What I love most...
a writing prompt response
As has been my custom after my Blackstack Salon lives with Jacquie Verbal, I want to share my response to our first writing prompt for today:
What do I love most about myself as a Black person?
I love the heart I have been able to maintain in spite of,
how I can still be the little Libra lover boy I’ve always been,
despite all this ICE in Minnesota.
I love that my heart is resilient,
strong,
a centerpiece to my power.
As a Black person, I have a heart of gold,
Black gold, but not oil,
I don’t spoil,
I expand…
Against the currents of foreclosure,
against the waves of white supremacy
against all odds.
I AM Love,
and my heart testifies to it,
telling stories that heal every being I touch,
including myself.
This is what I love most about myself as a Black person. I hope those of you who were also on today’s live will share yours too 🌱💡
Asé
Thank you for this, Brotha! I missed this one so I will circle back to it. In the meantime, I think it was the third prompt on race and politics that grabbed me.
Race is purely a political conception at its inception. To speak in terms of race is already to be trapped in the matrix of modernity/ colonization, where the only humans are of Euro descent, and so any other claims to humanity can only be performed, because other people do not exist. If you want to talk about our actual value you cannot speak in the language of race. It becomes circular reasoning in a game you cannot win by definition because you don’t actually exist.
Outside the plantation/reservation/modernity/matrix is the only place we can actually exist , and in the US that space is fraught as well.
But there is a third space, a place transcendent . . . .
What I Love About Being a Black Person
Grace under pressure
Perseverance over self-victimization as a strength
Creativity in expression
Unique perspective on my place of power in the world
The smoothness of my caramel skin
My brown eyes matching the color of my skin
Recognizing we were the blue print of human creation
My kinky hair-When I had it - but my chest hair is kinky and bold
The strength of my walk
But what I love most about being a Black Person
No one can take my authenticity away