BLACK IS NOT A MISTAKE

Over and over again, as blacks, we are told what to do, how to react, and sadly things that we should fight for. A world that sees us only as the weaker vessel and our place should be below, where we look up to the world and call, ‘master.’ They glorify their doings because they clothed us, saw us as animals, they still do. 

A world that holds; slavery, suffering, sweat, pain, and darkness to the color black, has not only transferred this view to the color itself but to the humans who have this color on. Until they realize we didn’t create us black and understand that we love the color; the skin we are up all day in, the color that in our hearts and minds signifies strength, not until then will they understand that we are not a mistake.

Over time, we were condemned, and we still are; our existence seems more like a threat to them than a channel of impact, being black to the world seems more like a sin and a burden to others around. 

‘I can’t breathe’, ‘I’m just different’, ‘officers, why do you have your guns out?’ ‘It’s not real’,’ what are you following me for?’ These were the last words of the lives they took, many we can’t write, many we can only talk about, our hearts still bleeding. They take so much and give little. They serve their own ‘the 21st-century justice’, and they punish us like animals.  

We are scared. This takes us back to the time when they had their chains kissing our skin and leading us. When they taught us what to do precisely, how to do it, they determined who was to live, and who was to die, our women warmed their beds, and our men worked their businesses. 

Often, we hear, ‘change is the only thing that is constant,’ how can we change when the world has set rules and limits, society has forbidden us to speak. When we fight for our rights, we are seen as rebellious. Keep the guns down and talk, that’s all they say to us, and at the mention of the word freedom, they point their weapons to us and take what’s dear to us. 

We will no longer sit still and wait for them to decide; we are taking the placards, marching through the streets, our sons should be allowed to move freely, our daughters should be allowed to speak up. We will no longer be silenced; this is no longer a master- slave relationship. This is a reawakening; to see us for who we are, Humans.