I’ve been at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Annual Convention in Cleveland since August 6. I came expecting to hear about the state of our industry under Donald Trump’s second presidency, especially how to navigate the administration’s anti-DEI policies, which many in the Black community see as a direct attack on progress. I thought the talk would be about AI: how to use it, how to control it, and whether it was a threat to our profession.
I definitely did not expect to talk about crypto.
But there I was, walking through the Career Fair, when I saw him. A burly young man in a suit, observing the controlled chaos from a distance. He looked more like a recent graduate than a veteran, and when I approached him, it turned out I was right. His name is Jaden Baxter, he’s 24, and this was his first NABJ convention. Unlike me, he wasn’t a journalist; he’s the Special assistant to the mayor of Cleveland, a changemaker in his community.
When I told him I cover AI and Crypto for Gizmodo, his face lit up.
“Crypto, huh?” he asked, his interest immediate and genuine. Usually, it’s the AI part that grabs people’s attention.
Baxter’s knowledge of crypto was built on the same clichés I hear all the time: that it’s a tool for criminals, a mirage, something that will disappear as quickly as it came. He had so many questions. Is it real? Is it true? Is it for people like us? Listening to him, I realized we in the media have failed. We haven’t done our job of serving a community that is hungry for answers but is being left out of the conversation.
I started by explaining that the crypto industry is basically a decentralized, tech-driven version of the financial system. Imagine all the services your bank offers, but built on a technology called blockchain and without any middlemen.
In simple terms, a blockchain is like a public digital receipt book. Every transaction is a new entry that is visible to everyone, and once it’s written down, it can’t be erased or altered. This creates a transparent and secure system that isn’t controlled by any single company or government.
“Is that true?” he exclaimed, his eyes wide. It was the first time he’d ever heard it explained that way.
Loans, payments, transfers: it’s all possible. I told him that cryptocurrencies, by their nature, don’t discriminate. Transactions are handled by smart contracts, which are just lines of code designed to execute automatically when certain conditions are met. Think of it like a highly advanced vending machine: you put in your money, and the code guarantees you get your product without a human needing to approve the sale. The code doesn’t care about your skin color, your credit history, or where you live.
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