an ongoing world of routine.
Another weekend ends.
Your favorite team didn’t win the championship, and tomorrow, you’ll return to that job and a world of energies you don’t want in your cipher.
At the office, you join the team for lunch, and as you walk in the rear of the group, listening to your manager’s jokes, something is urging you to get out.
Later in the week, while at another meeting with no agenda, a team member announces that they are transitioning from one sex to another. As everyone encourages him/her, in the back of your mind, you’re wondering, ”What the fuck does this N-word’s transition have to do with how they work?”
Nothing.
Nothing at all, my nigga.
On many evenings, when you are alone, you sit at your desk, wondering how you got here.
It’s simple.
You graduated. The internship turned into a job, which turned into a career. Instead of a gold chain, you wore a corporate I.D. badge with your picture on it. You thought that you were winning.
You followed the wrong N-words.
They told you that a six-figure salary would make you a high-value man. You thought that when you got your money right when you hit management or became AVP, you’d have all the good pussy in the world and everything that came with it.
Truthfully, the Umar queens think you and your corporate money are corny. As you drive home each day in your ride, bumping lyrics from a gully rap nigga, deep down, you often think that you’re corny too.
No one ever told you that, when you entered the Corporate America matrix, the Umar queens would not be interested in you until they have two kids of their own — from a gully rap nigga.
No one ever told you that along with aspirations of the high-value dream, there would be endless days of cotton dockers, written reports, and countless hours hiding from the sun.
Are you using pronouns yet?
Wake up, my nigga; the Corporate America matrix has you.
You’ve come this far; fortunately, you can only go forward.
I got out, and so can you.
I don’t have to do much convincing because, truthfully, you’ve had a desire for change, and you must follow it to break free and, more importantly, survive.
My escape was very necessary. If I stayed there, I would have died. It wasn’t easy, but I know it was the realest shit I’ve ever done.
The Corporate America matrix wanted to keep hold of me.
The tests came by way of so-called family, so-called friends, and sheisty Agent Smith N-words.
The tests will come because the Corporate America matrix wants to know if you are the nigga that you say you are.
Don’t get it twisted; for a year or so, you’ll miss that safe Corporate America matrix money because it flowed so steadily into your bank account, with such regularity; you’ll almost consider burying your desire for freedom.
You’ll consider revising your resume, hitting up your LinkedIn connects, and going back.
Don’t compromise.
The power of the Corporate America matrix is making you think that you cannot function without it.
There is no blue pill for you, my nigga.
For you, instead, I’m offering several red pills.
Red Pill #1 — You’ll work for less than that high-value salary and have more time for yourself or engage in work that is closer to your life purpose.
Red Pill #2 — You’ll make more than you did before, all with a different hustle and flow.
The end result; you’ll feel better about yourself, in truth, that is what the architects of the Corporate American matrix fear most.
In reality, you are THE ONE.
However, you’re in a system that doesn’t want you to know it.
I’ve been waiting for you for a long time, my nigga. Don’t ignore this build. If you do, you’ll stay where you are, and that blue pill life ain’t the business.
On the real, you and I both know that you’ve been down that road before and you know exactly where it ends…
*Hear that?*
The Agent Smith N-words are coming for you, and I know exactly what they’re going to do — They plan on sending you to six months of diversity and inclusion training.
Take flight!
Escape the Corporate America matrix.
Follow the white rabbit, my nigga!
Clarke Illmatical is a writer and director from Queens, New York. He’s lived in Brazil, China, Taiwan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Tanzania, Mexico and Guatemala.
He’s the author of the book HOMEBOY AND THE PYRAMIDS: A TRAVEL GUIDE FOR THE SO-CALLED BLACK MAN, which will be available in 2026.