Black boys weren’t born as target practice for men in blue; men in white hoods; men in pea green fatigues with black-knit ski masks; men and boys in red and blue, or purple, orange or whatever color pinned to their hood.
Black boys weren’t born as fetish, tree blooms, projected focal points of hate, insecurity, fear, shame by men with unhealed intergenerational complicity with race-led violence protected by privilege disguised as strength, love and belonging.
Black boys weren’t born to have their dreams clipped by mama- daddy talks on how to navigate a colonized landscape that thrives on their dehumanization to feel alive, seen, right, safe from scripted Hollywierd myths, and empowered.
Black boys weren’t born as toys of white women to explore their erotic desires and awaken the power of their white womanhood coming to their defense to confirm the gaze of white men.
Black boys weren’t born as bait to be consumed by anti-Black racism for Latinos, Asians, Eastern Europeans, Arabs, Persians, Indians, LGBT – marginalized populations in a Black-white hierarchy- in their climbing pursuit of proximity to the elusive idea of whiteness where on any political day, they too don’t belong.
Black boys births are streams of Ancestral dreams coming into now, with hopes, desires, purpose. They are loved. They are gifted. They are loving and protective. They are strong, they are resilient. They are my father, my brothers, my nephews, my cousins, my friends, my husband to-be.
Black boys are sacred parts of humanity; veins that carry our consciousness in the web of our connectivity. Time to break symmetry with this society so we can breathe, dismantling ideologies that poise our Black boys as threats based on the stories ascribed to the color of their skin in the white imagination.
Hands of Black boys – same race gets no pass; fake fear gets no pass; what your daddy told you gets no pass, . . . gets no pass.
George Floyd called out to his Ancestral Mother with his last breath, and we can imagine Emmet Till doing the same. Time isn’t linear. Memory is not short.
The Mothers are listening, watching, preparing, acting. Don’t get caught in the wrath of bringing harm to OUR Black boys.
In memory of:
#javits frimpong
#nolan wells
#demartravion “Trey” reed
#kohen wiley
#somanymore
And those who died alone in hospitals, foster care, juvenile halls, prisons, homes, unhoused, in alleys, in cars, and, and, and. . .
