Being joyful whilst Black is….precarious.
More so than for any other racial group (argue with me, I dare you). It’s just no matter how big a safety wall of joy and abundance we build around ourselves, we can never know when there is going to be another hashtag, another heart wrenching video of a Black person being brutalised to have it all come crashing down around us.
Black joy just feels so short-term, so temporary.
For me, being Black in 2020 has veered between being wonderful and a complete mind fu@!k. Let me rephrase that, the problem has never been being Black – it’s how the rest of the world responds to Blackness. There is no other way to sum up the events that have taken place in America with the sadistic murder of George Floyd than that of blatant racism. But let me be clear – this is NOTHING NEW FOR BLACK PEOPLE. The fact that everyone seems to be just catching on now in 2020 is numbing. The fact that the world seems to be interested in Black Lives now, serves to highlight the fact that it has taken them this long to get here – seriously?
At home and overseas, politically and socially, blatantly and subtly shit has been going down for years. Policies put in place, corporate decisions made, abuses and yes MURDERS – all done with an ingrained belief that Black people are expendable, less than, not worthy of the same level of regard as non Black people. It’s a gut punch to us all – Black people and our allies.
But again, it’s nothing new.
With this in mind, I don’t feel like there is any need for me to go over old ground, you already know – whether you want to act surprised or not. Quite frankly, if you are still of the mind that ‘it’s not all that bad’ or ‘we should all just calm down’ and even worse ‘But ALL LIVES MATTER’ then we don’t have much to talk about, you and me.
For those of you who are out marching, getting in formation, petitioning, donating and creating those much needed kitchen table action plans, please remember that it’s better to be doing something than nothing at all – silence is a privilege none of us can afford if we really want change.
To Black women and men:
It is an act of activism in itself to THRIVE.
You know when the midwife tells a mother to eat first before she feeds the baby? Well, that’s because without a strong mother there is NO ONE to feed the baby. We all need to do the work, but it is traumatising seeing footage of the atrocities and of course experiencing them ourselves.
It’s an act of activism in itself to THRIVE.
It takes a calm mind to discuss politics with your peers and digest the sheer avalanche of information the media and social media is churning out. It takes a strong body to march all day and even stronger faith to keep things together when the world looks like a soap opera.
Extreme times call for extreme measures, but in my experience a strong foundation is essential. Whatever your ‘thing’ is, do it. But most of all, connect – we need each other more than ever.
Resources for everyone (list will be updated regularly):
Support Black business and initiative, you can start here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CA2fvXnAMD5/ https://blackculturalarchives.org/
Read, here are some to think about:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RwummvhwOujj3gAGQ5wwHVluTnoYjOX6X9uVNBKwn7I/mobilebasic
Find out more, you can look here:
https://www.runnymedetrust.org/
Petition, you can start here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSrT26HMWX-_hlLfiyy9s95erjkOZVJdroXYkU-miaHRk58duAnJIUWKxImRkTITsYhwaFkghS8sfIF/pub
*Please include any additional resources in the comments section.