Let it be a Black Reckoning
By: Cody Charles
We have a duty to reckon with ourselves.
We must trouble the meaning of being in Black relationship, in Black community, and in Black love.
We must find a way to be in thriving and authentic Black community with one another.
We must begin to tell the truth. It is the only way we can earnestly pursue Black liberation.
Let me be clear, our fucked up and violent ways are attributed to white supremacy. It has made a formative attempt to end us.
However, we must reckon with ourselves. We have a duty to reckon with ourselves.
Our lives depend on it.
Black liberation depends on it.
Let’s tell the truth…
You hate Black queer and trans people because whiteness told you to, thru socialized ways, including that trusty and dusty ass book that speaks of white Matthew, white Luke, and white John.
You hate Black women because whiteness taught you that all Black women are inferior, and are to be put in their place by any means necessary. THEY ARE NOT TO BE ENGAGED AS HUMANS.
You hate Black disabled people, and you find them less valuable because whiteness said they are weak and are least productive- and they have nothing to contribute in this capitalist mess.
You glorify upward mobility because whiteness has defined success as being on the top of a capitalist system- having authority, and being able to identify folks with less authority and agency, AND then consequently, stepping on them.
You get into positions of influence and refuse to do anything, as far as demanding more of the system you play in. Once you’ve obtained influence, you don’t even do the humane thing and acknowledge the pain of your community within your organizations. You develop a sickening condition of severe ash.
You refuse to take (more) risk, at least risk beyond being Black…
Telling your Black trans daughter that you love her, and will protect her…and then actually protecting her.
Crying with your Black son on a park bench because something incredibly hurtful happened, or something incredibly blissful occurred.
Talking with a sibling about their mental illness, and not exclusively leaning on the bible.
We must trouble the meaning of being in Black relationship, in Black community, and in Black love.
You threaten Black babies with fire and brim stones, in an attempt to ruin them forever.
You shame Black boys into a closet with their worst fear- isolation, as they sit in your barbershop chairs.
You fall short.
We fall short.
And what does it mean to try harder? To do better? To stay in the struggle together? To be held accountable for the pain and violence we cause Black peoples? To do right by one another? To fight for our collective Black liberation?
What must we let go?
Who might we lose?
If we’re struggling with what community rooted in Black liberation could look like- How to put it into words or how to allow ourselves to imagine without borders and structures, look no further than the Black queer trans disabled poor undocumented woman. We must begin to center the margins of the margins.
We must begin to reckon with ourselves.
We must reckon with ourselves.
Or else.
Black love,
a bursting speck of gold dust
sunrise waking us
to us.
~Megan Pendleton (Badass Black Queer Poet)
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This is the work of Cody Charles; claiming my work does not make me selfish or ego-driven, instead radical and in solidarity with the folk who came before me and have been betrayed by history books and storytellers. Historically, their words have been stolen and reworked without consent. This is the work of Cody Charles. Please discuss, share, and cite properly.
Bio:
Cody Charles is the author of Re-Imagining Black Love, You Can’t Outdo Black People, Getting To Know Rosa Lee: An Overdue Conversation With My Mother, Black Joy, We Deserve It, The Night The Moonlight Caught My Eye: Not a Review but a Testimony on the Film Moonlight, 5 Tips For White Folks, As They Engage Jordan Peele’s Get Out. (No Spoilers), Student Affairs is a Sham, 19 Types of Higher Education Professionals, and What Growing Up Black And Poor Taught Me About Resiliency. Join him for more conversation on Twitter (@_codykeith_) and Facebook (Follow Cody Charles). Please visit his blog, Reclaiming Anger, to learn more about him.
