I am really enjoying the commitment to uphold Black excellence, whether through care to self or care to craft, that we all seem to be expressing online and in our personal Black-on-Black conversations. whatever we do, we don’t “censor” or “inhibit” our accents, skin tone, hair texture, anger or love toward the world.
It has never felt like the black experience is that “different” now that it was in 5 years ago or last year or this year. One of the most consistent feelings we have is hyper-visibility and hyper-invisibility. There is a constant surveillance and an insistence to be included in the glamorous parts of being Black that have expanded and we have to live with that. But our fears, our anxieties, the credit for our labor, the need for our collective rest is always overdue and rarely mentioned. I’m not sure how safe or respected or understood I’m supposed to feel as we grow through the ebb and flow of acknowledging Black experience.
What I enjoy about this renaissance in Black cultural expressions is a restoration in the idea that we are more than our work. This era has given us more space and power to fight to reclaim all of our art—the political, the religious, and the mundane—and to see it fully celebrated.
To seek imagery that shows versatility and imagination as opposed to stoicism / to be able to cry and be despondent and be filled with righteous rage and to have that be understood before discouraged / to let others make their own mistakes and sit with them while understanding our experiences in order to learn from them more fully instead of expecting us to educate and console / to take time to reflect.
To heal.
I am enjoying the option to finally check out when I need (momentarily, at least).
Like most trends, I expect everyone to speak for Black people instead of to us and to (mis)interpret words of the many into a sound bite for a monolith. No time was wasted making that the norm for nearly all of 2020. But I think this time around, this era will have staying power to effect changes in material conditions and not just PR operations for the next generation.
I love feeling human. I love being black. This space and this moment has been such a strange and freeing time to remember I can do anything. You can do absolutely anything.
Stay consistent.
