Ragne's Abyss

(BPP) The Panther 21 Trial outside the court house – New York City, 1969

We have celebrities embracing our race and culture when it’s beneficial, when it’s aesthetic and covering the bills. Kim Kardashian saying she makes good soul food every thanksgiving; a good cornbread. The non-black take our voice, our sound, our features, our clothes, our hair, our accessories and claim that it’s theirs as much as it’s ours. We’re too loud, too much, too chaotic, too ghetto, too dangerous, too angry. 

We should be angry; It wouldn’t make sense if we weren’t.

Stereotypes house themselves in our communities. Even when we think we’ve gotten better, it still follows us, subtly. The Black Man chooses the white woman who acts Black, yet the Black Woman is too aggressive, too much to handle, too ghetto. White women wear bonnets and straight backs in their heads whilst Black women straighten their hair and wear European wigs. “Hair weaves like Europeans, fake nails done by Koreans”, that’s what Ms.Hill says. Everything of Black culture is rooted. We transcend far beyond soil. All of our music, how we dance, how we speak, how we wear our hair, our jewelry, our practices, what we eat, what we drink, the way we think; it’s rooted. There’s meaning behind it all, it isn’t for the aesthetics. We replicate our ancestors unconsciously, that’s how connected we are. Dominating music in the industry as our ancestors sang hymns, braiding our hair as our ancestors braided theirs, dancing at gatherings as our ancestors did Zaouli, Eskista, Indlamu; We’re rooted. 

We aren’t to be mimicked and definitely can’t be replicated. To be tossed around and labeled as “E” for everyone. Why is our being diminished and shared? When we have something in our grasp it’s taken away. Why can’t we have something sacred? We do, but it must be shared. 

We can not allow ourselves to fold into a mold that does not fit us. When you force yourself into unfit molds, you’re defying your anatomy. You’re breaking your bones, killing yourself. The mold wasn’t made to hold us, it’s meant to bend us until we break–until it’s too late to scream. Our Black roots are hidden by society, white society to uphold their superiority. Stop fitting into a culture that doesn’t exist. America houses stolen people, we of whom don’t know our origin place. We know it’s Africa, but where in Africa? Our connection to our ancestors are being severed, cut and buried. We have to do DNA tests and swabs just to be shown a jumble of different countries. We shouldn’t be succumbing to a world that doesn’t suit us. We have culture, they don’t, why look to them? They are lost in their identity, they have no idea who they are. They steal bits and pieces of other puzzles, taping them together and calling themselves artists. They deem themselves as intelligent when their education comes from everybody else. Why are we following the blind? They have no idea where they’re going. They look to us to see what the next steps are; Like infants taking their first step. We built their civilization; we housed them, fed them, raised their children, cleaned them, washed their laundry, dug their gold, built their establishments, picked the material for their clothes. But we are lazy, we are clueless. They hold the guns and make the bombs but we are dangerous. They kill relentlessly while we’re tender to their children but we have no mercy. Yet, we still give grace. Giving out N-Word passes, calling whites “white chocolate”, labeling them Black when they make soul food or have twang in their voice. Tanning their skin, listening to Tupac and Lauryn Hill, now they’re Black. Dating a Black woman and now they’re heavily praised; praised for loving a Black woman as if that’s a beast need of conquering. Letting hispanics say the N-word tenfolds and deeming it as okay. That’s not normal, it’s never been normal. It’s not normal when the whites say it, it shouldn’t be normal for anyone to say it. A slur that was made to dehumanize Black people, to categorize them as anything but human. Now we have rappers placing it in every verse and kids mimicking what they hear. 

It is said that we are conscious of what’s going on but we aren’t. Demonizing being “woke” is allowing ourselves to mask discrimination in its subtle form. Racism is still racism, regardless of how severe the derogative is. Let us not allow ourselves to be mimicked and for that performance to be labeled as “appreciation”. For, it’s only ever appreciated when it is shown by a white body, a white mouth. It is only considered culture when it is not Black. This message isn’t for the white body, they’re aware, they’ve always been. Black individuals, stop subjecting yourself to a culture that’s been stolen. To a society that’s been built by everyone but their hands. Don’t allow yourself to be controlled, to be manipulated into the mold of white suburbia. Escape that narrative, it’s been written far too many times. Racism is still here, it hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s here, stop closing your eyes when it stands before you. Stop allowing it to move; in jokes, in film, in media, in celebrities. No one else will stop it; their privilege is too good. Stop giving them the gun and allowing them to shoot you in the foot. Letting the vultures eat what isn’t deceased. Stop killing each other, giving them a show they enjoy and leaving us little. They call us “monkey’s” but they are the ape’s. Stand firm in your Black identity. 

Don’t mimic the echo.