Keith Lee experienced survivor’s remorse when he bought his first home in 2024.
Lee, a former delivery driver and MMA fighter, is a well-known food reviewer who boasts 16.8 million followers on TikTok alone. His reviews have led businesses to become overnight successes within their communities. In fact, some have even expanded after gaining traction from his reviews. As previously reported by AFROTECH™ , Stricen Carter had been on the verge of closing down her New Orleans, LA-based NOLA Sips and Sweet Thangs, which sells a variety of flavored snowballs and treats, until Lee’s review.
Since then, her business has not only stayed afloat but she has also opened a storefront in Houston, TX.
Lee’s journey has been marked by both giving and receiving blessings. In 2024, he celebrated a significant milestone by becoming a first-time homeowner — a noteworthy achievement given the persistent disparities in homeownership. As of May 2023, CNN reported that the homeownership rate for Black Americans stood at just 44%, compared to 72.7% for white Americans.
@ron.geezy CORONATION DAY=SIGNING DAY!! OFFICIALLY HOME OWNERS!!! time to pack up familee we are embarking a new journey!! #moving #homeownership #fyp
Lee admits the purchase did come with an emotional tug of war as he grapples with feelings of survivor’s guilt and imposter syndrome.
“It put me in a pretty deep depression, survivor’s guilt, survivor’s remorse of feeling like it’s gonna be snatched away, feeling like, ‘Yes, I have it, but how long do I have it for?’ It’s trauma. It’s definitely trauma,” he told the podcast. “I had to sit and question and ask myself ‘Why am I in this house with my family and with the people that love me, and I’m surrounded by love and I feel alone?’… It’s one of those things where it’s like, you don’t believe you earned it and you don’t believe you’re worthy enough of it or for it, but other people, other people, and God deems you worthy enough.”
Ultimately, it was a moment with his daughter that helped him shift his perspective and embrace gratitude for what he had achieved.
Lee later added, “What really changed it for me and brought me outta depression, my daughter just learned how to ride a bike for the first time. I’m teaching her in the backyard how to ride the bike. And we got a hill in our backyard. And when I say two acres, it’s just all land. It’s like we got trees, but for as far as I can go it’s just grass, and I literally like put her on a bike and let her roll down the hill and I let her go. And I’m just watching her roll in this field of grass, and I was like, ‘You did it man.’ It’s not many times in my life I’ve been proud of myself, and I had to sit back and be like, ‘I’m proud of me, man.'”
