There is no shame in being black. It is not a crime to be born black. It is not privilege but it doesn’t make you less than. It is very sad, that more often than not, we re-live the very absurd history of making a black man a second class universal citizen. This world continues to make us look like aliens, as some world leaders, shamelessly , have called their fellow human beings for not being born like them, and /or sharing the same privileges.
To be born black is to be human, not a death ticket. To be born black is to be made for greatness, like all our fellow human siblings. To be born black is to a recipient of pure unadulterated love, in equal measure in as much as we give. To be born black is to expect and receive, respect. The underlying malady in expecting is that people see and use it for vulnerability; they see it as a ground to have us lynched, with no remorse.
When will colour stop to be a metric for what one can do? When will colour stop to be the ground upon which one rises to the ranks? When will colour stop to be the ground upon which justice is served? When shall humanity not blind itself to the hurt we receive because of being black, but rather, that we are one human race: one human tribe? When shall we, black people, not be treated as the have-nots?
These are questions that are both endless and hurting. They are questions that every black person wakes up to ask themselves in the morning and even as they go to bed at night, they are questions of introspection, they are questions, and that we as a black race ought to boldly bring ourselves into, and say: I love us, I love you.
We absolutely cannot EVER forgive white racism! Any form of it. When whiteness feels under siege, it always achieves a sense of order, harmony, redemption, unity and consolidation of power through the systematic, ritualistic destruction of Black bodies. Honestly, white people sending apologies about these murders and other craziness, with nothing to show for change is the illusion of normality – a second insult – that sorry is wasted breath and ink is if there is no change in behaviour.
Because as a voracious reader who hangs out in the bloody archives - that chamber of horrors - history has already taught me to expect the worst and to focus my attention and energies on people who actually understand what it means to be human and focus on people who do not reside in a state of constant de-evolution. Break that trauma bond and abandon those expectations.
I see the case for Reparations and the case against reparations every time this happens, I see white supremacy, and I see hate and vitriol for the black human: I am filled with rage.
As the famous poet and Nobel laureate, Joy Harjo, writes in verse, in Eagle Poem, 1951,
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty
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