I struggle to define myself. I struggle to derive the meaning of my blackness today. I love it, my blackness, that is. The world wants me to bend, fold, shift and shimmy just so they can be comfortable. They’d rather have you believe that your presence causes fear, rather than embracing the light that you harbor. Do not dim yourself for the comfort of someone else. The transition from black boy to black man is to shed yourself of anything that can be perceived as weakness. Some nights, I simply sit and stare and wonder if i have forgotten how to cry. I hope to remember. I am trying to reconnect with a part of me that has been snuffed out.
I want my brothers and I to live without boundaries. Spread the wings that you have hidden for so long and reach heights you were afraid to imagine. Take pride in the power of self expression. I will never be ashamed to tell you that I love you. They will tell you that it is weakness, but there is strength in showing love. There is strength, in respecting and uplifting black women. There is strength inside of you. As I write this, I feel as if I’ve forgotten that there is strength inside of me too. I struggle to define myself, and that is okay. I am too complex of a being to be deconstructed in a paragraph. Black men are not a monolith. We are as unique as snowflakes, beautiful as a sunrise, and as strong as the pull of the ocean.
I pray that we recognise this.
- Seunfunmi Tinubu for GreenInc.
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