#blacklife

[softtopxpressions]

A taste of what healing looks like for me…her poetry is like a mothers warm hug, a kiss on ya forehead from ya grandmother after a long tired ass day, and the tragedies woven throughout the life a black woman lives. 🥹💖✌🏾

[itznairasworld]

नायरा

लोग कहते हैं कि मुझसे ज्यादा तन्हा इस दुनिया में कोई नही ,

सही कहते है लोग, और शायद ऐसा कोई और होगा भी नहीं।

लोग काले रंग को बुरा मानते है पर अगर कोई समझे तो जाने कि जो सुकून और गहराई इस रंग में हैं, वो किसी और रंग में नहीं।

यह रंग जितना गहरा होता है उतनी इसमें गहराइयां जैसे कोई समुंद्र अपने अंदर करोड़ों राज़ छुपाए बैठा हो। उसी तरह यह रंग भी मानो अपने अंदर कई कहानियां राज़ और दर्द छुपाए रखता है।

अंधेरे में जो सुकून है , वो दुनिया की किसी और चीज में नही , ना किसी चकाचौंध जिंदगी में। जिस तरह हर रंग इस रंग में मिलकर अपनी पहचान खो देता है , अपना वजूद खो कर, खुद को खो कर इस में मिल जाता है उसी तरह लोग नायरा से मिल कर खुद को खो बैठते है और जो नहीं खो पाते वो नायरा को कभी जान भी नहीं पाते ।

खुद को खो कर जो मिले वो प्यार हैं।और खुद को खोने की हिम्मत हर किसी में नही होती ।

इसीलिए कहा जाता है कि इश्क जिंदा लोगो का काम नहीं, इसके लिए इंसान को पहले मरना पड़ता हैं।

~नायरा

[dharrow20]

Dear “supportive” white people,

I get it, your moment has arrived finally that you can show how much you care and support your black and other POC comrades. I’m glad that the trauma has finally built to a point that so many of you can no longer stand for it. Don’t get it twisted, I am happy that so many non POC are speaking out, but while you sit so tall on that high horse let me get a few things off my chest:

Too many black lives have been lost over such a long period of time, therefore don’t expect me to rejoice in you finally speaking out loud enough for other people to hear.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you are shocked by these recent occurrences, then you haven’t been listening. We’ve been telling you that our people are dying for generations.

For all those people who feel they need to check up on their black friends:

1. There are better ways to check in than asking how are you. I can guarantee you that I am NOT okay as are so many others, you didn’t need to ask this question. I can’t even express the number of emotions I am feeling concurrently. For me, this question is not actually asking about my well being, but instead you giving yourself a pat on the back saying, “yay, I did a thing”. Perhaps try simply letting the person know you are there for them if they need to talk or someone to just listen.

2. The saying “if you don’t have POC friends that complain about white people to you, then you don’t have POC friends” is true. But I’m gonna take this a step further: if you have a POC friend that talks to you about these issues, it does not mean all of your POC friends will. I get it, you feel down like you’ve been invited to the BBQ, I promise you, you’re not. Simply open the door and let them come to you not the other way around. But if they step through that door, you best be ready.

3. Seriously, learn to shut up, especially my white LGBT+ fam. Just because you can empathize, does not mean you UNDERSTAND. I do not understand your struggles, but I will be there with you until the end, please extend me the same curtesy. Remember, my blackness cannot be turned off or hidden as your sexual or gender identity can potentially be in any conversation.

4. Lastly, stop asking how can you help. My people are dying. My people are grieving. My people are traumatized. We are dealing with some shit at the moment. WE AINT GOT TIME TO BE FIXING YOUR PROBLEMS. Figure it out yourselves, I know you can. Y’all have solve a multitude of problems on you own, like how to justify slavery (yes I went there), you can do the homework and come up with some of your own solutions. Read the books, ask the questions, go back and read those same books, figure out what they aren’t saying, come up with some game plan, then come back to the table. We can all move forward from there because I promise you there will be things you left out because your privilege blinded you some holes in the plan. And just to be clear, how can I help and do you need anything/what do you need are very different questions. Make sure you are asking the one you want.

Thanks,

A black woman

PS. These are my thoughts, I do not speak for an entire race, just myself.

[justathickblackgirl]

Racism isn't getting worse, it's getting filmed

Will Smith

[thefreeblackwomanslibrary]

Uploaded a new video to my YouTube channel where I do my signature ramblings, this time it’s all about the multidimensional characters and plot threads explored in PVALLEY, a new TV series currently airing on Starz network. I watched the first 6 episodes in one night. 

(That free trial is a bop) This show is hella Black and sexy AF. Dare I say I’m sprung. A

re you watching?? What do you think of the show and it’s characters?? clickety click to hear my long winded commentary and let me know your thoughts!!

 Btw I got my one good eye on Autumn, she is caught up in some mess.

[kittykittysmeow]

Police Gassed At A Protest

This is a story from a previous black lives matter protest I was at a few days ago. So I was up at the front of the group of protesters and the police were in front of me. Me and my friends strung a donut at the end of a stick to lure the police closer to shame them. Unfourtunately no police officer came close as night fell the crowd spread out and was pushing the police back. The protest started to become violent and tear gas was coming in our direction. I saw one in the air flying towards us, that is when I spun around and kicked the gas can as hard as I could and it flew into the polices direction. The crowd cheered but more was coming and now they were shooting back with rubber bullets. I was in the frontlines and I tried to protect my fellow black protesters. Unfourtunately I had to move because the police were ramming into us with their vechiles to get us to spread out. I saw a African American person sitting with their hands up when the police walked over to them. I ran over to see what was happening and the officer pulled out a can of pepper spray. I jumped infront of the African American person to prevent them from getting sprayed. My eyes were burning. I was a victim of police brutality but I stopped someone from possibly getting killed in the end.

Anyways keep fighting the good fight! X

[theriseofmysoul]

[ethnographiesofblacklife]

Afro-pessimism: “Afro-pessimism is a field of thought which takes seriously the historical reality that blackness is politically and ontologically coterminous with slaveness. According to the 2018 Oxford Bibliography entry on Afro-pessimism written by Patrice Douglass, Selamawit D. Terrefe, and Frank B. Wilderson III, afro-pessimism can be understood as “a lens of interpretation that accounts for civil society’s dependence on anti-black violence—a regime of violence that positions black people as internal enemies of civil society.” - taken from the Wikipedia article

- GC