It feels good to be a role model, she reflects. Young people need examples they can emulate, otherwise they risk nihilism. Melancholy historicism, as has been documented by several big-data projects on the counterintuitive ratio between happiness and hunger in the Global South, is an obstacle to upward mobility and success. The morality tale about her crackhead sister, her cousin Pookie, and her death-dealing nephew Bar-b-que goes over well with the conservatives. On special occasions, at a Juneteenth celebration or a mass funeral, she might even hum a few bars from “To Be Young, Gifted and Black” or sing off-key “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” in homage to her community.